pensees
Some reflections arising from the "Fruits of the Spirit" talks at Sanctuary and discussion at Cornerstone this summer:
-Any action following God's plans will succeed, not in the absence of difficulties, but despite them.
-The reason we are impatient is because we were created to crave wholeness. We hunger for completeness, but because we live our lives sequentially in time, they are necessarily incomplete. We rush through as if we are reading a mystery novel for the first time and want to find out who done it, but in our haste we skip over clues that point towards the answer. This is why I divide all movies into two categories: the ones that get better every time you watch them, and the ones that don't. I believe that every human life makes sense only in it's entirety, and when viewed as a whole - from beginning to end, as God sees it - is more beautiful than we can know from our perspective.
-The fruits of the spirit are products of grace. Given the definition of fruits of the spirit as the manifestation of God's character in us as we draw closer to Him, it makes sense that we could only gain God's character through the sole means we have of understanding Him. His grace is the only thing that bridges the gap between Him and us, so it is only across that bridge that we can recieve love, joy, peace, and all the rest. So to paraphrase Dan Gannon, "To learn patience, study grace."
-I wonder if gentleness is something that I haven't thought much about because I have seen so much of it in my family and grew up with it to such an extent that I understand it intrinsically? My understanding of patience has come through long years of self-analysis and observation of the world beginning in middle school, and so it is a very intellectual understanding - and I think much more clear because of it. But when I think about gentleness, I think of a lot of my relatives - not of a definition or underlying causes or anything like that - just what my grandmother is like. I could probably sit down and come up with all the intellectual properties if I took the time, but I have a functional understanding of it without ever having done that.
-We treat sin as something that keeps us from receiving God's blessings, but it is more properly something that keeps those around us from being blessed through us. God sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, but only the righteous man is a blessing in turn to those near him.
-Are we born into sin, or are we born capable of sinning? I say the latter. Capability of sin results from the knowledge of good and evil - Genesis 3. And this knowledge is not instinctivec, but is received just like knowledge of death or the alphabet - it is learned as a child grows up. The ultimate fault is Adam and Eve's for introducing this knowledge into the world - information is real in its own right, and its transmission follows its own laws - but each individual, at some point in his life, comes to a knowledge that he can do what is right or not, and chooses. So far, our cumulative track record of all those choices is not stellar.
-We all have paradigms for understanding God. Some are more accurate than others. But God as a trinity has three aspects which are each unique, so you could really have three paradigms for God and maybe a better understanding of His character. I tried to nail down the simplest and most theologically sound representations I could for each aspect of the trinity, and the results surprised me a little. God the Father is, obviously, a father. This is pretty straightforward. The Holy Spirit however, I decided is most like a coach. That is, someone with knowledge of the game who can watch everything going on around you and help you to follow the rules, improve your performance, make sure the other team plays fair, and cheer you on. What surprised me about this, was that given these two roles, the Holy Spirit is really much more demanding than the Father. Even a dad as demanding as mine can sometimes be is still much more loving and understanding than, say, my wrestling coach from high school. I went through several ideas for Christ, and I was surprised to end up on the idea of a Paladin. I had a hard time with this because there are several concepts tied up here together. First there is the idea of the hero. This is pretty clear - just watch any John Wayne movie. He fights and (sometimes) dies in defence of the weak and in support of righteousness - and perhaps more importantly, the story always revolves around him. Second is the idea of purity and dedication to a transcendant cause or authority. This bit is a little more obscure, but the closest well known parallel is one of King Arthur's knights. Finally is the idea of a lord - in the medieval sense of the word - an anointed ruler by birthright. I thought it was interesting that the paradigm for Christ was the most complicated and specific, but then I realized it made sense because He's a man - with all the complexity and specificity that implies.
I probably had some other interesting thoughts at times, but these are the ones that I made notes on. And so, having the short term memory of a large carrot, these are the ones that I can write about now. If I'm on the ball, there will probably be a lot more material coming soon - likely limited only by my energy level and the availability of internet cafes in whatever part of Italy I happen to be in at the time. But I'll try to take plenty of notes so that even if I'm exhausted and there is no net access, I can tell you all about it when I get back. Say a prayer for me to have a safe trip, my plane leaves in forty-six and a half hours.
-Any action following God's plans will succeed, not in the absence of difficulties, but despite them.
-The reason we are impatient is because we were created to crave wholeness. We hunger for completeness, but because we live our lives sequentially in time, they are necessarily incomplete. We rush through as if we are reading a mystery novel for the first time and want to find out who done it, but in our haste we skip over clues that point towards the answer. This is why I divide all movies into two categories: the ones that get better every time you watch them, and the ones that don't. I believe that every human life makes sense only in it's entirety, and when viewed as a whole - from beginning to end, as God sees it - is more beautiful than we can know from our perspective.
-The fruits of the spirit are products of grace. Given the definition of fruits of the spirit as the manifestation of God's character in us as we draw closer to Him, it makes sense that we could only gain God's character through the sole means we have of understanding Him. His grace is the only thing that bridges the gap between Him and us, so it is only across that bridge that we can recieve love, joy, peace, and all the rest. So to paraphrase Dan Gannon, "To learn patience, study grace."
-I wonder if gentleness is something that I haven't thought much about because I have seen so much of it in my family and grew up with it to such an extent that I understand it intrinsically? My understanding of patience has come through long years of self-analysis and observation of the world beginning in middle school, and so it is a very intellectual understanding - and I think much more clear because of it. But when I think about gentleness, I think of a lot of my relatives - not of a definition or underlying causes or anything like that - just what my grandmother is like. I could probably sit down and come up with all the intellectual properties if I took the time, but I have a functional understanding of it without ever having done that.
-We treat sin as something that keeps us from receiving God's blessings, but it is more properly something that keeps those around us from being blessed through us. God sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, but only the righteous man is a blessing in turn to those near him.
-Are we born into sin, or are we born capable of sinning? I say the latter. Capability of sin results from the knowledge of good and evil - Genesis 3. And this knowledge is not instinctivec, but is received just like knowledge of death or the alphabet - it is learned as a child grows up. The ultimate fault is Adam and Eve's for introducing this knowledge into the world - information is real in its own right, and its transmission follows its own laws - but each individual, at some point in his life, comes to a knowledge that he can do what is right or not, and chooses. So far, our cumulative track record of all those choices is not stellar.
-We all have paradigms for understanding God. Some are more accurate than others. But God as a trinity has three aspects which are each unique, so you could really have three paradigms for God and maybe a better understanding of His character. I tried to nail down the simplest and most theologically sound representations I could for each aspect of the trinity, and the results surprised me a little. God the Father is, obviously, a father. This is pretty straightforward. The Holy Spirit however, I decided is most like a coach. That is, someone with knowledge of the game who can watch everything going on around you and help you to follow the rules, improve your performance, make sure the other team plays fair, and cheer you on. What surprised me about this, was that given these two roles, the Holy Spirit is really much more demanding than the Father. Even a dad as demanding as mine can sometimes be is still much more loving and understanding than, say, my wrestling coach from high school. I went through several ideas for Christ, and I was surprised to end up on the idea of a Paladin. I had a hard time with this because there are several concepts tied up here together. First there is the idea of the hero. This is pretty clear - just watch any John Wayne movie. He fights and (sometimes) dies in defence of the weak and in support of righteousness - and perhaps more importantly, the story always revolves around him. Second is the idea of purity and dedication to a transcendant cause or authority. This bit is a little more obscure, but the closest well known parallel is one of King Arthur's knights. Finally is the idea of a lord - in the medieval sense of the word - an anointed ruler by birthright. I thought it was interesting that the paradigm for Christ was the most complicated and specific, but then I realized it made sense because He's a man - with all the complexity and specificity that implies.
I probably had some other interesting thoughts at times, but these are the ones that I made notes on. And so, having the short term memory of a large carrot, these are the ones that I can write about now. If I'm on the ball, there will probably be a lot more material coming soon - likely limited only by my energy level and the availability of internet cafes in whatever part of Italy I happen to be in at the time. But I'll try to take plenty of notes so that even if I'm exhausted and there is no net access, I can tell you all about it when I get back. Say a prayer for me to have a safe trip, my plane leaves in forty-six and a half hours.