When I was younger, I used to sleep with the closet door open. Most kids prefer to sleep with the closet door closed, because they don't want to know what creepy thing is in there. And if they do think something is coming after them, they pull the covers up over their head and hide, as if a thin layer of blankets will stop the claws of a horrible monster. Me, I would stay awake with the closet door open, blankets up to my nose, staring into the dark because I wanted to see it coming.
But I do understand why kids pull the blankets over their heads. It's because there's a certain comfort in not knowing. When you don't know for sure what's coming, you can imagine the best thing...or the worst thing.
When I was in high school, I had a crush on a girl named Shelly. She was a close friend of mine, but I didn't tell her how I felt for a really long time. Before I told her, I could imagine all sorts of things. I could imagine that she was feeling the same way, that she was head over heels in love with me and she was just waiting for me to say something. Or, I could imagine that she didn't feel the same way at all; that she would recoil in horror or burst out laughing. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between these two possibilities. I was comfortable living in this tension; in a world where both the best possible and the worst imaginable could be true, and knew that in knowing the truth, both worlds would be shattered and only the mundane actual would exist.
Many of us live life like this. With the covers pulled up over our heads, not wanting to see what's coming. The news could be the best possible or the worst imaginable. It's how a lot of people deal with God and what happens after you die too.
Me, I want to see it coming.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Miracles
If you believe in God, you have to believe in miracles. To believe in God means that you believe in something that is outside the natural laws of the universe. If you believe in God, but believe that he does not exist beyond the laws of physics, then that is the same as not believing in God. Therefore, if you believe there is a God, then you believe that something exists beyond the laws of physics, hence you believe in miracles.
And if you believe that God created the universe, then you believe that he determined the laws of physics; that he decided that the acceleration of gravity would be 9.98 meters per second per second; that the charges of one proton and one electron would balance each other out and to throw in some neutrally charged particles to add some extra weight. He decided that all things would be subject to these laws and then he pulled the cord and began things spinning in perfect harmony. If he determined these laws when he created the universe, then he himself is not subject to the laws of the universe. He can work outside of them, since he worked just fine before they were created.
Therefore, if you believe in God, you must believe in miracles.
The fundemental issue we have with miracles, then, is not God's ability to achieve them--it is his willingness. God can do something miraculous, but will he? God could heal me, but will he? God can stop this war, but is he willing? God could change my life...if he wanted to.
The real issue here is: how important are we to God? Does he care about my health? My family? My life?
Yes, I believe that God can do miracles in my life. But, does he want to? That is the question with which I struggle.
And if you believe that God created the universe, then you believe that he determined the laws of physics; that he decided that the acceleration of gravity would be 9.98 meters per second per second; that the charges of one proton and one electron would balance each other out and to throw in some neutrally charged particles to add some extra weight. He decided that all things would be subject to these laws and then he pulled the cord and began things spinning in perfect harmony. If he determined these laws when he created the universe, then he himself is not subject to the laws of the universe. He can work outside of them, since he worked just fine before they were created.
Therefore, if you believe in God, you must believe in miracles.
The fundemental issue we have with miracles, then, is not God's ability to achieve them--it is his willingness. God can do something miraculous, but will he? God could heal me, but will he? God can stop this war, but is he willing? God could change my life...if he wanted to.
The real issue here is: how important are we to God? Does he care about my health? My family? My life?
Yes, I believe that God can do miracles in my life. But, does he want to? That is the question with which I struggle.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Struggles with God
A lot of people think of the Bible as a book of rules. Others think of it as a book filled with good advice. What the Bible really is, is a story. It's a story of encouragement for broken and hurting people who continuously fail. It's a story of encouragement, because that's the kind of people that appear in the Bible-the kind of people that God uses.
A king that gives into lust, gets a girl pregnant and kills her husband to cover it up. A man adopted into privilege who murders and then spends forty years hiding in the desert. A woman divorced multiple times and ostracized from her community. These are the people that God chooses to represent him in this world.
In the book of Genesis God gives his chosen people a name-'Israel'. A name that in hebrew means 'one who struggles with God'. It's an unusual name to give to the people who are to take his message into the world.
Maybe God's trying to tell us something. Maybe he's trying to tell us that we don't have to live perfectly to live with him. To live with God means to struggle with him.
That is what we are called to be. Not perfect, not sinless. Simply 'God strugglers'.
A king that gives into lust, gets a girl pregnant and kills her husband to cover it up. A man adopted into privilege who murders and then spends forty years hiding in the desert. A woman divorced multiple times and ostracized from her community. These are the people that God chooses to represent him in this world.
In the book of Genesis God gives his chosen people a name-'Israel'. A name that in hebrew means 'one who struggles with God'. It's an unusual name to give to the people who are to take his message into the world.
Maybe God's trying to tell us something. Maybe he's trying to tell us that we don't have to live perfectly to live with him. To live with God means to struggle with him.
That is what we are called to be. Not perfect, not sinless. Simply 'God strugglers'.
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