I have worked at riding my bike, fishing, fixing bikes and fishing rods, reading, mowing the lawn, fixing my lawnmower, getting kids to swimming lessons, and helping London to learn to drive (he got his permit on Friday). Okay, I may have been a bit hasty with the word, "stress-less."
Along with these extracurriculars I am studying the Word, reading, organizing, and writing the devotional. It has taken more form this week in terms of connecting pop themes to most of the words of Jesus that I selected last week. It was a joy to spend significant "think time" in extracting themes from Jesus' words and then discovering how these words might travel on the conduit of culture. I felt at times like the Apostle Paul in Athens!
I have also been pushed by God to continue to understand what it means for Him to be my friend and confidant. I am working on it. How exactly does one relate to a savior who is simultaneously omnipotent judge and intimate love? My tendency is to keep Jesus at arms length like I did doctors as a child. They were simply geniuses to respect, fear and to avoid unless needed. A close relationship was out of the question.
I was nudged in contemplating how I interact with the Lord as I read the novel, The Shack (noted in previous post). The author implies that when we allow all of God nearer, we cannot go on being bleakly broken. We will be healed. That sounds really good to me.
If any of you have the opportunity to read this book and comment on it, I would love to hear from you. Though it was dramatic and inspiring, I do not agree with all of the theology proposed. I'd like to hear you thoughts on it!
A snapshot of the other Smiths:
- Kathy: working at Mom's Diner and two other cleaning jobs in addition to giving piano lessons; making sure I do not do weird things; cleaning up after me; being a great mommy.
- London: driving; making plans for a summer concert in Indianapolis; hanging out with friends; being a computer geek; reading everything ever written by Orson Scott Card.
- Therin: spending time with Brandon Yoder; reading one of the books in the Narnia series; riding his bike; hanging with Brandon; complaining that he is bored; doing the Lego thing.
- Savannah: singing; playing piano; singing some more; riding her bike like a little female Evel Knievel; singing; taking ballet lessons; swimming; singing; making my bed; and sometimes she takes a minute or two to just sing.
- Otto: laying around the house; marking his territory whilst on walks.
That's enough for tonight. God is good. I love you all!
~ Jeff
2 comments:
Hi Jeff. Kendall from Kansas here. I did read "The Shack" too, and loved it. I thought it was an amazing picture of Christ and his desire for a relationship with us. Although I'm not strong in my theology--I have enjoyed thinking through a lot of the implications of things in that book and trying to see if it "fits" what I already know and believe!
Kendall ~
Thanks for your thoughts!
Implications for life are more important than flat theology, in my estimation. The Shack did the same for me.
Though Young's writing helped fill out some important aspects of the enormity of God's love and mercy, I do wonder if the portrayal of God was as full as it could have been (of course not!). It seemed to minimize, for instance, God's ability to get ticked off on occasion.
We are not told in scripture, "God is anger." Instead, we are told, "God is love." That is indeed His essence and His modus operandi. And yet, in love, He gets mad.
I wonder how we hold these two realities together better without totally throwing one or the other away?
A great danger, as I see it, is for us to paint a picture of God that is more reflective of what we want God to be than what He is. Our best source for picture-painting are the scriptures (Jesus Christ is the fullest revelation of God), though even they cannot capture the whole picture of who the Lord is.
How do we keep learning about the Lord and receiving His revelation without being too quick to claim that we know what the Lord is like?
~ Jeff
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