Have you ever felt like you were made for something more than just the temporal? Either there was a deep longing in you for something in the future? Hope for something greater or that you could be something greater? Or the deep yearning for things to be restored to working condition?
Writers, philosophers, poets, singers have all expressed this in some way. Here are a few voices:
Solomon, who was the wisest man on earth wrote, "God has also set eternity in their hearts…" Thoreau wrote, "In eternity there is something true and sublime." He goes on to write, "Time is a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink in it but when I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current slides away but eternity remains." Bob Dylan poetically wrote these lyrics, "Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while"
The song, "VIsions of Johanna" is Dylan's heartfelt expression of the human longing for the eternal. The fact that there is nothing finite that can fill us or give us a sense of substantial sense of well-being. This should be a reminder that we were created for the eternal. Only something (or someone eternal) can fill the eternal longings of the heart. And yet we find ourselves living in the finite. That is the tension or pull between the two is incredibly strong.
I like reading Blaise Pascal, a French scientist/philosopher/theologian who lived from 1623-1662. I agree with Doug Groothius and consider Pascal the original Christian existentialist! In one of Pascal's Pensees (French for "thoughts" or "musings") he observes that the human condition brings with it a sense of deposed royalty. That is, people sense in their life that they have lost something grand or eternal, which he calls it a faint memory of royalty. The human condition seems to be "caught" in between eternality and temporality. What i mean by that is we sense that there is something eternal to us and yet we find ourselves living as if the temporal were all there was. If we are honest, in our every day lives we have touch points with the eternal - we sense that we were made for something greater, we hope to become something more... we sense that our bodies are important but there is something else to "me", something immaterial, we long for justice, for redemption, for healing.
Soren Kierkegaard put it like this - humans have the capacity for great things, great plans, nobility and virtue, expressing beauty, and gaining knowledge about the real world. Yet they also behave in incredibly boorish and even hurtful ways. It leaves us with a natural sense that something about us is broken. There is the faint memory of the infinite, eternal, and freedom while at the same time acting in ways that are contradictory, what he labels as "finite", "temporal", and "necessity". Kierkegaard's point is that existence is to synthesize that which appears to be contradictory. It is, in the power of your freedom, to take that which desires the eternal and to bring it to the concreteness of everyday experience.
I have often thought about the lengths people must go to resolve the conflict between the temporal and eternal and to defend the living contradiction they are. How do you resolve the conflict in your own mind? How do you live with this sense of eternity while at the same time, live in the ordinary? How do you resolve the contradiction? As a point of discussion, what do you think? I'll add a few more thoughts in the days to come.... Shalom!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The pull of busyness
I have made an observation about being overseas and then returning. There is a rhythm to being overseas that is fairly simple: get up from sleep, eat, minister with every ounce of my being, take moments to reflect upon God's grace and providence for the day, crash and wake up to do it again. It really is a simple rhythm that some have called, "a spiritual greenhouse". The reason is that when God is central to what we do each day and there's time to reflect on Him and His provision for the day, then it makes life fairly simple and growth happens. No computers, no to do list, no scheduling, lack of abundance of meetings, no work, no kids' events! Life gets real simple... simple enough that one has the space to pay attention to God.
But what happens upon returning? I think for many of us who have gone to India and Israel we can attest to the fact that we jump right back into it. In fact, this morning I even remarked to someone, "I'm back in the swing of things." What I meant was that I'm ready to start ministering again. But as I reflected on it, what I really meant was that I'm ready to be busy again! How do I know? Because the initial temptation I faced this morning was, "Do I want to offer the day to God or do I just want to start in on all that has to get done?" Why is it that busyness seems to rear its head after such a wonderful time of ministering and listening to God? Why does life have to get complicated again with multiple layers? Why do I gravitate toward busyness? And my response to people when asked, "How are you?".... "Oh, life is pretty busy." Is that making a statement about my identity?
Some of the layers of life seem unavoidable. For instance, I cannot tell my son, "No birthday party last night because it complicates things too much and I would rather spend the time relaxing and listening to God!" My son would "boo" me out of the house!! But as I have noticed my propensity to just jump into the day with no sense of pausing to offer my heart and the day to God is troubling. There seems to be something that the Enemy uses to distract us from the ultimate good, to rest in our relationship with God in light of the Cross that no sense of striving can accomplish.
This summer I re-read quite a bit of Soren Kierkegaard. He is a bit complicated to understand for a couple of reasons. First, he was really smart and smart people sometimes forget that they need to communicate to ordinary people. Second, he is responding to a form of philosophy (and its implications for theology) that he thought were harmful (the Hegelian influence in thought). But third, he writes often in pseudonyms - Climacus, Anti-Climacus, Johannes de Silentio - that often confuse people. Are they speaking for SK or not?
Rather than go into his thinking (especially the controversial stuff), he makes a suggestion about the Christian life. It is one of suffering. But he does not define suffering in the ordinary sense, like experiencing pain. He defines it as "dying away to immediacy." You and I in our busyness tend to commit ourselves to relative ends. That is, in the scheme of things they are fine. Some are even considered noble, worthwhile. However, they are all relative in the sense that they are not the highest goal - one's proper relationship to God in love. He says this dying to the immediate or temporal is "to express existentially the principle that the individual can do absolutely nothing of himself, but is as nothing before God." In short, suffering is dying to the immediate needs and things of the day and to offer myself in such a way to the eternal God resigning myself to the fact that I can do nothing of myself. We enter willfully into suffering because that is the expression of my dependency upon God. This becomes clear when we understand that the word "suffering" originally had a double meaning: "to feel pain" but also, "to allow, to let, to take up a passive relation toward something." We suffer when we look at our busy lives and reflect with God, "That is not what defines me nor is that the final goal of life."
In the end, I am busy and jump into busyness because I honestly believe that much of life is up to me. There is an underlying belief that my part is substantial and its up to me earn something in my life. While some of life here in the west seems unavoidable, the busyness of life is more ingrained in me then I want to admit or even desire. Its understandable why busyness would rob me of joy because there is no longlasting joy in the temporal, in the immediate. Joy is only found when one is clearly recollected in Christ. Certainly this is not an apologetic for dropping everything. Rather, it is a reminder that busyness can function as a mask to keep me from exploring the deeper beliefs of my heart in relation to God.
"Of all that shall come to me this day, very little will be such as I have chosen for myself. It is Thou, O hidden One, who dost appoint my lot and determine the bounds of my habitation. It is Thou who has put power in my hand to do one work adn hast withheld the skill to do another. It is Thou who dost keep in Thy grasp the threads of this day's life and who along knowest what lies before me to do or to suffer. But because Thou art my Father, I am not afraid. Because it is Thine own Spirit that sirts within my spirit's inmost room, I know that all is well. What I desire for myself I cannot attain, but what Thou desirest in me Thou canst attain for me. The good that I would I do not, but the good that Thou willest in me, that Thou canst give me power to do." John Baille, Day Nine Morning Prayer. Taken from
But what happens upon returning? I think for many of us who have gone to India and Israel we can attest to the fact that we jump right back into it. In fact, this morning I even remarked to someone, "I'm back in the swing of things." What I meant was that I'm ready to start ministering again. But as I reflected on it, what I really meant was that I'm ready to be busy again! How do I know? Because the initial temptation I faced this morning was, "Do I want to offer the day to God or do I just want to start in on all that has to get done?" Why is it that busyness seems to rear its head after such a wonderful time of ministering and listening to God? Why does life have to get complicated again with multiple layers? Why do I gravitate toward busyness? And my response to people when asked, "How are you?".... "Oh, life is pretty busy." Is that making a statement about my identity?
Some of the layers of life seem unavoidable. For instance, I cannot tell my son, "No birthday party last night because it complicates things too much and I would rather spend the time relaxing and listening to God!" My son would "boo" me out of the house!! But as I have noticed my propensity to just jump into the day with no sense of pausing to offer my heart and the day to God is troubling. There seems to be something that the Enemy uses to distract us from the ultimate good, to rest in our relationship with God in light of the Cross that no sense of striving can accomplish.
This summer I re-read quite a bit of Soren Kierkegaard. He is a bit complicated to understand for a couple of reasons. First, he was really smart and smart people sometimes forget that they need to communicate to ordinary people. Second, he is responding to a form of philosophy (and its implications for theology) that he thought were harmful (the Hegelian influence in thought). But third, he writes often in pseudonyms - Climacus, Anti-Climacus, Johannes de Silentio - that often confuse people. Are they speaking for SK or not?
Rather than go into his thinking (especially the controversial stuff), he makes a suggestion about the Christian life. It is one of suffering. But he does not define suffering in the ordinary sense, like experiencing pain. He defines it as "dying away to immediacy." You and I in our busyness tend to commit ourselves to relative ends. That is, in the scheme of things they are fine. Some are even considered noble, worthwhile. However, they are all relative in the sense that they are not the highest goal - one's proper relationship to God in love. He says this dying to the immediate or temporal is "to express existentially the principle that the individual can do absolutely nothing of himself, but is as nothing before God." In short, suffering is dying to the immediate needs and things of the day and to offer myself in such a way to the eternal God resigning myself to the fact that I can do nothing of myself. We enter willfully into suffering because that is the expression of my dependency upon God. This becomes clear when we understand that the word "suffering" originally had a double meaning: "to feel pain" but also, "to allow, to let, to take up a passive relation toward something." We suffer when we look at our busy lives and reflect with God, "That is not what defines me nor is that the final goal of life."
In the end, I am busy and jump into busyness because I honestly believe that much of life is up to me. There is an underlying belief that my part is substantial and its up to me earn something in my life. While some of life here in the west seems unavoidable, the busyness of life is more ingrained in me then I want to admit or even desire. Its understandable why busyness would rob me of joy because there is no longlasting joy in the temporal, in the immediate. Joy is only found when one is clearly recollected in Christ. Certainly this is not an apologetic for dropping everything. Rather, it is a reminder that busyness can function as a mask to keep me from exploring the deeper beliefs of my heart in relation to God.
"Of all that shall come to me this day, very little will be such as I have chosen for myself. It is Thou, O hidden One, who dost appoint my lot and determine the bounds of my habitation. It is Thou who has put power in my hand to do one work adn hast withheld the skill to do another. It is Thou who dost keep in Thy grasp the threads of this day's life and who along knowest what lies before me to do or to suffer. But because Thou art my Father, I am not afraid. Because it is Thine own Spirit that sirts within my spirit's inmost room, I know that all is well. What I desire for myself I cannot attain, but what Thou desirest in me Thou canst attain for me. The good that I would I do not, but the good that Thou willest in me, that Thou canst give me power to do." John Baille, Day Nine Morning Prayer. Taken from
Monday, August 10, 2009
Entry into the world of blogging
I have made the decision to continue to blog after the Israel trip. But I had to get clear again on the purpose of why I would do such a thing. After all, I can point to numerous stories of people using the blog in a way where they could emotionally vent. Then you throw in some pastors who have blogged and written something to vent or even worse, heretical. I want to do neither, especially the heretical part!
Here's what I propose this blog is for. First I want to blog to share some thoughts I have about what Lovelace calls a "live faith". That is a faith that is is alive, continually being renewed and revived. If anything is true in the fast pace of life where everything and everyone clamors for our attention (Mark 1:37), how is our faith constantly renewed. By the way, if you ever want to read a great book (albeit a bit academic) on sanctification and spiritual theology, Lovelace's book is one of the best.
Second, I'm writing this not so much about catharsis but to encourage and challenge. I don't see this necessarily as a devotional. But it is something that can be used by a person to reflect and recollect in their relationship with God. If my comments seem a bit critical at times, the heart is to urge us back to God's heart. And please keep in mind that my comments are not directed toward any individual or the church I work for but rather general comments about the state of evangelicalism.
Third, my training is in theology and philosophy. So I hope that this blog serves to bridge the chasm between good thinking and good living. That seems to be the heart of integrity! As a result, I really do think that there are modern problems that have ancient solutions. In our quest for answers, we moderns must be careful that we do not buy into the notion that any good idea started with modern times. Many wonderful theologians and philosophers (pastors in the old days were considered the resident theologian/philosophers) have been neglected other than to use them in divisive ways leading people to fall in one camp or another. I certainly hope that the blog leads us to the heart and mind of God.
Fourth, in the process of being trained for ministry, I discovered the heart. From my time with people who teach at Talbot's Institute for Spiritual Formation, I have been exposed to wonderful spiritual writers throughout history. I am deeply concerned that our understanding of the gospel is less than full (I use that word not in the Pentecostal sense but in the sense that we have neglected some aspects) and a result we have end up with a stunted view of sanctification. So the attempt of this blog, at least in part, is to recapture a robust picture of the Spirit's work in our lives as He conforms us to the image of Christ.
Here's what I propose this blog is for. First I want to blog to share some thoughts I have about what Lovelace calls a "live faith". That is a faith that is is alive, continually being renewed and revived. If anything is true in the fast pace of life where everything and everyone clamors for our attention (Mark 1:37), how is our faith constantly renewed. By the way, if you ever want to read a great book (albeit a bit academic) on sanctification and spiritual theology, Lovelace's book is one of the best.
Second, I'm writing this not so much about catharsis but to encourage and challenge. I don't see this necessarily as a devotional. But it is something that can be used by a person to reflect and recollect in their relationship with God. If my comments seem a bit critical at times, the heart is to urge us back to God's heart. And please keep in mind that my comments are not directed toward any individual or the church I work for but rather general comments about the state of evangelicalism.
Third, my training is in theology and philosophy. So I hope that this blog serves to bridge the chasm between good thinking and good living. That seems to be the heart of integrity! As a result, I really do think that there are modern problems that have ancient solutions. In our quest for answers, we moderns must be careful that we do not buy into the notion that any good idea started with modern times. Many wonderful theologians and philosophers (pastors in the old days were considered the resident theologian/philosophers) have been neglected other than to use them in divisive ways leading people to fall in one camp or another. I certainly hope that the blog leads us to the heart and mind of God.
Fourth, in the process of being trained for ministry, I discovered the heart. From my time with people who teach at Talbot's Institute for Spiritual Formation, I have been exposed to wonderful spiritual writers throughout history. I am deeply concerned that our understanding of the gospel is less than full (I use that word not in the Pentecostal sense but in the sense that we have neglected some aspects) and a result we have end up with a stunted view of sanctification. So the attempt of this blog, at least in part, is to recapture a robust picture of the Spirit's work in our lives as He conforms us to the image of Christ.
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