Exclusion & Embrace I

There is an asymmetrical dialectic between the “grace” of self-donation and the “demand” of truth and justice.  Grace has primacy: even if the will to embrace is indiscriminate, the embrace itself is conditional.
- Miroslav Volf in Exclusion & Embrace (p. 29)

This statement comes in the context of discussing Christ, the Crucified One (that is, Christ on the cross).  The premise of the book is to look at how we, as followers of Christ, are to emulate his love for his enemies.  How do we live that out?

His argument states that outside the will to embrace the other – the enemy, truth and justice are impossible.  However, the full embrace of the enemy in love cannot happen until truth and justice are satisfied.  So, God was willing to have sinful creatures such as us, but until the penalty of our sin was paid, the full embrace and welcoming us as adopted sons and daughters could not happen.

I wonder how that plays out with our own encounters of the “other”.  As a white, Protestant, American male, I have a hard time with understanding the “other”.  I have not been on the harmed side of a relationship culturally, as many others in America and outside of America have.  I do not know that I can understand the full cost of giving myself over completely to someone who is devoted to ill against me.  My imagination only goes so far.

But I wonder how many people have been the one wronged with me as the enemy?  I do not know it, cannot recognize it, am not conscious of it, but am equally as sure that it has, indeed, happened.  Knowing I have wronged someone, how would I react to someone who receives me completely even so.

I love books that make you stop and ponder.  I want to thank Mike and Scott for introducing this book to me, however unintentional it may have been.  I am sure more thoughts will flow as I keep reading.  This is result of just the preface!

Exclusion & Embrace I

There is an asymmetrical dialectic between the “grace” of self-donation and the “demand” of truth and justice.  Grace has primacy: even if the will to embrace is indiscriminate, the embrace itself is conditional.
- Miroslav Volf in Exclusion & Embrace (p. 29)

This statement comes in the context of discussing Christ, the Crucified One (that is, Christ on the cross).  The premise of the book is to look at how we, as followers of Christ, are to emulate his love for his enemies.  How do we live that out?

His argument states that outside the will to embrace the other – the enemy, truth and justice are impossible.  However, the full embrace of the enemy in love cannot happen until truth and justice are satisfied.  So, God was willing to have sinful creatures such as us, but until the penalty of our sin was paid, the full embrace and welcoming us as adopted sons and daughters could not happen.

I wonder how that plays out with our own encounters of the “other”.  As a white, Protestant, American male, I have a hard time with understanding the “other”.  I have not been on the harmed side of a relationship culturally, as many others in America and outside of America have.  I do not know that I can understand the full cost of giving myself over completely to someone who is devoted to ill against me.  My imagination only goes so far.

But I wonder how many people have been the one wronged with me as the enemy?  I do not know it, cannot recognize it, am not conscious of it, but am equally as sure that it has, indeed, happened.  Knowing I have wronged someone, how would I react to someone who receives me completely even so.

I love books that make you stop and ponder.  I want to thank Mike and Scott for introducing this book to me, however unintentional it may have been.  I am sure more thoughts will flow as I keep reading.  This is result of just the preface!

A Promise

Come, let us return to the LORD.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.
Hosea 6:1-3

There have been times lately where I have felt abandoned, forgotten, cast aside by our God. I marvel that I have worked so hard to honor Him and work for His Kingdom, yet seemingly have not been found a worthy vessel or a useful tool for His handiwork.

Now, before you get excited, I know that is not true. But it is oftentimes a long way from my head to my heart, and the messages don’t always get through in time. And my heart aches.

I find passages like this and Psalm 42-43 comforting. They are melancholic, yet hopeful. They do not try to sugar coat the pain and suffering as if they are false or unnecessary or sinful. Instead, they let the emotions tell their story, and then remind all that the emotions are not the end. God will come again. Praises will roll forth. The sun itself will shout “Glory” in the dawn. The spring rains will water the crops. Life will burst through where death was expected.

Though often loudly poorly represented, Christianity is a wondrous faith. I cannot imagine life apart from it.

Shalom.

Silence

Silence bodes many things.
For the stressed, it can be welcome relief from a noisy, tiresome world.
For the heartbroken, it can be a constant, painful reminder of their loneliness.
For the philosopher it brings up questions if whether or not a tree makes a sound when it falls in the forest even if nobody is around to hear it.
For those who derive their energy from people, silence can be stressful.
It can mean that nothing is going on.
It can mean that something dreadful is about to happen (I’m thinking of a certain scene in The Bourne Identity just before a man crashes through a window).
It can mean that someone has nothing to say.
It can mean that someone has a lot to say, but doesn’t know where to begin, or how to phrase it, or who to say it to.
Silence can mean waiting, patiently or impatiently.
Silence can mean relaxed comfort, or icy tenseness.
Silence can be peace on earth or the moment after holocaust.

As my Greek professors always insisted: Context is king.

The Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life

The secret to the meaning of life is finding contentment wherever you are.  It’s a secret I have only begun to learn about.

I have certain expectations of my life.  I’m sure that a psychologist or counselor would want me to ponder which of those were my own and which were those imposed on me by others.  I have done some of that pondering and have even begun to differentiate between what is really mine and what is, I think, someone else’s expectations of me.  Well, really, I have just started blaming others for those things that I have found elusive and, for the most part, given up on.  At least for now.

Have you ever looked at a balloon after it has been repeatedly blown up and deflated, reinflated, and deflated, over and over again?  At the end, if it has not burst, it just looks tired and spent.  It makes you wonder if could survive another cycle of inflation and deflation, much less a repetitious one with no end in sight.  I feel like that balloon, cycling over and over again.  One moment I’m inflated and ready to take on the world, or at least my little cubicle at work.  The next, I’m lying empty on the floor, not sure whether I can face that cubicle again.  Not sure that the energy output is worth it.

The secret is finding contentment in the inflation and the deflation.  Both are important, though it may not seem so at any particular point of the cycle.

Paul found contentment throughout a life that had joys greater than my greatest imaginings and pits deeper than my worst nightmares.  I know it is possible.  The secret to the meaning of life is finding contentment wherever you are.  I suppose I shall find that spot one day.  I hope that day comes sooner rather than later.

A quote that I made up and put at the bottom of my e-mails for some time (though I no longer do – don’t know that I have a reason why either way):
“Smile big and often to show the joy of the LORD.”

I hope that now, in this moment that you are reading this, you have a contentment greater than any human could expect on their own.