True Heart Follow Up

I am sitting in ST100-systematic theology and we are talking about whether or not God can suffer. For me, this gets at the heart of my earlier questions because while I hear what the great theologians have said and I have a response of my own, I have a hard time seeing how this matters in the grand scheme of things. I see why people want to understand and I see how people could be comforted by the knowledge that God suffers with and for them. However, I think about all the people that walk into the coffee shops where I hang out. I think about how lost many of them are and I think about the conversations I have had with them (when I say lost I mean lost in the sense of the lost sheep or the lost coin; I mean it in the powerfully compassionate way that God means it). The doctrine of God's suffering does not seem like it is going to communicate Christ's sacrifice and God's love to them. It might play a part, but only the warm loving hand of the Father can really communicate that. It is only the bright light of God that will welcome them into the Kingdom and hopefully our faces will reflect a little of that light when people see us and when people speak with us.

So, as I continue to pursue an MDIV degree I will continue to wrestle with whether it is a noble pursuit or simply "puffing myself up." I pray that I will be faithful and that I will follow God's lead in everything I do. I believe this is where I need to be at this point and that is enough confidence for now.

...Wow, what a culture clash. I spoke to my professor about these thoughts. About why this is important in light of the fact that the Gospel is something the simplest person can receive. His response was very valid, but I have had a hard time digesting it. He used an example of a pastor speaking a sermon at a funeral for a young child. How does someone communicate the truth and light of the Gospel in such a situation without addressing if and how God suffers? I don't have any children and I do not presume to be able to understand that level of suffering, but I know when I suffer I am not that concerned with whether God suffers or has suffered or is suffering as much as I am concerned with His compassion and His love. As that pastor I am concerned with how I can communicate that same compassion and that same love. Now I understand that there is a direct connection between suffering and compassion, but whether or not I understand how God suffers does not affect the fact that he does have compassion for any painful situation and it is a compassion that I can receive without the "proper" knowledge of his suffering.

What is God's true heart for us?

I had quite a good conversation tonight with a couple friends spanning much of our thoughts on theology and an interesting thought came out of it. What is God's true heart for us? We have spent 2000 years trying to understand God better and understanding truth better. Many of the doctrines we have today are not directly from the scriptures as far as I can tell. Words like trinity and substitutional atonement are not specifically found in the scriptures. They are terms that we use in order to describe what we feel are the truths of scripture. They embody ideas that we can never comprehend fully. While these things are good and we need to always be seeking to know the truth of God more, how focused do we need to be on doctrine? We will have the answers we seek someday.

I do the math and think about spending 70 years seeking truth and then about spending eternity knowing it after those 70 years are up. Should we be content to wait? Is God more interested in being with us than our understanding of doctrine? Is digesting the latest systematic theology going to allow me to follow God more fully? Is it going to help me live my life? The dumbest person in the world is capable of receiving the redemption of our Lord, but not of understanding McGrath's Christian Theology Reader. What compels us to dig deeper once we have chosen to receive Christ's sacrifice? Are we choosing the better portion, or are we working furiously in futile pursuits?

I am certainly not judging anyone's study of theology. I am currently in seminary for the explicit reason of feverishly striving to understand my God better. I am sure He is more interested in my heart than my head, yet I feel foolish not striving to understand as much as I can.

"Whoever does not treceive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” I am quite sure that there are few children concerned with the depths of the trinity.

I am reminded of an analogy that I heard a long time ago. Seeking the truth of God is like standing in a dark room and slowly opening a door to a room lit with the Truth of God. We crack the door open a little and the light of truth shines into our lives. All parts of that light are fully truth. All of the light that shines through is the same light. Opening the door more reveals more light, but it is no more true than the little light that sines in the beginning. When we die we will have that door swung fully open no matter how far God has opened it during the course of our lives. Does that make the quest to open that door further pointless? Or is that precisely the purpose of our lives? The idiot that comprehends little yet enough will know as much as us on that day, but that does not invalidate our pursuits. I think we strive on toward the truth because it is the only thing that makes sense.

We pursue God in order to live life to the full. Sin is sin because it runs contrary to the way God created us to live. It undermines our creation and destroys us. The fruit did not kill adam and eve directly, but choosing to live outside of the way God created them to be did. The better we understand who God is and what He has created us to be, the more we can truly live. I think that is God's desire for us...to live and to live well.

I may have contradicted myself throughout this conversation with myself, but that does not concern me. I hope that as this conversation continues more light will shine. And I hope others will join the conversation, that we can all progress together. The door can always be opened further and I trust the Lord will let me know if He wants me to "dig" less and "be" more.

We shake the foundations...were there any in the first place?

Much of this venture is a result of processing and commenting on conversations that I am having in one of my classes this semester.

Yesterday was an introduction to the postmodernity discussion. A discussion of what the emerging church is going to be, how it is going to be affected by the tumultuous environment that the West presents today. There was an interesting comment that came up in our discussion.

Many Christians seem to be afraid that the church is shaking up and falling apart. That there are changes and conflicts throughout the body, but we must remember that our God is unshakable. The only thing that our changing culture can shake loose is something that God desires to shake loose. What I wonder is how many of the unhealthy things that modernity has attached to the church will be shaken off only to be replaced by unhealthy aspects of postmodernity. Foundations give way to webs, sure things to questions. Were there any foundations or sure things in the first place? Is there any more truth to be found in webs and questions?

Source of Information

A lot of my posts over the next few months will be in response to different posts by John O'Keefe in his blog "Ginkworld, inside the mind of punk monkey" at www.ginkworld.blogspot.com. So, when I refer to O'Keefe, that is where you can see the full text.

Here ye! Here ye! (An Introduction)

I have kept a journal now for a few years and it took me long enought to build up to that. I have this problem...most employers call it "attention to detail," but I call it being totally anal. Since I was young I tried to keep journals because who doesn't want to have some account of their lives to look back upon when they are older (I know there are plenty of people, but I will be requiring much poetic liscence over the course of my time here)? My "problem" did not affect my journaling until I missed a few days here and then a few days there. What was I to do? I had to catch up or else days of my adolescent life, in all their gradeur and excitement, would be lost...forever! (Note the superfluous exclamation point, believe it or not this is a man writing, just kidding ladies). Once those missed days amounted to more than I could recount, as they inevitably did, I would freak out and quit journaling for a while.

By my 20's I was able to allow myself some grace and continued plugging away at my journal despite long breaks of 6 months at time in some cases and now I am the well adjusted journaler that you have before you. The question is, "Can this translate to a blog?" We will see.