He Turned Out All the Lights

I’ve been listening to the audio version of a book written by Barbara Brown Taylor, “Learning to Walk in the Dark.”

I’ve listened to it on several recent road trips. On the 4th of July when I went to help Emily move her stuff out of the house where she was temporarily staying. And again, recently, when I went to visit my mom. I also checked out the ebook version so I could find and reread the snippets that caught my attention.

I am mesmerized by this woman’s voice. She narrates the book herself and does an amazing job. She was an episcopal priest for years but eventually left the church. (She wrote a book to tell about her experience….Leaving Church)

Perhaps she honed her speaking skills behind the pulpit....? I am also intrigued with her writing style. Sometimes she conveys her thoughts in very long run on sentences, cobbled together with commas, colons, semicolons and dashes. She gets her point across in an almost long winded, lyrical way.

My last post talked about a late night (very dark) journey when Shasta met Aslan. It broaches the subject of learning to walk in the dark. While Taylor acknowledges that, at first glance, darkness in scripture seems overwhelmingly negative there are also verses that say something different. There are stories that tell of great things that are said/done/accomplished at night or in the dark.

In the Message, in Job Chapter 19 Job laments:

God threw a barricade across my path—I’m stymied; he turned out all the lights—I’m stuck in the dark. He destroyed my reputation, robbed me of all self-respect. He tore me apart piece by piece—I’m ruined! Then he yanked out hope by the roots. He’s angry with me—oh, how he’s angry!

Perhaps the treasures hidden in the darkness are not easily seen until we are back in the light once again. We think God is mad at us but it is often in our darkness that we meet God. I met him there during a very tumultuous period of my life that was indeed dark, scary and overwhelming.

I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 

So does God really turn out the lights? That is the age old, oft pondered (and more oft argued about) paradox of determinism versus free will. That has been a major sore spot for me in my relationship with God but it’s true; scripture indicates that He does, sometimes, turn out our lights ..for his purposes....and for our good.

God dwells in deep darkness. God comes to people in dark clouds, dark nights, dark dreams and dark strangers in ways that sometimes scare them half to death but almost always for their good--or at least their renovation. God does some of God’s best work in the dark. From a sermon delivered by Barbara Brown Taylor at the 2014 Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis, Minn

Colorado Shootings, Where Were You God? (Part 2)

When Keith and I were first married (about 10 or so years ago) it was during a time in my spiritual journey when I was searching for my way spiritually.  I was filled with angst over several “big ticket” spiritual paradoxes. 

Hell was not an issue since I never really believed in hell. True, until I happened upon the Tentmaker sight, I couldn’t actually support universalism via scripture but that was mainly because I was a new Christian and didn’t know that much about scripture.  Through Tentmaker and other similar sites, I eventually learned that virtually all scriptures that preach a hot, eternal hell can be explained. 

And I had never been used or abused by religion…what I’ve heard Lynn Hiles refer to as “hoodwinked or bamboozled” by religion.

One of my biggies was free will versus sovereignty. But the biggest biggie….which could actually be deemed a sub category of determinism….the one that dogged me for years….was the POE.  The problem of evil.

Keith and I talked endlessly about it.  He is very settled in his beliefs and has no problem seeing God as the cause of all the things in the world that we, in our short sighted humanness, deem evil. If not Him, then who?  The “devil”?  Evil men?  The idea that any one or any thing could wreak havoc outside of the plan and purpose of God was far more troubling.  

This view was….totally unacceptable to me.  Yet, a good case can be made to support it.  Believe me, Keith came up with many, many arguments.  None sufficed.  None appeased.  None let God off the hook. 

Yeah…I know….who are you, oh man, to talk back to God.  Does the clay have the right to get pissy with the potter?  But I did….and I seethed with unanswered questions and the utter outrage at the unfairness of the way He set things up. 

And during our discussions, Keith would often point out how those who suffered the greatest evils, like the Christian martyrs, were given a depth of spiritual bliss that the rest of us did not experience.  One name in particular came up often.

His books line the bottom shelf in the book case in the living room.  Richard Wumbrand.  At the time, I didn’t want to hear about spiritual bliss in exchange for horrific suffering.  Not fair.  Not acceptable. 

And now…ten years later, I still don’t have any definitive answers. I do have some intuitive beliefs that have given me peace.  I am not haunted anymore by the questions.

Oddly, a quote by Wumbrand….whose mistreatment “at the hands of the Communists” but allegedly purposed by God casts the faintest light of understanding on the POE.

"God sees things differently than we see them, just as we see differently than an ant. From the human point of view, to be tied to a cross and smeared with excrement is a horrible thing. Nonetheless, the Bible calls the sufferings of martyrs light afflictions. To be in prison for fourteen years is a long period to us. The Bible calls it 'but for a moment,' and tells us that these things are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2Co 4:17). This gives us the right to suppose that the fierce crimes of the Communists, which are inexcusable to us, are lighter in the eyes of God than they are in our eyes. Their tyranny, which has lasted almost an entire century, may be before God, for whom a thousand years are like one day, only a moment of erring astray. They still have the possibility of being saved." Tortured For Christ

And another comment articulated by a young mother on a Christian message board cast another dim beam of light.  She talked about her kids…and skinned knees.  How, when they skinned their knees, it was like THE WORST THING THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE EVER….FOR ALL TIME.  That was the skinned knee seen through the eyes of the child.  A skinned knee seen through the eyes of a parent….well, she knew that this too would pass and that in the grand scheme of things, a skinned knee was really not that big of a deal. Even if the injury was the result of being pushed or tripped. So she hugged them, wiped their tears away and told them it would be okay.  

And doesn’t God do the same thing for us.  He wipes our tears. He tells us it will be okay.  Through the Apostle Paul, God tells us that these light momentary afflictions (skinned knees) are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…..in us. 

In this earthly realm those promises still ring kind of hollow.  For the families of the victims of the Colorado shooting, the verse in Romans might be very little comfort. 

Perhaps we are like little kids with skinned knees. What seems utterly unredeemable in our eyes to God is not really a problem.  The Bible says He will work all things together for good. 

How he can bring good out of tragedies like the death of a child, the Holocaust, war, famine and pestilence, disease, I haven’t a clue. 

Comments welcome….

 

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)

Points of Agreement

Mark Driscoll posts abound on the internet these days. I don’t usually “beat the bandwagon drum”….and instead often opt for topics that might have been the latest news….a few years ago.  But Driscoll has piqued my curiosity. 

Last night I listened to a dozen or so of his You Tube videos..listening to  him talk about the Twilight series, The Shack, Thomas Kincaide paintings, TULIP, how to know if you are one of the elect, yoga…the movie Avatar. You won’t find his videos on God Tube.  He is a bit too….ahhhhh…..irreverent for God Tube.  

in spite of myself, I found myself actually liking him.  Believe me I was all set not to based on the quotes I read beforehand... some were included in my last post. 

The guy has a gift for public speaking…for preaching.  He is hilarious.  If his career as a preacher ever falls through, he is shoe in for stand up comedy.  I was entertained by most of what he had to say.  And challenged.

Challenged because I disagree with him on  many points.  Eternal conscious torment, penal substitution, God hating sinners, his opinion of The Shack as bordering on demonic immediately come to mind. 

Although I would rather look for points of AGREEMENT, the points of DISagreement are, oftentimes, what clarifies what I do believe and why I believe it. 

Did I find any points of agreement?  Well in a roundabout way I did….

In a sermon about why God is just and hell is right….

We are all hypocrites.  We all want to receive mercy and give justice.

Yep. 

And sometimes I hear them declaring…buried within their sermon..(what I believe to be) truth….in spite of themselves….

In another sermon, while explaining the gist of the 5 Points of Calvinism versus the 5 Points of Arminianism…concerning Irresistible Grace, Driscoll says this:

if God wants to love you, God wants to save you, God wants you to meet Jesus....you can fight and argue but eventually he's going to change your heart and you will meet Jesus.

Is that not the heart of Christian Universalism? If God wants you to meet Jesus…you will meet Jesus. Eventually, he will melt the hardest heart, bend the stubbornest knee….and every tongue will (joyfully) proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in….

After a year long (and then some) hiatus, I’ve been hitting the gym just about every morning. I’ve been getting up early (as usual) but instead of lollygagging around on the internet sipping a strong “not for wimps” cup of coffee for an hour or more, I’ve been heading out to my cold, frost covered car and driving to Planet Fitness.  Once there, I read the blogs I’ve saved in google reader and other miscellaneous stuff I’ve earmarked to read…on my Kindle 3 while pedaling or hoofing it on the treadmill.  Killing two birds with one stone.

I suspect some insights and thoughts are a result of the endorphins that are circulating through my system.  I’ve read there is a difference in the way the brain processes thoughts when you are exercising.

I’ve gotten so many ideas for blog posts, I’m pondering a new  “at the gym” tag. We’ll see.  No telling how long this early morning exercise resolution will hang on. 

The idea for this post came, not from google reader or anything saved on my kindle, but from the Planet Fitness music blaring from their speakers.  Usually an annoyance that fades to the background, these lyrics captured my attention. 

“I’m still alive but I’m barely breathing”

“Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in”

The song is called Breakeven from The Script.  It is an ode to lost love.  An “I’m dying here while you are out there living it up” song.  The song emphasizes that he is “falling to pieces.”

It made me think about how often we turn to the god that we “don’t believe in” when our world is crashing down around us and we are “falling to pieces.” 

Wasn’t is C.S. Lewis, no stranger to incredible pain when he lost his beloved wife, Joy, who penned the words

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. --C.S. Lewis

And George MacDonald said this

As cold as everything looks in winter, the sun has not forsaken us. He has only drawn away for a little, for good reasons, one of which is that we may learn that we cannot do without him. --George MacDonald

And there is the oft repeated “no atheists in foxholes” quote.

I won’t get into the perpetual, seemingly unanswerable question of whether God merely allows or directly causes our suffering.  I suspect it’s a bit of both and not strictly an either or thing.  But he uses our distress as his megaphone to break thought our deafness.  Many times when we have nowhere else to go, we turnj to the god that we don’t believe in….and find, to our utter amazement, that he is indeed there. 

My “testimony” is a variation of that very theme. 

I’m including a video of the song in this post.  Videos come and go on You Tube, so it will inevitably become a dead link.  I think it’s really interesting what they do with the photographs in the video. 

 

Who is that looking out of your eyes?

A while back I happened upon an article entitled “Disbelieving Free Will Makes Brain Less Free”  Free will versus determinism aka total sovereignty aka predestination aka fatalism has always been a burr under my saddle.  For years I struggled with it…analyzed it….pondered it….argued with Keith about it….discussed it on message boards and e-lists….and fought with God about it.  Then…suddenly, the obsession went away. 

I simply decided I had to pick a lane…and so I did. 

The article discusses an experiment that tracks reaction time between those who read a passage that discounted free will and those who read a passage that supported free will. But this post isn’t really about this specific article….or the experiment…but rather about a rhetorical question that came up in the comments. 

It was posted by someone called revlynn and he said:

One of the questions I pose to my clients & students on a regular basis is, "Who/what is it that is looking through your eyes?" Science can explain "seeing", but has yet to explain "looking". The mind looks, the brain sees, the mind interprets.

That question has all sorts of implications and nuances when we consider the dual nature of human beings….the carnal and the spiritual.  On her FB page, my friend Dena used the phrase, “I real-eyes I am spirit”

So….just who is it that is looking out of YOUR eyes? Are you seeing with your “real eyes?”  Is it adam or is it Christ?

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?

At the Butler Hospital – A New Word…

The next four or five posts…that I’m going to post over the next few days….were written last week…and the week before. During the two weeks I spent with my mom…mostly at the Butler Hospital. She had open heart surgery…a worn out, leaky valve was replaced. I was there  pre/ during / and post op….at times so very homesick…weary, frightened, frustrated. Pick an emotion and I’m pretty sure I experienced it during the two weeks. It was a roller coaster kind of thing for me…and obviously for her.  She is doing very well. I’m glad I was there for her.  Post follows:

~~~~~

The last few days have sucked big time.  I've spent them hanging out in the hospital with my mom....while the medical staff dinks around trying to figure out if, whether and when she needs valve replacement surgery.  Seriously I have been away from home and work for a week and have really not accomplished anything other than sitting with her (which I realize is a worthwhile endeavor) but I am frustrated because I know that AFTER the surgery is when she will need me most.

As is often the case, the best laid plans have been shot to hell by actual events.  This was supposed to be pacemaker surgery.  They thought that a pacemaker/defib would fix what ails her.  Come to find out that it is valve surgery that will fix the problem....not a defib. But we have been waiting to find out when the surgery will be.  If she has to stay in the hospital till then...if she is able to go home in between etc. etc.   I've been staying in touch with work...but as soon as I update them, damn if things do not totally change.  Right now I am waiting for physical therapy to come and evaluate her for discharge.  We are hoping they decide she should stay in the hospital until the surgery next week. Either way, I am probably going home...working tomorrow...perhaps a bit on the weekend ....and waiting to hear when I need to come back for the surgery. 

And the dinking around continues....

But anyway...last night, on my 40 minute drive back to her apartment (where I’ve been staying during my “vacation”) ...I was listening to a Christian station on the radio.  A status quo Christian channel.  But there was an interesting sermon...that introduced me to a new word.  Reciprocity.  Cool word.  I may have seen it in print but had never heard it pronounced.

The preacher talked about how when we sow, we expect to reap immediately.  He compared it to farming.  You don't plant the seed and expect results the next day.  Sometimes in life that's exactly what we expect.  Sometimes we reap what we've sown fairly quickly.  Others times...not so much. 

Law of reciprocity...sowing and reaping....karma....cause and effect. An interesting concept. And indeed...sometimes it does seem to take a long time for all the chips to fall where they may....and then there is always grace that enters into the equation.

Following are a few quotes I found on sowing and reaping….  

 

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.  ~Elbert Hubbard

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.  ~Edwin Hubbel Chapin

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. George Bernard Shaw

"The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy."
~Florence Shinn~

"Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe,
so no thought or action is without its effects,
present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt."
~Norman Cousins~

Tsze-Kung asked, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not Reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. ~ Confucius

You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you waste your youth, no repentance will send the shadow back upon the dial, or recover the ground lost by idleness,or restore the constitution shattered by dissipation, or give back
the resources wasted upon vice, or bring back the fleeting
opportunities. The wounds can all be healed, for the Good Physician,blessed be His name! has lancets and bandages, and balm and anodynes for the deadliest; but scars remain even when the gash is closed." Alexander Maclaren

"John," said a father to his son, "I wish you would get me the hammer."
"Yes, sir."
"Now a nail and a piece of pine board."
"Here they are, sir."
"Will you drive the nail into the board?"
 It was done.
"Please pull it out again."
"That's easy, sir."
"Now, John," and the father's voice dropped to a lower key, "pull out the nail hole."

Every wrong act leaves a scar. Even if the board be a living tree the scar remains. Dwight Moody – Sowing and Reaping

Too Lofty For Me….

This weekend...in between bouts of January "spring cleaning"....I found three quotes that string together nicely.  And so, in this post...I am stringing them.

I found two of them on annie's facebook feed.  The other came from notes I was looking through....excerpts from a garage sale book  I found a summer or two ago.  Spiritual Notes To Myself by Hugh Prather.  It was a quarter at the garage sale....totally worth

it. And now the quotes...

God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints ~ A W Tozer

Hmmmm...election, predestination, sovereignty….guess these things fit in the Psalm 139 too lofty for me category.  At one point I wanted to know.  Correction.  At one point, I demanded to know.  How His Sovereignty interplays with our will.  The purpose of evil.  Why is there suffering? At lot of stuff just does not seem fair in this physical realm.  In fact, it seems downright unfair.  Even though in life I haven't personally gotten the short end of the stick too many times, I can get pretty offended for those who have.  And I still...ten years later....don't have definitive answers.  Just a handful of theories, musings..... ponderings. Guess  I am not theologian material...but I'm pretty sure I'm not nearing sainthood either. 

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair ~ G K Chesterton

That does seem like a better plan since demanding answers is a bit like beating your head against a wall.

And the quote from Spiritual Notes To Myself?

Here I am moving from point A to point B to point C in a fog.  But God gently replies "Take my hand and I will lead you out of the fog"  Then I get stubborn and say, "you didn't answer my question."

We ask God which apple we should buy, and think divine Love leaves the one with the rotten core for someone else.  We may even think God saves one or two from the crash and leaves all the other to burn to death.  We actually believe that what favors our body is a sign of God's grace.

Do I really think god doesn't know my question? Hugh Prather

Of course he knows our questions. And in due  time....when God deems us ready...he will will whisper the answers…..

A Definite Maybe?

The following quote is from Greg Boyd’s latest blog post …that he thoughtfully delivered directly to my inbox this morning….

…don’t wait for what supposedly “will” happen in the future. Instead, work with God to help create the future by acting on the maybe’s that are in front of you right now.

Boyd is an open theist.  I’ve mentioned that here before on my blog.  He has gotten lots and lots of flack for that view.  In his latest post he talks about words and phrases like “might” and “might not”…”will” and “will not.” While I agree (concede) that there are will and will not circumstances in our lives, things that are going to occur (or not)come “hell or high water,” I also think there are might and might not circumstances. As my friend annie has said (paraphrased) Do I believe in free will.  Yes.  Do I believe in sovereignty?  Yes.  It’s not either/ or.  It’s both /and……

 

 

Designed by Brothers of Weston Priory – Benedictine Monks in Weston, Vermont

Lord You Have Seized Me.....

Another "I'll relentlessly and tirelessly hunt you down until I catch you" (thus saith the Lord) poem/prayer I came across was written by Michel Quoist.  He was a French priest who wrote several books of prayers and other books on living the Christian life (from a sort of priestly, Catholic perspective). One of his writings, Meet Christ and Live, is available online HERE.   I really like this prayer....

LORD YOU HAVE SEIZED ME

Lord, you have seized me, and I could not resist You.

I ran for a long time, but You followed me

I took bypaths, but you knew them

You overtook me

I struggled

You won...

When I stood there trembling like one defeated before his captor

Your look of love fell on me

The die is cast, Lord

I can no longer forget You

In a moment You seized me

In a moment You conquered me

My doubts were swept away

My fears dispelled

For I recognized You without seeing You

I felt You without touching You

I understood You without hearing You

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.....

Controversy #1

So anyway...as I was saying....Greg Boyd was involved in two big controversies (that I know of)...and he didn't flinch even though there was a lot of backlash involved. 

The first was the open theism thing.  From what I can ascertain from reading online, the firestorm began because of a sentence in Boyd's 1994 book, "Letters From a Skeptic"  The following is from an article in Christianity Today - Feb 2001.  It is in the archives...and looks like an archive, with many of the links going to those annoying "page not found" error messages. 

Open theism, the idea that God does not fully know the future because humans have not yet made the choices that will affect it, has been called everything from "an enlightening new paradigm" to "merely an extreme form of Arminianism" to "heresy." Open theism did not originate in--and is not limited to--the BGC (the Southern Baptist Convention, for instance, added an anti-open theism clause to its Faith and Message at its June 2000 meeting). But so far it has created more turmoil in the BGC than in any other Christian body.
The leading proponent of open theism in the BGC, Gregory Boyd, teaches at Bethel and pastors Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, one of the five largest churches in the conference. Last June, he found himself fighting for his theology--and his job--as his denomination debated whether it could be open to openness.

Though Boyd had long espoused openness views, these views invited relatively little debate until five years ago, when BGC pastors started asking about this sentence in Boyd's 1994 book Letters from a Skeptic: "God can't foreknow the good or bad decisions of the people he creates until he creates these people, and they, in turn, create their decisions."

The complaints increased in volume and frequency until, in 1996, Bethel formed an internal committee to evaluate this position and its effect, if any, on Boyd's employment status. The committee found Boyd's views "within the bounds of evangelical Christian orthodoxy and compatible with the theological commitments expected of faculty members at Bethel." Boyd thus retained his teaching post.

But the battle was just beginning. BGC proponents of classical theism, led largely by John Piper, senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, were dismayed by this decision. Groups formed with such names as the Edgren Fellowship (named after Bethel's founder) and Concerned Pastors. Primarily through open letters and print publications, they took their concerns to the conference as a whole, arguing that the denomination's Affirmation of Faith be changed to unquestionably exclude open theism.

As the debate heated up, leaders at Bethel and the BGC discussed ways to maximize the information and minimize the misinformation disseminated to conference members. Out of these meetings, the Foreknowledge Web site was born.

The article goes on to talk about how this Foreknowledge Web site epitomized what we've all witnessed on internet forums...a sort of free for all of argumentative opinions, angry posts, disrespect....and discord.  Another similar situation comes to mind....the UR debates between Gary Amarult and other UR believers and Matt Slick.  It became so heated that Matt Slick banned all discussions of Universalism from the message board on his site....CARM.  He said that universalists were too nasty and meanspirited to debate (the pot calling the kettle black there for sure) and because of that, he banned that as a discussion topic. 

That was the main topic of the Christianity Today article....using the internet for discussions. Pros and cons. It just so happened that this open theism debate was used as THE example.  Probably in part because it involved well known pastors (Boyd and Piper) and large organizations such at the Southern Baptist Convention and the Evangelical Theological Society.

I should add that the Foreknowledge web site is no longer in existence...at least not anywhere I looked.  I would like to check it out simply for the curiosity factor.

So that is a bit about the open theism controversy that caused quite a bit of commotion for all involved.   More tomorrow on another biggie spurred on by Boyd's book, "The Myth of a Christian Nation"

About Greg Boyd....

A few weeks ago I received an email notification about an update on Greg Boyd's blog.  The post was about The American Patriot's Bible...and his comments on and feelings about it.  He posted several times on the topic.  It triggered the thought process that triggered this series. 

I've written about Pastor Boyd here before.  He is top notch guy; a really smart guy with a Ph.D from Princeton Theological Seminary and M.Div. from Yale Divinity School.  He was a professor of theology for 16 years at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN) where he received the Teaching Excellence Award and Campus Leadership Award.  Plus,  he is founder and pastor of a mega church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a dad...a grandfather...an all around interesting guy. 

In an article I came upon just a few minutes ago, he talks about how he felt led, along with 3 other couples, to move to inner city St. Paul...to live and minister there.  Putting his money where his mouth is.  What is it the Bible says about faith without works being dead....
Following is a snippet from the article:

Six years ago, we all began to feel that God was calling us to move out of the suburbs into the city. We now live on the same city street within a couple blocks of each other. Until a decade and a half ago, I dreamed of living far out in the country, atop a mountain or in an isolated cabin in the middle of a deep forest. But now I find myself living in the middle of a densely populated city surrounded by an amazing diversity of people—and I love it.

As a result of our new proximity, the group's level of interdependence has increased even more. We now share everything from cars and shovels to salt, salad dressing and sometimes even bathroom facilities (we all live in older houses where things don't always work). Our new location has also opened up new ministry opportunities. For example, we now partner with a nonprofit social service agency that serves elderly and mentally disabled shut-ins in the inner city. As needs arise, we get together to repair homes, mow lawns, shovel snow, buy groceries, lead Bible studies or just hang out with the shut-ins. You get the picture.

I have been acquainted with his ministry for a while now....beginning several years ago when I dipped my toe into the stream of apostasy known as open theism.  Boyd is the most well know teacher of open theism...with several books and quite a bit of mean spirited cult watcher type fodder going around the internet from those who see it as a big...and I do mean BIG...theological no-no.  But spurred on by his post, I did some "research" about The American Patriots Bible and came across a lot of information that I thought might make an interesting series.  That is, if I can figure out how to clump it so it follows some coherent kind of order.  I'll try...but I'm not promising anything, mind you. 

So in the midst of all this googling and looking through old files I have on my computer, I came across some interesting info about his book, The Myth of a Christian Nation."  It seems it caused quite the stir....quite....but that was the second "stir" he was involved in.  His first "stir" was back in the day when he began to teach open theism. 

More 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....

More Refuge Than Threat....

In my Threat or Refuge post, I fessed up to being royally pissed at God for several years…all the while diligently trying to cram him in the box others told me he fit it. He just would not accommodate me and get in the darn box (nor will he get in anybody’s box, by the way, but that is a whole other post) So what finally set me free from my God grudge? One thing was in trusting him to lead me….and finding a few good friends (hi, annie!!) who were willing to make the journey with me….and step off the beaten path with an open mind…and a heart trusting that God would not give a stone to his children who asked for a fish.

Keith gave me some good advice several times during our series of long “discussions” about God…discussions which mainly focused around the POE (problem of evil) and total sovereignty…things we did not/do not see eye to eye on. These were my main areas of angst. To my way of thinking, Keith’s way of thinking rendered God untrustworthy….a trickster who resorted to manipulation and deceit to get me to do his bidding, all the while proclaiming in scripture to choose….that he does not lie….etc. etc. Keith comes to a different conclusion than I do and can make a good case for the way he sees things…. Anyway…his advice at the time…..

He told me to not base my relationship with God on what I saw him doing to other people but rather to base my trust in God on his relationship with me.

“Has he been trustworthy?”

“I suppose…yes.” (but he still pisses me off)

He told me that I should tell him that...not only that I was mad at him but that, based on his interactions with me, I would trust him until he proved that he could not be trusted. To stop looking around and analyzing what he was doing with others/to others. In other words, MYOB.

Byron Katie teaches pretty much the same thing….

There are only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours, and God's.

But the most important thing I did was to fix my eyes on Jesus….the image of the invisible God…if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father….and he became my filter for scripture and the character of God. Then things started to fall into place and God became more refuge than threat….

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