Colorado Shootings, Where Were You God?

Lots of people around the internet are talking about the Colorado shooting. About the victims...about acts of heroism...about the coincidences that brought some to the theater and the coincidences that kept some away.

And they are talking about the shooter, his history, his friends and family, his mom's comments, (that Keith tells me were taken totally out of context by some over zealous reporter) About the "I'm a crazy man" look in his tortured eyes.

And of course there is ongoing, heated debate about guns and gun control. For the record, I loathe guns...but if my neighbor, or my dad, or my boss wants to own a gun and is responsible with the use and storage of the weapon...I am content to "myob." However, I see no feasible reason ( or how it could be construed as a threat to the 2nd Amendment) to not do whatever it takes to keep weapons that can fire dozens of bullets without reloading...out of the hands of crazy men. Out of the hands of EVERYBODY for that matter. But I digress. That is the subject of another post....someday. Back to the Colorado shooting.

So the conversation goes round and round. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has questions. Ultimately, the discussion turns to God....and most everyone, in one way or another wonders the same thing..and (consciously or subconsciously)asks the same question of God. "Where the hell were you??!! when these victims were being gunned down??? And why didn't you do something??"

That question is the crux of the age old mystery of theodicy. The immortal question, "If there is a good, all powerful God, how can evil exist?"

The conclusion many come to is that there is no God. "Sorry folks, you're on your own."

Others (like Harold Kushner of the "When Bad Things Happen To Good People " fame) settle on the belief that God is not all powerful. He would like to do more to help but, sadly, his hands are tied.

Others settle on the belief that he is not all good...because as far as they’re concerned not stopping atrocities like the shooting is as bad as actually causing them.

And some folks...the total determinist/absolute sovereignty believers believe just that….that he actually causes these things to come down. They believe he is all powerful, all good and the first cause of all causes. In other words, he directly ordains these things(for our own good, of course) There is a case to be made for that viewpoint.

Some folks believe man's free will is the ultimate deciding factor and that God never...or rarely, intervenes. There is a case to be made for that viewpoint, too.

Although diehard believers on both sides of the “free will/sovereignty” line will disagree that a case can be made for the opposite side.

I see so many things in shades of gray, along the lines of Adam Hamilton's book "Seeing Gray In a Black and White World.” I suspect that the truth about most things is somewhere smack dab in the middle, or at least not totally to the far left or the far right.

This question haunted me for years. I read, I pondered, I obsessed. I was totally pissed off at God for the way he set things up...starving children in Africa, death, disease and pestilence everywhere. I couldn't just write him off as an imaginary friend because I've felt his touch and know he exists as surely as I know I do. Non belief was not an option. Pouting at him was. But in my heart, I knew that whatever evidence gets stacked against him, he is good, he is love and his mercy endures forever.

I've stopped pouting. I've even stopped asking the "where were you" kinds of questions. And I'm not dead set sure what I think about his involvement in world events but I suspect sometimes he causes, sometimes he prevents and sometimes he intervenes in very mysterious ways.

A Facebook friend posted a link shortly after the shooting. It leads to blog post written by a pastor in Colorado. He told the story of a young woman in his congregation. Petra Anderson. She is in her early twenties (22, I think) and she was in the theater that night. She was shot multiple times. One of the shotgun blasts sent a pellet through her brain....front to back. The prognosis was bleak but when the neurosurgeons operated, they discovered Petra had a brain anomaly that had been present since birth. It caused no symptoms. She had no idea it was there. Nobody did except, of course, her Maker.

It was a tiny channel that ran from front to back. Just big enough for a shotgun pellet. The bullet entered her nose at that exact spot and made its way to the back of her brain, via the channel, causing next to no damage. The blog author said that the tiniest variation in the entry point would have caused the pellet to bypass the channel, ripping through and damaging/destroying vital brain tissue.

No matter what your theology or opinion about the POE (problem of evil), sovereignty and free will, this story (that has also been mentioned on the news and other sources) gives one cause to pause and ponder. An old hymn and two Bible verses come to mind.

The Bible verses...

Isaiah 43: 7"...everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

and

Psalm 139:14 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. NLT

The blog post about Petra went viral and received hundreds of comments, many that expressed disdain for the idea that God was responsible for this anomaly/ miracle yet didn't come through for the other victims.

Which brings me to the words of the old hymn by William Cowper -

'God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform"

There is another thing about the Anderson family that seems to deepen the mysteries of God's ways.  Petra's mother is battling a reoccurrence of (terminable) breast cancer...her prognosis is not good...and she is not expected to survive. 

Since this is getting long, I'll finish up in another post (really, I will)

The Three Categories of Universalists

Chan divides universalists into categories….

There are the pluralists.

these people believe that Jesus is one of many ways to salvation. Pluralists believe that all religions present equally valid ways of salvation—Christianity is simply one among many.

There are the “hopefuls”

They believe that Christ is the only way, but they hold out hope that God will end up saving everyone through Christ in the end. But they go beyond simply hoping this will happen (don’t we all?). They’re hopeful, and they see strong biblical support for this view, though their view is often tempered with caution.

And then there are those spiritual daredevils…the “dogmatics”….

The least cautious Christian Universalists call themselves dogmatic Universalists. Like the previous group, they believe that Christ is the only way, but they go a bit further and say that the Bible clearly teaches that all will be saved. They find the view not just possible, but the most probable: They believe that the Bible clearly teaches that all will be saved through Jesus in the end.

So I’m guessing that someone who writes an essay and calls it “I Am a Convinced Universalist” would fit in the dogmatic category?  The guy who wrote those words….in his autobiography… in a chapter entitled just that ….I Am a Convinced Universalist…was William Barclay.

Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at Glasgow University and the author of many Biblical commentaries and books, including a translation of the New Testament, "Barclay New Testament," and "The Daily Study Bible Series."

Very. Mainstream. When I typed his name into the search engine at Christianbook.com, about 90 or so results came up.  He was a prolific writer and his books line the book cases of many mainstream Christians worldwide.  Many (most?) aren’t aware of his pronouncement of a “dogmatic” belief in universalism since many of them….no way/no how would read the writings of a universalist. Universalism is one of the biggest, fattest heresies there is…

Brian McLaren said:

In my theological circles, universalism is one small step removed from atheism.  It is probably more feared than committing adultery, and to be labeled universalist ends one’s career.  Decisively. 

But William Barclay declared it…flat out.  He didn’t skirt the issue or talk around it….or make vague references to it.  He wasn’t coy about it.

I am a convinced universalist. I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God.

And he gave several reasons for his beliefs….

First, there is the fact that there are things in the New Testament which more than justify this belief.

Coming from a New Testament scholar/Bible translator/Professor of Divinity…that should carry some weight. 

Second, one of the key passages is Matthew 25:46 where it is said that the rejected go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life. The Greek word for punishment is kolasis, which was not originally an ethical word at all. It originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular literature kolasis is never used of anything but remedial punishment.

And to be fair…Chan did include this quote in his book.  Okay…so it was in the footnotes….but it was there if one was inclined to dig a bit.  But he never mentioned Barclay’s popularity, or prolific writings…or the…you know…Convinced Universalist part. 

Third, I believe that it is impossible to set limits to the grace of God. I believe that not only in this world, but in any other world there may be, the grace of God is still effective, still operative, still at work. I do not believe that the operation of the grace of God is limited to this world. I believe that the grace of God is as wide as the universe.

There is of course the verse that (in my mind) definitively declares that death cannot separate us from God….

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And the fourth reason…

Fourth, I believe implicitly in the ultimate and complete triumph of God, the time when all things will be subject to him, and when God will be everything to everyone.

Then Barclay goes on to muse about God as Father…and how it might be considered a triumph to wipe out His enemies or to torture them in hell forever if God were simply a judge or a king but God is also a Father

..he is indeed Father more than anything else. No father could be happy while there were members of his family for ever in agony. No father would count it a triumph to obliterate the disobedient members of his family. The only triumph a father can know is to have all his family back home. The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God.

So will God be able to pull this off? 

Chan describes this belief in his book:

At the heart of this perspective is the belief that, given enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God’s presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most “depraved sinners” will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God

So….will God be able to turn the hardest heart back to Himself?  To bend the stubbornest knee…and loosen the most reluctant tongue?  Will all mankind bow and joyously proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord?  It says so….three times no less…in scripture.  (And…it is a joyous proclamation that is implied in the original language.  Not a grudging concession before being cast into hell or obliterated…but a joyous proclamation)

And surely God has ways that I cannot even begin to fathom. Is anything too hard for Him?  Is His arm to short to save?

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Isaiah 59:1

I don’t know how he will accomplish it but as I ponder, I am reminded of a quote by Anne Lamott. I saved it in my files a few years ago when I read through all of her books, one right after the other.

The quote was in a book (name escapes me) that was written after 9-11.  She was very upset with the war and the political atmosphere.  She was very angry.

My Jesuit friend Tom once told me that this is a good exercise because in truth, everyone is loved and chosen, even Dick Cheney, even Saddam Hussein. That God loves them because God loves.

This-- more than anything does not make sense to me,” I said.

“Because you are a little angry,” Tom explained. “But when people die, they are forgiven and welcomed home. Then God will help them figure out how to clean up the disgusting messes they have made. God has skills and ideas on how to do this.”

So God has skills and ideas on how to do this. Is that just too simple?  Somehow it seems that there will be at least an era of ”weeping and gnashing of teeth” for some of us.. as God works on us and in us and makes us willing to clean up the disgusting messes we’ve made in this life. 

Or perhaps after we die and leave these fleshly bodies behind…when death has taken off the mask (William Penn) we will be able to see clearly.  It won’t be the same playing field we find ourselves in here, in this life. 

More on God as Father (not Judge) in an upcoming post.  And more thoughts on whether our last breath is indeed our last chance. 

Evil Perpetrated Against a Child…

In the conversation between the brothers (aka Ivan’s tirade) in Fyodor Dostoevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan’s big beef was the evil perpetrated against children…under the omnipresent eye of God.  That was his ultimate “WTF is wrong with this picture” moment….no fair, this isn’t right, time out, you’ve got to be kidding.  Children should not suffer the way they do.  Especially at the hands of adults. Especially not at the hands of adults who are supposed to love them and care for them….their parents.  Sometimes that is the most treacherous place for a child to be is in the care of their parents.

It’s really not like me to comment on current events in a post.  It is more my style to wait until the event is a distant memory and then write about it. The reasons? Perhaps procrastination…and too much I want to write about, not enough time to write it.  Maybe a bit of my “far from the maddening crowd” mindset.  If the vast majority of blogs in the Blogosphere are writing about it, I probably won’t be.

But the current events of the past few days so fit the topic of my last post that I would be remiss not to mention dear little Caylee Anthony and the great evil perpetrated against her at the hands of an adult.  Probably an adult who was responsible for her care. 

I love my Facebook feed,  It serves as a sort of demographic of popular opinion.  I have friends on FB that span the range of the spectrum--liberal/conservative, fundamentalist/new age. So I get a plethora of opinions and viewpoints.  There are no shortages of viewpoints about the Casey/Caylee Anthony case.  They run the gamut from “fry the bitch” to “our justice system worked the way it’s supposed to” to “what was the jury thinking?” and “this is the OJ verdict for a younger generation.”

I don’t know.  I didn’t follow the trial…and only read about it helter skelter during the three years the case captured the media’s attention.  Is Casey guilty?  I don’t know.  If she is guilty, why would she do such a thing to her own child?  Just another question mark…amongst the endless number of question marks surrounding suffering and evil….especially when it involves children. 

Again as I mentioned in my first post….Epicurus summed it up:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

 

Why? 

That is the heart wrenching cry of those tormented by the POE, the Problem of Evil. 

Why? Why? Why?

Theodicy tries to answer the question….and there are no shortages of opinions about it…and we’ll take a look at a couple of the most interesting theories in upcoming posts….but nobody REALLY knows for sure…and so the question remains

Why?

The Will of God

During this whole "living at the hospital" ordeal there have been times, events and circumstances that have been exercises in total frustration. When I went back last weekend to visit, she was doing much better after the second actual surgery to drain fluid and blood from both of her lungs and chest cavity.  When I say surgery I mean under total, deep anesthesia.  There were many, many procedures that required a lighter level of anesthesia....and some of the nasty things they did to her "didn't require" any at all.  She had three PICC lines put in with great, great difficulty (and total lack of functionality)....a pacemaker (that caused bleeding into the cavity around her heart and collapsed her lung...main reason for the second surgery) numerous scope things....down the throat...another round on the ventilator…so many unpleasant, frightening ordeals. Yet when I went back this weekend she was quite calm.  In a good mood actually. It was almost as if God held her there in the fire (hospital) until she stopped struggling.  And I am learning some lessons about struggling too. 

“A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps”(Proverbs 16:9)

Lest anyone think I've joined the total determinism gang, I haven't.  I do believe however that we are not totally free and there will be situations we get stuck in no matter how much we struggle.  No matter how much squawking and bitching and moaning we do, we are going to be held in the fire (a place or situation where we don’t want to be) until we stop struggling.  That is the essence of my car seat analogy.

When my kids were little they always...always… rode in their car seats the whole time the car was in motion. No exceptions.  Protesting…kicking, screaming, fighting made no difference whatsoever to the final outcome. The car seat was non negotiable. One way or another they were going in the car seat and they were staying there until we reached our destination.  Fortunately, they never put up much of a fuss and getting them into their car seat was no big deal but I’ve seen some life and death struggles going on in other vehicles…parent pitted against a 20 lb child.

Some of the situations God puts us in are also non negotiable (and for our good) and we cannot get out of them...no how...no way. Sometimes the only thing we can choose is our attitude.  My attitude throughout this hospital ordeal was pretty good.  Could have been better but I know my mom appreciated me being there. Looking through the “retrospectascope” I realize I should have struggled less and accepted more and I would have saved myself a lot of stress and frustration. The whole thing was a “carseat moment.” 

Reminds me of two similar thoughts about making plans.  One from the Qu'ran...the other from the book of James.  Both pretty much say the same thing...and remind me that I need to seek his will and way first.  To do otherwise is a bit like beating my head against a brick wall.  And you know the saying about how good it feels when you stop....

 SHAKIR 18:23/24 And do not say of anything: Surely I will do it tomorrow, Unless Allah pleases; and remember your Lord when you forget and say: Maybe my Lord will guide me to a nearer course to the right than this.

James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

So I spent all weekend hanging out in her hospital room.  She is feeling a lot better (and at this writing is actually in the rehab part of the hospital working on the final phase of her recovery) A lot of the time she dozed in the chair…and I sat quietly reading…making use of their guest wifi.  At one point, late on Sunday afternoon she asked me the same question she asked shortly after her surgery.....

"This was a wasted day wasn't it?"

"For who?"

"You....me.....both of us" she replied.

Ahhhhhh......but it didn’t feel like a wasted day.  And after all, in God's economy, nothing is wasted.  Eventually, all things work together for good, don't they?  I don’t think any of the time either of us spent in the “carseat” was wasted. Some of the lessons are yet to be revealed…but they are there, contained in the experience.  The tricky part is figuring it all out. 

My husband, Keith wrote a post about some of his struggles during this same period of time…from his perspective.  Check it out HERE.

More About That Path

And a quote from Anne Lamott who is quoting E.L. Doctorow about "the path"

"E.L. Doctorow once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard." — Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

Hmmm...just enough light to see a few feet in front of you. 

The other night I was going through some old AOL files on the geriatric computer that sits in the dining room. The computer is about 7 or 8 years old and the files date back to about 2004.  There were over 4800 emails. Many of them were written to yahoo email lists...the Wider Universalist Fellowship, Christian Universalism and others.  It is eye opening to go back and read emails you've written even just five years ago. 

There was one email I came across that was in reply to the following question:

Were you given a book of your entire existence from birth to death, opened of course to today's page, would you dare turn that page to know what "the morrow shall bring?"

       

                             Photo by TON70

My reply...

Hmmmmm....would I turn the page?  Ignoring the fact that it might all be predetermined whether I would turn the page or not....my first reaction is that I would not.  If tragedy looms ahead, I don't think I would want to know for sure. 

Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. KJV

Would I want to know if tomorrow my health would fail....or one of my kids would be hurt....no.....I don't think I could cope with the certainty of it.  So, no, I don't think I would peek ahead to future pages and chapters to see what was going to happen.  If we are believers in UR, we know how it all ends anyway......

That reply was written during the period of my incessant, obsessive, relentless search for the answer to the free will/total determinism question.  You know like the old Miss Clairol commercials...Does she or doesn't she? (have "free will") Even though I wouldn't "bet the farm" on the conclusion I've come to, I do have more peace about the question. 

And my answer to the question about the book of my life.  Well, it is the same answer I gave five years ago.  I wouldn't turn the page.  I guess it is really God's mercy that he gives us just enough light to see a few feet in front of us....

The Ties That Bind....

When I started to think about the strings...an excerpt I read from a book called Letters To My Friends by John Conley came to mind.  I read it...oh...probably a year ago.  I think our minds work like a computer with some haphazard, half butt filing hierarchy.  At least my brain works that way.  Have you ever tried really hard to remember a name...of a movie...an actress...a street where you used to live?  The harder you try, the more elusive the name becomes.  Then...when you finally give up and focus your attention on something else, it pops up...just like that. That has always amazed me.  So even though I sometimes have to wrack my brain to remember a name that is on the tip of my tongue, the short writing by John Conley that I read a year ago came immediately to mind. I remembered that it talks about strands...luminous strands. 

When I close my eyes, I can see luminous strands of light stretching from me both forwards and backwards into eternity.  These strands are my fate, and I know of only one way to free myself of them.  Who we think we are at any given moment in time is but one of the many strands that flow through our life.  We grab onto this strand and cling to it.  We call it life, and we believe that this strand is the only strand.  We are blind to the many other strands that flow through us unseen and untouched. 

For example, we may latch onto the strand we call anger.  We may decide that is how we are, and how we always will be.  Or, we may latch onto the victim strand, and we will allow nothing to shake us from our conviction that we are victims.  These are the strands of our personal history. 

Were we but able to see, we could change our entire life in a moment.  We could be enlightened now.  We could live lives of abundance now.  Simply by grabbing onto the strands of our dreams.  But we are blind, or at the very least, I am blind. 

And in our blindness we are stuck.  We don't realize that, although we are unable to change the past, the future lies before us filled with promise. And is our destiny set? John Conley seems to believe that it is not. 

For in Stillness we have the power to change our destiny.  We have the power to grab another strand, which will lead us to realms unknown.  And if we are not still, we are slaves of our past.  We have no choice but to be who we are. 

Although his term for God might be off putting for some, I have no real objection to it.  As if we could sum up God in any one word anyway...or in any ten billion words. So when he refers to "Stillness" I simply substitute Abba Father since that is the way God has revealed himself to me.  And what does he mean exactly by "in Stillness" or the opposite..."not still"?  My friend Brian posted something today on EU that used Christian terms to express something very similar.  He talked about "walking according to the spirit" or "walking according to the flesh." When we are in Stillness we are walking according to the Spirit.  When we are not still, we are walking according to the flesh.  Our only hope of change, is through the wonder working power of the Spirit.  

By practicing Stillness, we sever the strands that bind us to our past, a past that determines our future.  We sever these old strands through our decision to do so, and we gather new strands to ourselves.

Perhaps Jon Osterman, the character from the movie the other night, didn't realize he could gather new strands to himself.  Perhaps he was convinced that he was bound to the old strands....bound not only to a unchangeable past, but bound also to an unchangeable future.  Perhaps the luminous strands are the connection to our source of never ending power...our Abba Father,  the Stillness.  And what Jon Osterman saw...the puppet strings....perhaps they were simply the ties that bind. 

The Secret....

About those strings....

G.K. Chesterton wrote a play called The Surprise.  It is sort of a modern day parable that deals with this total sovereignty/free will issue.  Since it is late...since I have a headache...and since I have not read the play myself, I am going to copy and paste what I found on the internet....giving full credit to the authors, of course.  I would like to read the book myself...perhaps I will check out the library. I imagine there are some interesting quotes to be gleaned from the play.

The first excerpt comes from a book I found on google books entitled Chesterton and Evil.  Not only does the parable deal with the issue of free will/sovereignty, it also deals with the existence of evil. 

In a play, a character called the Author creates a number of puppets to perform "a play without a villain" (321) and the play is subsequently performed for a visiting friar.  However, the Author is not satisfied with his creation.  He explains to the friar that without their freedom the puppets remain artificial:  "They are everything else except alive.  They are intelligent, complex, combative, brilliant, bursting with life, and yet they are not alive" (324)  This is at the heart of the Author's problem.  "I want them to be and not to do.  I want them to exist" 323) At the request of the Author, the visiting friar asks God for a miracle, and the puppets gain their own wills.  In Act II of The Surprise, the Author's play is repeated, only this time the results are very different.  As the play concludes and the puppets start trying to kill one another, the Author sticks his head through the scenery to intervene: "And in the devil's name, what do you think you are doing with my play?  Drop it! Stop! I am coming down" (340)

Although the analogy that Chesterton offers us in The Surprise is an obvious one, he insists on reinforcing his main point through an early piece of dialogue between the author and the friar:

Author: The real world is very grievous and doubtless it is right that it should worship a grievous god.  I only say, for the world that I have made, that though I cannot make it as real, I have at least made it less grievous.  Inside that box on wheels, though not outside it, there is a very happy universe: not cozy, but nobly happy...and when I come out of my little theatre, full of towering generosity and the gestures of giants, into this wicked world, I think the world is mean as well as well as wicked....

Friar:  Do you know what has made the world mean and wicked?

Ahhhhh...isn't that the $100,000 question?

The other excerpt came from a blog post that talks about different views of the atonement...which is another mystery itself. The name of the blog is AÚN ESTAMOS VIVOS 

Chesterton offers another way into the mystery, in a little two-act play of his called The Surprise. The play opens, in the Middle Ages, with a friar wandering through a woods. He sees a large rolling caravan, a platform stage with its curtain open and handsome life-size puppets lying with their strings loose. The puppet master is up above the stage. The friar asks what town he will be giving his show in-he would like to see it. The man tells him to sit down and he will give him a free performance. A romantic tale is then spun out in which a swashbuckling hero and his friend, drinking to each other's health, swear to rescue a damsel in captivity. They carry it off with great panache, and the play ends. The friar applauds, but the man asks to go to confession. He confesses that he is un-happy because he loves his characters, yet they do not breathe and reciprocate his love. As he turns away, the friar falls to his knees and prays that his wishes might come true. The curtain falls on the first act.

The second act begins with the puppets again lying down amid their loose strings. But then the characters begin to stir on their own. They rise and start reenacting the play. But this time little things begin to go wrong, each aggravating the next, and the pace of mishaps quickens. The friends drink too much and quarrel, they show jealousy over the heroine, they arrive too late to rescue her, so her captor is about to rape her. At this point, the puppet master stands up on the roof of the caravan and shouts, "Stop! I'm coming down."

And he did come down, didn't he? He showed us a perfect image of himself in the person of Jesus. Amazing that he dwells in us and around us. The strings the character from the Watchman talks about?  Could they be luminous threads that connect our spirit to his spirit?  More about that tomorrow..... 

Puppets on a String?

An excerpt from the Keating interview (already posted a while back) that I have been planning to write follows....

Centering prayer is very rich but quite diffuse and tends to put the emphasis on grace in a way that perhaps needs to be balanced by the Zen attitude, which is that we have to do something, too. Actually, St. Ignatius expressed it well when he said, "Act as if everything depended on you, and trust as if everything depended on God." Well, how do you do that? That is a koan. You could spend a lifetime trying to figure out how to do that.

Well I spent several years trying to figure it out....to no avail. Trying to reconcile absolute predetermination dogged me for the longest time...putting a major kink in my relationship with God.  And I tortured myself with it...and snubbed God for months.  I talked ABOUT him..but rarely talked TO him.  Being married and mentored by someone who believes "totally" in total sovereignty...someone who knows a lot more than I do about scripture and theology and such...led to many "discussions" about that very topic. 

But what about ...... ? 
And what about ..... ? 
Okay...then what about.... ? 

And on and on it went.  Discussing all the usual metaphors...fish in a bowl, fly in a jar, mouse in a maze.  Chess games and fenced in areas....pastured free will....and on and on it went. 

I know there are many verses that seem to indicate every little nuance of our personalities and our behavior is preplanned.  Our every thought, whim, wonder, opinion, fear, like and dislike preordained and predestined.  As someone on a message board once mused (can't remember where or who), "Did God simply put the tape in the VCR, push play and then sit back to watch the eons pass by...completely preplanned and prearranged? The ultimate que sera, sera.

And there are verses that "prove" God does give us some choices in our lives.  Real choices, not pseudo choices.  Some, like those who embrace open theism (Greg Boyd comes to mind) even believe that God chooses not to know every detail about how the future will play out   He knows the end...but the in between can take many different paths.  There are even scriptures that seem to indicate that. 

This can lead to debates about relative and absolute views of scripture and other ways of explaining away the verses the "other side" offers as proof. There are no definitive answers that can be proven with scripture.  I know folks on both sides of the fence might dispute that but alas....I think, for every scripture the "opposing" side comes up with there is another scripture that disproves it.

Now isn't THAT a major koan? 

Not too long ago, Keith watched a rather weird movie called "The Watchman" As is usually the case, I watched bits and pieces of it without the soundtrack.  He uses a headset so I can stay in the living room and read...yet my attention continues to be drawn to the screen. The movie was a very sci-fi, dark and foreboding superhero movie. The main character was a man who had a nuclear accident of some sort in a lab where he was a scientist.  The accident turned him into a blue energy kind of being with these creepy glowing all white eyes.

At dinner the next night, Keith filled me in on some of the details I couldn't figure out from the "silent version" of the movie.  He told me about one scene in particular that piqued my interest...a scene that contained a discussion about destiny.  I found the following conversation on the internet.  In the scene, Jon Osterman (the blue energy guy) and his estranged wife were discussing their failed relationship.  The conversation took place on Mars...where he had been banished to for one reason or another.  I don't know all the details but that is not what struck me about the conversation.  No point digressing.  

[as they ascend a flight of glass stairs on Mars]
Jon Osterman: This is where we hold our conversation. In it, you reveal to me that you and Dreiberg have been sleeping together.
[suddenly taken aback]
Laurie Juspeczyk: You know about me and Dan?
Jon Osterman: Not yet. But in a few moments, you're going to tell me.
Laurie Juspeczyk: If you already know the future, then why were you surprised when I left you? Or when that reporter ambushed you? Why even argue about it if you already know how this is going to end?
Jon Osterman: I have no choice. Everything is preordained... even my responses.
Laurie Juspeczyk: And you're just going through the motions? The most powerful thing in the universe is still just a puppet...
Jon Osterman: We are all puppets, Laurie. I'm just the puppet who can see the strings.
Laurie Juspeczyk: And what if you're wrong?
Jon Osterman: Why does my perception of time distress you so?
Laurie Juspeczyk: Because it's inhuman. Because it makes me insane. You always say you wanna comfort me. Well, it isn't working. Look, I don't want to fight. I'm sorry I slept with Dan.
[suddenly upset]
Jon Osterman: You slept with Dan?

A perfect illustration of the koan that Keating mentions in the interview.  And it also reminds me of one of the analogies about free will/determinism....one usually used disparagingly by those who believe in free will.  If predetermination is true then, like Jon Osterman, we are simply "puppets on a string."  We are part of the divine puppet show.  That is totally disheartening to me.  It brings comfort to some folks, but it brings me to despair. 

And I've been thinking about those strings that supposedly attach us to the hand of the puppet master but more on that tomorrow.....

God Is Dead, Mankind Is Free?

We took my father in law (who is visiting from Canada) to a "nearby" state park late yesterday afternoon.  It was an impromptu thing...Keith, who does not like to fritter away a vacation sitting around at home, sprung it on me at the last minute.  I am not good at doing "last minute" stuff...but I, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to go along.  It turned out to be a longer trip than expected, but it was a scenic drive and the view from the overlook at this park is spectacular.  I took along a Bible with the apocrypha to read in the van...and also my mini Dell. 

I began reading Sirach...in fits and starts...after daniel posted a few verses from it on EU.  There is a lot of stuff in that book.  Pity it was not included in the Protestant version of the the Holy Scriptures.  It seems to mirror Proverbs...and Psalms....and confirms so many other verses in the Bible.  I have found a lot to underline and reflect upon within its chapters.  I hope to write about some of the stuff contained therein...but let's face it, I may run out of years before I run out of ideas to muse about and publicly ponder here on this blog :)

But anyway...Sirach is not the subject of this post.  On the way home, after dark...too dark to read a book, I fired up the mini to look through some old files (blog ideas, more blog ideas, draft posts, really draft posts, more draft posts, quotes for blog...you get the idea)  I came upon some quotes I had saved from The Shack.  Now if there ever was a book that "put a face with a name"...the Shack showed us a face of God.  Not the expected face (an overweight black woman) nor the only "face" by which God reveals himself... as Papa explained in the Shack

She picked up the wooden spoon again dripping with some sort of batter. Mackenzie, I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it’s because I love you. For me to appear to you as a woman and suggest you call me Papa is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning.

But then, he paused, still focused on staying rational, “why is there such an emphasis on you being a Father? I mean, it seems to be the way you most reveal yourself.

Well, responded Papa, turning away from him and bustling around the kitchen, there are many reasons for that, and some of them go very deep. Let me say for now that we knew once the creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering. Don’t misunderstand me, both are needed..but an emphasis on father is necessary because of the enormity of its absence.

I've expressed before, here on this blog, that God has revealed himself to me as Father.  That is the "face" I "see" when I think of God.  "Seeing" God causes a mental short circuit in my brain because truly, he is not a face....but, I see/feel him as Father.  To me, he is Father...but I acknowledge that to many he reveals himself as Mother...similar to how he appeared to Mack...a heavy set black woman...and he reveals himself in many, many other ways...meeting us at our point of need...out of his great love for us. 

But I am still digressing somewhat because the original point of this post was to talk about this freedom Osho mentioned.  Since God is dead (or to more accurately express his view....since God was always a figment of man's imagination) we are free.  Yippee! But free for what?  In The Shack, Mack and Papa (in the form of an overweight black woman) discuss this issue of freedom....

“You knew I would come, didn’t you?” Mack finally spoke quietly.

“Of course I did” she was busy again, her back to him.

“Then was I free not to come? Did I not have a choice in the matter?”

Papa turned back to face him, now with flour and dough in her hands. “Good question..how deep would you like to go?” She didn’t wait for a response, knowing that Mack didn’t have one. Instead she asked, “Do you believe you are free to leave?”

“I suppose I am. Am I?”

“Of course you are! I'm not interested in prisoners. You’re free to walk out that door right now and go home to your empty house. Or, you could go down the Grind and hang out with Willie. Just because I know you’re too curious to go, does that reduce your freedom to leave?”

She paused only briefly and then turned back to her task, talking to him over her shoulder. “Or, if you want to go just a wee bit deeper, we could talk about the nature of freedom itself. Does freedom mean that you are allowed to do whatever you want to do? Or we could talk about all the limiting influences in your life that actively work against your freedom. Your family genetic heritage, your specific DNA, your metabolic uniqueness, the quantum stuff that is going on at a subatomic level where only I am the always-present observer. Or the intrusion of your soul’s sickness that inhibits and binds you, or the social influences around you, or the habits that have created synaptic bonds and pathways in your brain. And then there’s advertising, propaganda, and paradigms. Inside the confluence of multifaceted inhibitors, “ she sighed, “what is freedom really?”

Mack just stood there not knowing what to say.

“Only I can set you free, Mackenzie, but freedom can never be forced.”

At this point you don’t even understand that freedom is an incremental process.

Mackenzie, the Truth shall set you free and the Truth has a name; he’s over in the wood shop right now covered in sawdust. (She is referring, of course, to Jesus Christ) Everything is about him. And freedom is a process that happens inside a relationship with him. Then all that stuff you feel churnin’ around inside will start to work its way out.”

So Osho was wrong.  Zen does not offer mankind salvation...nor wholeness...nor hope.  There are principles contained in Zen that can enhance our Christian journey...but wholeness, our destiny, dwelling in the secret place of the most high...our Father's heart cannot be found in the simple process of meditation.  "Existence, the cosmos" have a name...and they have a "face."

Osho's "God" Is Too Small...

While Osho claims not to believe in a god, it seems he exalts something he labels existence...or "cosmos"...something we need to connect to via Zen meditation.  I closed by saying that I thought his god is too small. I was reminded me of a quote from Richard Dawkins, the well known atheist:

If there is a God, it's going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed.

And I agree.  None of us, at this stage of our spiritual journey can really comprehend the vastness of God. His magnitude ...nor can we truly understand how a being who is infinite can also be intimate...involved in every aspect of our lives. 

Today on EU, daniel posted a link to another online e-book.  No not Osho's God Is Dead...nor excerpts from Dawkin's The God Delusion...but rather an ageless classic, Your God is Too Small by J.B. Phillips. 

The first section of the book deals with deconstructing inaccurate or harmful images of God:

PART ONE -- DESTRUCTIVE
UNREAL GODS:
1. Resident Policeman
2. Parental Hangover
3. Grand Old Man
4. Meek-and-Mild
5. Absolute Perfection
6. Heavenly Bosom
7. God-in-a-Box
8. Managing Director
9. Second-Hand God
10. Perennial Grievance
11. Pale Galilean
12. Projected Image
13. Assorted

And the second section of the book deals with reconstructing our images of God:

PART TWO -- CONSTRUCTIVE
AN ADEQUATE GOD:
1. God Unfocused
2. A Clue to Reality
3. Further Clues to Reality
4. Is There a Focused God?
5. If God Were Focused (I)
6. If God Were Focused (II)
7. Has _A_ Arrived?
8. Life's Basic Principles (I)
9. Life's Basic Principles (II)
10. Further Basic Questions
11. Christ and the Question of Sin
12. Satisfactory Reconciliation
13. Demonstration with the Enemy
14. The Abolition of Death
15. Theory into Practice

In the section in the deconstruction chapters of the book there is a section in the "assorted" unreal god's section entitled God For The Elite, Phillips says this:

GOD FOR THE ELITE
It is characteristic of human beings to create and revere a "privileged class," and some modern Christians regard the mystic as being somehow spiritually a cut above his fellows. Ordinary forms of worship and prayer may suffice for the ordinary man, but for the one who has direct apprehension of God -- he is literally in a class by himself. You cannot expect a man to attend Evensong in his parish church when there are visions waiting for him in his study!

The New Testament does not subscribe to this flattering view of those with a gift for mystic vision. It
is always downright and practical. It is by their fruits that men shall be known: God is no respecter of persons: true religion is expressed by such humdrum things as visiting those in trouble and steadfastly maintaining faith despite exterior circumstances. It is not, of course, that the New Testament considers it a bad thing for a man to have a vision of God, but there is a wholesome insistence on such a vision being worked out in love and service.

It should be noted, at least by those who accept Christ's claim to be God, that He by no means fits into the picture of the "mystic saint." Those who are fascinated by the supposed superiority of the mystic soul might profitably compile a list of its characteristics and place them side by side with those of Christ. The result would probably expose a surprising conclusion. There is, in fact, no provision for a "privileged class" in genuine Christianity. "It shall not be so among you," said Christ to His early followers, "all ye are brethren"

And another section that, I think, addresses some of Osho's claims is called God Without Godhead:

GOD WITHOUT GODHEAD
This conception is one of the most "enlightened" and "modern." God is completely de-personalized and becomes the Ultimate Bundle of Highest Values.
Such an idea is usually held by those who lead sheltered lives and who have little experience of the crude stuff of ordinary human life. It is manifestly impossible for any except the most intellectual to hold in his mind (let alone worship and serve) a God who is no more than what we think to be the highest values raised to the Nth degree.

And about that freedom that mankind has...you know, with God dead and all.  I will post about that tomorrow....

Snippets of wisdom gleaned at the Houston Airport....

I posted the following on EU this morning.  I had intended to post about snippets of wisdom from the Max Lucado book I just read.  The one I mentioned in a recent post (yesterday's?)...but alas, I have dinked around far too long and I have to get ready for work!!  So I am going to "double post." I usually don't do that...

During our three hour layover in Houston, I turned on my laptop...plugged it into a Samsung "charge your phone" electrical pole (along with a bunch of other people)  I didn't spring for the internet (8 bucks for a "day pass" on boingo or some similar name) but read a bunch of posts from another list I had saved on my computer....posts that had piled up in "real time" and I had not gotten around to reading.  Following are a few random snippets that I gleaned and saved. 

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.
--Native American Proverb

And can't the same thing be said about tomorrow?  Don't let what might happen tomorrow use up too much of today?  I am much better at letting go of yesterday than I am about not dwelling in thoughts about tomorrow. (what I have to do...what might happen...what might not happen...usually things I dread rather than things I am looking forward to)

When I speak of suffering, I am referring to what could be called "unnecessary" suffering, when you are wrapped up in replaying your own or the world's dramatic stories
over and over in your mind. GANGAJI

Ah, yes...yesterday and tomorrow...full of dramatic stories that take our attention off of TODAY. 

Do not say, "I follow the one true path of the Spirit,"
but rather, "I have found the Spirit walking on my path,"
for the Spirit walks on all paths. Khalil Gibran

Say not, 'I have found the truth,'
but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Khalil Gibran 

And often that truth is a universal kind of truth and not limited to one spiritual tradition....not even to Christianity!!!

"Every one of us alone has the power to direct the course of our lives by choosing what actions we will or won't take. While sometimes it's easier to believe you don't have a choice, the reality is that you always have a choice to behave differently."
Francine Ward

The free will / sovereignty thing which has dogged me for years and years!!!  Not so much anymore, though.  I do think that while we might not always have a say in our circumstances, we do have a say in how we react. 

Anyway...just a few snippets....

You Have a Choice....

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.
Thich Nhat Hahn

I think it might have been Greg Boyd (but then again maybe not...and google yields no helpful results)..... but even if I don't remember for sure who said it...I remember the gist of what they said.

Sort of along the lines of "if you keep making that face it will freeze that way" The comparison was to our hearts and conscience. The decisions we make build upon the decisions we have already made..and affect the decisions we have yet to make. In essence, in the case of bad decisions, slowly but surely our heart freezes that way. We become jaded. We become hard. And we find ourselves on a downward spiral of despair. We lose hope.

Now I by no means think this is a permanent thing. I've said before...like Colonel Klink on Hogan's Hero's (am I dating myself or what???) "he has his ways" of bending the most stubborn knee. Jesus said he came to give us life..and to give it more abundantly. He sets before us life and death. He tells us to choose life. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit....tapping into the Christ nature within....we can (most of the time) discern the choice most likely to lead to life.

My daughter Beth continued to "make that face" this past summer. Bad choice upon bad choice leading to even worse choices. It was one hell of a summer. I kept telling her ...when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!! Sometimes I would just look at her and say, "Stop digging, Beth!!!" Yet, she continued to dig that hole deeper and deeper...pulling the rest of us down there with her.

Somewhere along the way, she made a few good choices. They started to accumulate and now (fingers crossed and sending up a prayer) she seems to be making more good choices than bad choices. She seems to be headed in the direction of life. Thank goodness, she finally stopped digging!!!

Throughout each day, God gives us hundreds of opportunities to choose life....or to choose death. Rarely are these choices life or death situations but when we continue to choose life (in even the seemingly unimportant matters) it sets a foundation for the next choice that leads to life. Unfortunately it also works the same when we choose the other direction.

......I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life

The Unanswerable Questions.....

Not that long ago, there were two theological paradoxes that bugged the hell out of me...taunted me, frustrated me, confused me, occupied my thoughts throughout the day.  I simply HAD to find the answers.  I simply HAD to know the truth!!! A few years later, here I am...embarking on paths I never even knew existed. Loving God in a way I never dreamed I could back when I was so mad at him.

Did I find the answers?  Ah...no. I formed a few opinions and beliefs...subject to change.

Did I get some peace about the questions?  Thankfully, yes. 

I think I've mentioned before that John Gavazonni refers to these mysteries as "contrarianisms."  My biggest, most haunting issues?  The most confusing paradoxes? 

The existence of evil and the existence of a good God. Exactly how does that work? There is even a name for that seeming inconsistency. Theodicy - the branch of theology that defends God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil. 

And there was the free will and divine sovereignty question. Open theism, predestination, free moral agency..."proof" of both can be found in scripture!!   

Those were the biggies....but they were by no means the only points of frustration.  How about reconciling the God of the OT with the picture of the invisible God we see in Jesus?  How about the fairness of blinding eyes and hardening hearts (which sort of falls in under the heading of divine sovereignty)  I was so agitated for so long.  I'm not agitated anymore...and in fact, I delight in some of the questions that used to infuriate me.  I came upon the following quote the other day:

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

There is a writing on the Rebel God site called Human Suffering and the Silence of God.  It does not have all the answers to the theodicy question but it is well worth reading and might even help promote some peace about these unanswerable questions.  In the article, there is a quote that sort of goes with the above quote...and I will end this post with it...for your consideration and musing....

The real question is, what does God want to tell us by making us ask?

Revelations from Eby...

Recently, I picked up one of Keith's hard copy studies from Preston Eby. It is number 82 in The Candlestick to the Throne series; a study on Revelation that has been going on for several years.  I was somewhat taken aback when I read the following:

Sin, sorrow, and death are God’s great cosmic object lesson! God could have made all of us like robots, programmed to be holy and to act righteously at all times and under all circumstances. But should He have done so, the one thing we all would lack is character. We would be holy, but without the knowledge of why we are holy, or the understanding of the consequences of not being holy. We would not be holy because we desired holiness, or because, with knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, we chose to be holy. God didn’t want robots! He wanted sons and daughters!

God, in His omniscient wisdom and knowledge, understood fully the difference between good, evil, holiness, and life. He planned for us also to understand! Not by being told, counseled, or trained like animals, but by experience. Oh yes, experience is the best teacher! Our heavenly Father purposed to take us a route through which we would learn experientially the true nature of all things, that through the interchange of good and evil, and the deep dealings of the Holy Spirit, every man and every creature ultimately would be brought to the place where they would knowingly, willingly, and eternally choose and cling to the way of life, light, and love! Aren’t you glad!

God deliberately gave to man an area of autonomy — self government — POWER.

I can see some merit in this plan.  There was a time I couldn't. Worded this way, I can even sort of agree that it might be a good idea.... although I still really don't like the suffering parts.  It provides an explanation for the age old theodicy question...the question Beth thinks she's found the answer to when she dons her "YOUR GOD IS DEAD" T-shirt.  Why is there suffering in the world?  The answer? So we learn experientially to cling to the way of life, light and love....,

In his book "Is God To Blame?" Gregory Boyd expresses a similar thought:

God’s plan has always been that we would align our will with his will. But because his plan is a plan of love, this alignment could not be preprogrammed or coerced. The possibility of rejecting it had to exist. If love is the end, freedom must be the means to that end.

God created the world out of love and for the purpose of love. But as all emotionally healthy people intuitively know, love must be chosen. And choice means that a person can say no. Unless people can choose not to love, they can’t genuinely choose to love. The possibility of the one is built into the possibility of the other. Love simply cannot be coerced or programmed into people.

Gregory Boyd is not a universalist. Like C.S. Lewis he believes that "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way." As a universalist, I believe that God will never say...have it your way. The hound of heaven will relentlessly dog every single soul ever born. He will hunt them down, overwhelm them with his love and goodness until they willingly and joyfully bow their knee to Christ.  Some may take longer than others but he has time on his side...

Regardless of Boyd's stand on UR, aren't these guys both saying that there is an area, a dimension, a sphere, a realm of autonomy, self government...freedom?

In "Man Is a Free Moral Agent" Eby says the following:

Where do these man-made preachers get the notion that man is a free moral agent? Indeed, he may be free in some minor things that concern his personal conduct, but concerning God's eternal purpose for him He is not free to do his own will.....

Does that mean we are totally free?  Another one of those age old paradoxes that has never been fully sorted out and agreed upon....free will/determinism.  Our choices are not unlimited. Of course God imposes his will on us sometimes.  Often...even most of the time....virtually all the time.   We even pray that he forces his will on others...and oftentimes he does.  Oftentimes there may only be ONE choice based on the overwhelming influences and our character and nature and those things he blinds us to...but sometimes, sometimes we must have a choice, a real choice, not a psuedo choice to demonstrate to ourselves (and if you hold to the open view to demonstrate to him) what we've learned.  Otherwise, we ARE simply robots and our "training for reigning" is akin to "animal training." And if we choose the opposite of life, light and love?  Well, we have to repeat the lesson again and again until we get it right...and then we get to move on to the next one. 

... For the mystery of godliness belongs to those who are willing, not to those who are overpowered. --Gregory of Nazianzus

He Stoops Down....

Another excerpt from the Shack has got me thinking. I know The Shack is a work of fiction, but there is some pretty deep theology going on there in the guise of a story. I am thinking about the conversation at dinner the first night Mack is there at the shack. Jesus, Sarayu and Papa are asking Mack all about his children, his wife, his friends....
Suddenly Mack blurts out what appears to him as "obvious"...."you know everything I am telling you don't you?"
Sarayu explains:

“We have limited ourselves out of respect for you. We are not bringing to mind, as it were, our knowledge of your children. As we are listening to you, it is as if this is the first time we have known about them, and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes.”

Papa also talks about when "they spoke themselves into human existence as the Son of God they became fully human and embraced all the limitations that entailed"
This reminds me of a verse in Psalms....18:35. The NCV renders it:

You stoop down to make me great.

And God did indeed stoop when he chose to join us here in this earthly realm...Immanuel....God With Us.

Strange Bedfellows...

WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT! That is a quote from Ray Prinzing. It used to rankle me to no end. Ray was a believer in...and teacher of....total sovereignty, predetermination, predestination...what will be will be. Period, that's it, get used to it and stop whining about it. It's all for a good reason....

God is putting every individual through a process that will merge us into one with Himself. We will become joined to the Lord as one spirit.

Roger Tutt's site, Hope 4 You, has gleanings from about a hundred or so taped messages of Prinzing's (which are no longer available). Roger credits Ray's ministry with not only saving his sanity, but also saving his life.

I've always had a big problem with the total sovereignty view. Every thing in your life from major to trivial has been planned by God before the foundation of the world. In fact, for a few years it tormented me. John Gavazzoni coined a word that fit my struggle. Contrarianism. Simply put, a contrarianism is something that can be argued from two equally valid viewpoints. Thus the tension..thus the torment. I can read Preston Eby's teachings and they make sense...(although they often tick me off, but not as much as they used to) I can also read Gregory Boyd of open theism fame and they make sense too (and I actually like them better)

Once, at a conference, when I heard him preach, John G also said that oftentimes God will at least give us peace from a contrarianism that haunts us, even without providing the answers. I guess that is the phase I am in right now. It has ceased to piss me off.

And actually...I am finding this belief from other very different teachers. Not too long ago, I was watching a short You Tube video of Eckhart and he pretty much parroted (in different terminology) his belief in a pre-ordained plan. He said when evil and suffering occur, our minds cannot understand it. That is because we don't see the whole picture. Then he went on and actually likened it to plucking a teeny section, not much more than a few pigments, from a large painting. It would be incomprehensible in terms of "the big picture." What's this?? We could look it over, turn it over, consider it from every angle and it still would not make sense. That is how he sees evil and suffering. They don't make sense to our egoic minds but they are part of the big picture.

And Byron Katie has coined the phrase, "Loving What Is." In an excerpt from the book of the same name (available online) she says the following:

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat will look up at you and say, “Meow.” Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless.

The Work reveals that what you think shouldn't have happened should have happened. It should have happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn't mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don't know how to stop.

Perhaps her view would be better described as "totally accepting what is."

I am hearing this particular slant from a lot of different sources. Perhaps in my next post I will take a look at the other side of the contrarianism.

God Blessed the Broken Road.....

 

The Portuguese proverb declares....

"Deus escreve certo por linhas tortas.

In English? 

God writes straight with crooked lines.

And he leads us down many a broken road.  

 

 

The Long and Winding Road....

Before we can change anything in our life, we have to recognize that this is the way it is meant to be right now. For me, acceptance has become what I call the long sigh of the soul. It’s the closed eyes in prayer, perhaps even the quiet tears. It’s “all right,” as in “All right, You lead, I’ll follow.” And it’s “all right” as in “Everything is going to turn out all right.” This is simply part of the journey…— Sarah Ban Breathnach

This "journey" I've been on with Beth for the past few years has indeed seemed like a long, winding road.  Several times along the journey, I was sure the rockiest part was behind us...that we had reached the peak and the journey would not continue to be all uphill from there.  Last year at this time, Beth went to Impact with her sister and the youth group.  It was under duress but she went.  And lo and behold, she had an encounter with the Lord.  I think it was a legitimate encounter.

The theme of last year's Impact was "Let It Go"....as in "let go of the pain."  I think I expected an instantaneous healing.  I think she did too.  It didn't happen.  She slipped back into the same old patterns.....with a few rebounds and bright spots along the way.   Then, at the end of last school year, things went exponentially down the crapper.  So, we continue on this journey. 

In a conversation I had with Keith the other day, he mentioned an analogy....the sandpaper that sands the rough edges off the wood, is also changed during the process.  I was on my way out the door to work so we didn't delve into it any deeper than that.    I'm not sure if, in this situation, I am the block of wood or if I am the sandpaper.  Perhaps if he is reading this entry (he occasionally reads here on my blog) he might provide a more thorough explanation of that view in the comments sections??

I am being changed, for sure.....but I don't like it.  Byron Katie, known for "The Work" talks about "loving what is."  Yeah right.  Eckhart Tolle teaches that, when faced with a situation that is intolerable, we have 3 sane options.  We must either totally accept the situation, change it or leave it.  I am teetering somewhere between acceptance and change.  I haven't given up, although I have come to believe that Beth will not necessarily be changed in this lifetime, on this side of the veil.  Leaving is not really an option.  I guess Paul echoes these sentiments (or these sentiments echo Paul....since he was obviously a teacher before Katie or Eckhart)

1 Thes. 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 

Hmmmm....pretty sure I'm not there yet.  The Beatles song The Long and Winding Road came to mind when I happened upon the quote at the beginning of this post.  Even though I've never particularly liked the song, I find many spiritual meanings hidden in the words.

And it does, indeed, seem like a very long, very winding road.... 

The Long and Winding Road

 

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to your door

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Any way you'll never know
The many ways I've tried
But still they lead me back

To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

In Psalm 95 (vs 7) David declares:

Today, if you will hear His voice: "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As [in] the day of trial in the wilderness,

It is repeated in Hebrews 4:7

He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."

Implied in these verses (to my way of thinking) is the warning that if you harden your hearts a smidgen today, by not listening to his voice, then tomorrow, you will be more inclined to ignore that still small voice yet again….until your heart is so calloused, it becomes almost inevitable that you will choose to be disobedient, rebellious and stray yet farther from the ways of God.

CS Lewis , in his book Mere Christianity puts it this way:

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't, I'll do the other thing." I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.

The more we ignore him, the more estranged we become. Now...being a universalist, I know that God can...and will....perform the spiritual equivalent of hitting us over the head with a 2 x4 hard enough to get our attention and stop the momentum of the downward spiral. I am living this right now with one of my children. Right now it is one step forward and two steps back....but I have hope that he is still speaking to her heart and still calling her to be his daughter...the daughter she is destined to be sooner or later. I am encouraged by the way the Message translates the verse in Hebrews:

God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David's psalm, centuries later than the original invitation: Today, please listen, don't turn a deaf ear . . .

Can't you hear him calling, Beth?

You'll Never Hear Abba Speak.....

This is another edited post, originally birthed on a thread at The Beautiful Heresy. It is in response to a newcomer and their questions about UR and the discrepancies and inconsistencies we find in the Bible. Go to any skeptics/atheist site and you will find lists of them. Trying to reconcile them literally will lead to twisting scriptures or ignoring scriptures or explaining them away because everything really cannot be made to fit. This is such an important issue in how we see God. If we get him wrong in the OT then nothing really fits after that. My prayer is that everyone seeks his leading with an open mind and open spirit....

A long time ago on the Tentmaker forum someone posted (about scripture) that you can read the Bible in the King James, the NIV, the Concordant….but unless you read it in the spirit, you’ll never hear Abba speak. I always remembered that. It is alarming and scary to read about the tamperings, the missing chapters, the JPED theory of the OT etc. etc. etc. You can go to any atheist site and find hundreds of discrepancies pointed out as proof that the Bible is worthless. I so disagree, but truly, Jesus did not promise that he would send us a book, leather bound with 66 chapters to lead us into all truth. He promised us the Holy Spirit…the comforter…..and through his guidance and leading he will (eventually) lead us all into all truth. I also heard (or read…can’t remember) someone say that Jesus is the Living Word of God. The Bible is the written word of God. Since we know that Jesus was fully man and fully God (so that there were aspects of humanity in his Living Word) so also we should expect to find aspects of humanity in the written word.

I don’t for one moment believe that all the atrocities in the OT were ordered by God. I believe he was ultimately responsible, because, truly, the buck stops with God but he didn’t whisper in Joshua’s ear….”hey….see Jericho over there…..this is what I want you to do”. There are several theories about the who and the why in the OT….but it is too broad of a topic to go into in this post. (There are several articles on this blog about that very topic. Most of them are under the tags of OT/Sacrifice/Girard)

I find those who insist that scripture is inerrant, still discount, dismiss or explain away verses that do not fit their theology. They might not admit they do…but it seems apparent to me. I can tell you my method. I filter everything through Jesus, the image of the invisible God, if you’ve seen the father, you’ve seen me. We have four gospels that tell virtually the same story….with minor variations. A pretty good picture of how Jesus thinks, reacts and interacts. I think we can clearly see, in the words of the Gospels, what his character and nature is like...and NOT like. (which is the exact representation of God’s character and nature)

His behavior does not fluctuate wildly…from forgiving and loving to wrath filled ragings. He seems to declare that people have some responsibility in all of this and calls for their repentance. He seems pretty up front and honest, in spite of the fact that he often speaks in parables. He told his disciples that there were many things he longed to tell them but they were not ready (could not bear them) so that seems a good reason he disguised much for the masses. Since Jesus' character never seemed to falter or change….and since he is God….and since God never changes, the only option that makes sense to me is that the stuff in the OT that does not fit with what I see of Jesus…just is not God.

Why the discrepancies? I’m not sure. I’m inclined to think that if scripture could be totally reconciled with itself we would be more inclined to worship the book. I think some people worship the book now. And I think he wants us to come to him. He wants a relationship with us….not just a Bible Study session. On Tentmaker someone said recently that we sometimes forget that the “author” of the book is right here with us….yet we ignore his presence sometimes and “read the book.” She wondered if he was with us in the flesh sitting there beside us…if we would ignore him and read the book. I thought that was a gem. How true it is.

That reminds me of the words of Jesus himself when he said in John 5:39-40.

"You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you'll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren't willing to receive from me the life you say you want.