The Future Is Brighter
THAN ANY FLASHBACK
Bon Iver ‘Come Talk To Me’ or The Best Song of 2011.
It’s a quiet B-Side off of Bon Iver’s ‘Holocene’ single, but it caught me off guard as one of the most enduring songs of his entire catalogue. What’s more, it’s a cover of a Peter Gabriel song (the man that gave us ‘Solsbury Hill,’ ‘In Your Eyes’ and ‘Here Comes The Flood’). It’s already ascended the ranks into my Top 20 All-Time Favorites. Before it’s all said and done, it’ll probably end up in the Top 10.
Four Months Later & A Dance Party
On July 27, 2011 I moved from Conway, Arkansas to Dallas, Texas to attend seminary at Dallas Theological Seminary (or D.T.S.). My path to seminary has been years in the making, going from a thought in the back of my mind to the reality of uprooting from the place I have called home for 28 years to establishing new roots in a place bigger than I could ever imagine and setting forth on a journey where my greatest companion is the trust that God has me here and that he’ll take care of me. While Dallas is roughly five hours from central Arkansas, it’s still far enough for this man to feel the effects of distance from the ones that I love.
I have never been this far away from the familiar confines of what I know and those that know me. In looking forward to the move to Dallas, there were thoughts of the grand adventure that the move would be and I was excited at the concept of “starting over” in a new town and with a new circle of friends. There was a tug upon me in Conway last year as I thought to myself, “I have to get out of here. There’s something more. I have to be out there to see and it and participate in something new. I need a challenge.” I suppose those aren’t altogether foreign thoughts to a man in his late twenties who still hasn’t quite discovered what it is he’s here for. It’s the quarter-life crisis so many of us go through and I was right in the thick of it. So I set my sights on Dallas as the jumpstart to that which would give me the needed direction in my life. Seminary would provide me with a context to grow and I looked forward to the challenge academically, spiritually, and emotionally.
After I returned from a mission trip to Ukraine I spent a week saying goodbye to friends and family, packed up everything I own, and left Conway. On the way out of town I stopped by my mom’s house for one last goodbye. As she prayed over me for my journey and the adventure that I was about to embark on, it hit me. I knew that this was a reality and that I was actually going away from being within arm’s reach of so many people that have made my life a gift. I honestly never anticipated how much this move would cost me. Gone were the delusions of grandeur and idealism of “new” and “fresh start.” When I arrived to Dallas I checked into my new apartment and began moving in my things. Standing in that apartment, surrounded by bags and boxes, I felt more alone than I have ever felt in my life. Without sounding too cliche, I wondered to myself, “Is this really what I signed up for?”
The first two months in Dallas were tough. It’s as simple as that. God was at work but his purposes weren’t clear to me amidst the malaise of loneliness and uncertainty. Looking back, I can safely say that throughout those first few weeks I was a mess emotionally. But it was all part of the process you see. God was indeed at work and he wasn’t obligated to give me a point-by-point rundown of what he was doing through this experience. In fact, that has been one of the lessons I have learned since I’ve come to Dallas; most of our understanding of God’s will (whatever that may be) are not burning bush experiences. Rather, they are often discovered through fumbling through the dark in obedience trusting that sooner or later God will turn the lights on and we’ll see where we are. God is present and God is not silent. But he does guide us in ways that cause us to trust him with our uncertainties, our hopes, our fears, and our longing for purpose in the days we have been given. In short, God is good and he knows best how to bring us along to a greater understanding of who he is and how far his love reaches to us.
Returning to academia was its own challenge. I haven’t had homework in six years. This semester I have over four thousand pages of reading and numerous assignments, papers, etc. However, seminary has been an entirely different experience than all my previous education. Here professors pray before class. How bizarre! Living on campus has helped my acclimation to being back in school immensely. I live in a building with men and women who are all here from different backgrounds, cultures, and countries. Honestly, it’s kind of rush to be surrounded by (literally) a world of different perspectives. Moreover, there is a sense of camaraderie between us since we are essentially in this together. We might have different degree programs and different places we’re hoping to go after school, but we are here together now. So we suffer through assignments on the grammatical structure of Philemon 4-7 and we band together in the study rooms (with coffee of course) through the early hours of the morning studying for an exam.
As amazing as my education has been here so far, I put a higher premium on the friendships and relationship that I have been able to find here. As we grow older (I am speaking from limited experience here) friends move in and out of our lives. In college it was much easier to maintain friendships, but now it seems that many of the friends I have been closest with have moved away. It’s remarkable to me how, with each void created by a friend that moves away, God fills that void with yet another kindred spirit who so often responds to something you say with, “I have felt that way too!” One such friend is my “mate” Gareth from Northern Ireland. It never ceases to confound me how God could bring two friends together who share such a similar sense of humor and outlook on life. And God hasn’t stopped there. He has, time and time again, shown me the power of friendship through late night conversations, sharing music, talking shop about photography, etc.
Last week I returned to Arkansas for the first time since I moved to Dallas. It was my birthday and that meant on an occasion to see all the friends and family that I have been missing for months. The excitement for my return was so overwhelming that I couldn’t sleep the night before I left. Upon returning I saw the friends and family that I had been close to my heart in Dallas. Now, they were within arm’s reach of my embrace. And how incredible it was to hug the necks of everyone that I have wanted to be near to for so long! In Conway my former roommate threw me and my friend Kevin a proper birthday bash at my old house, “2112 Jump St.” For one special night I was under the same roof of the friends that were only voices on the other line in Dallas. We laughed (a lot) and, in Jump St. fashion, enjoyed a dance party in my old room to the sounds of Coldplay, M83, Kings of Leon, and Sleeping At Last.
As refreshing as it was to be back in Arkansas, I noticed that time had moved forward without me in Conway. The faces of the servers in the restaurant I used to work at weren’t all familiar and there were new businesses that had been brought to Conway and Little Rock since I left. But such is life, isn’t it? Life moves on and we can’t stop time from ticking on. What we can do is appreciate the preciousness of the present moment and what it offers us. God gave me nearly ten glorious years in Conway and I thank him every day for the countless friends and memories that were created in that town. I also thank him for friends and family that make saying goodbye hard and the thought that you’re truly missed by someone.
Perhaps a day will come when I will return to Arkansas to once again call it “home.” For now, Dallas is my home and it is here where I’ll hope. I trust that God will continue to work on this heart of mine and reveal to me more of what he has planned for me in the future. I have passions that are yet unfulfilled and I will press on to see how God will use them. I’ll look forward and I’ll see that “the future is brighter than any flashback.”
The joys of music:
Joy As Revelator
What is the one thing in this world that gives you the greatest feeling of transcendence? Is there anything in this world that gives you a sense of rapture? What is it that awakens your soul to ascend towards something untouchable with fervor, believing that you might be able to take hold of that which you’ve always longed for? Whatever your passion, joy is at the center of your delight.
Joy acts as a great beacon for the Divine this side of eternity. Joy gives us that fleeting sense that there is more to life than what we can feel, touch, smell, hear, taste, and see. When joy comes into our lives our hearts swell for it and we are ultimately left with a desire for more of what we nearly had. That’s the nature of joy in this life; it’s never captured and it will always slip from our grasp because we were never meant to take hold of it here. The truth is that no matter how captivating our experience of joy is, it is but a partial sketch of greater things to come, a shadow of the reality that has yet to be fully revealed to us.
Joy is a revelator to all men and women; I believe that God’s purpose in giving us these rare experiences of joy is to beckon us higher towards him. Technically, I would call it a kind of general revelation for all to understand and experience. That is, out of God’s goodness, he has allowed all men and women to hear the faint whispers of joy that speak of him. Believers and unbelievers partake of the gifts of God’s goodness everyday. Christ spoke of this truth when he said, “For [God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45b ESV) Of course, there is a difference as to the level of experiencing God’s goodness in believers and unbelievers, but the point here is that joy is a gift given to all men and women to implore them to worship the Source of joy.
Many times over I have found myself caught up in sublime moments of joy while listening to music. Like no other medium, music has the ability to puncture the stoniest of hearts. Martin Luther once wrote that, “Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.” Joy finds me in music most often, because music allows me to escape the grip of the known. Within music there is a mystery; music can lift the heart to heights it hasn’t known before and call it even higher. Just think of the last time you listening to a great song or album for the first time. Wasn’t it as if you had stumbled upon some great foreign treasure when you first heard it? Did your discovery not leave you with a sense of aching, as if it were so amazing and delightful that it hurt?
I have been, at times, so overwhelmed by a song that the words, the rhythm and the sounds trample over me. Overmatched and overcome, my rebellious heart is held captive for a short time, an exile to lyric and melody. I’m a prisoner to the ache, but I don’t want to be freed of it. When I feel that ache I don’t want it to stop. I want to stay in it just a little while longer so that I might begin to understand more fully this experience of joy. It’s a foolish desire to want to stay, because I can’t linger for very long in those moments of joy. As soon as they’re there, they’re gone. I can only hope that one day I will fully understand. It might take an eternity, but I long to know this joy more fully.
C.S. Lewis once wrote that, “All joy emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.” I believe Lewis was on to something. We are strangers here and those fleeting experiences of joy are calling to us from a better place. The Divine calls to us every time that joy clutches our hearts and leaves us aching for more.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:13-16 ESV)
The Tipping Point
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:31-33
Christ’s comforting words in the Sermon on the Mount have given me the needed holy perspective that I so often fail to see in my life. “Don’t worry. Your Heavenly Father will provide for your needs.” As many of you already know, I will be moving to Dallas this August to attend seminary at Dallas Theological. I will certainly need God’s provision, on all fronts, as I am transitioning into what I expect to be one of the most challenging and stretching times of my life. A nearly complete overhaul in my life will take place in a few short months, and I will be faced with having to start over in so many areas of my life (e.g. living in a new city, going back to school, finding a new job, having to make new friends, getting plugged in at a new church, etc.).
Rather than fear the imminent change in my life, I have learned to embrace the change that will soon transpire, because each new day fills me with more and more confidence that God has called me to go to seminary. Even though my decision to pursue seminary has been many years in the making, my heart has reached a tipping point so that now I am filled with an overwhelming excitement for what God has planned for me while at Dallas Theological Seminary. I suspect that it’s the excitement of knowing that God is working within me and that He is shaping me to do great things in and for His name.
As part of my application for seminary, I was asked to state my ministry goals beyond graduation. I thought that I would share them with you in order for you to perhaps better understand why I have decided to attend seminary.
Stated below is what I have come up with for my ministry goals:
Ultimately, my goal beyond graduation from Dallas Theological Seminary is three-fold: 1) to better equip believers with the tools needed to live a life pleasing to the Lord, 2) to encourage community within a body of believers that allows for the joys and hardships of life to be shared openly and honestly, and 3) to influence a community and culture for Christ and His Kingdom. I believe that Scripture testifies to all three of these goals and that the pursuit of these goals has been divinely wrought within my own heart and conscience by a personal God who wishes to make Himself known and desires for His children to know him and experience Him more fully.
A relationship with God requires a desire to know Him better, a dedication and discipline to seek out the truth of who He is and what he’s like through a consistent reading and studying of Scripture, and a willingness to understand the weight of sin in our lives and the power of the cross of Christ to overcome any and all enemies that threaten a relationship with God. As believers, we live in-between the sinfulness of our past and the glory that is to come. We all know the tension of a heart that is so often pulled in two different directions, one to God and the other from Him. David was well acquainted this tension when he wrote that, “my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me…but for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my god, who will answer.” (Ps. 38:4, 15) Likewise, the Apostle Paul wrote that, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (Ro. 7:21)
Thankfully, we are not alone in this struggle. God is not silent to our needs and He knows that we have been created to depend on Him. He has spoken into our lives the truths about Himself and about us that we so desperately need. God is a God of provision and his greatest gift to us is Christ, the Word of God made flesh. One need look no further than Jesus, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Co. 2:3) The entire reservoir of all knowledge and wisdom about life is found within Christ. God has spoken to every aspect of the human experience through His Word, leaving nothing unspoken for. There is no circumstance or problem in this life that Scripture doesn’t have wisdom for; God knows the poverty of our needs and he desires to make us rich with His wisdom. God’s concern is not just for the redemption of our souls but also for the redemption of everything within creation. (See Ro. 8:19-25) In the end, God will leave nothing untouched by his glory, and we, as believers, champion His name and His glory with lives that reflect the magnificence of his character.
The sad irony is that, with such a wealth of wisdom at our fingertips, we can neglect the opportunity to go deeper in our knowledge of God. It’s easy to become lax in our relationship with God, favoring convenience and sentimentality instead of sacrifice and truth. In many Christian circles the paradigm of faith has been reduced to our feelings and experience of Christ rather than the Word of God that is, “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hb. 4:12) Truly, the contemporary church has, in large part, missed the mark in regards to the centrality of Scripture and the truths it espouses in our lives. Life isn’t just about having a better marriage, raising your kids right, or being a good steward of your money. Those things are all good and well. But if that’s where we stop then we’ve missed the point of Scripture entirely. We don’t need a life coach. We need a Savior. We need to understand that life is about worship and Christ is our preeminent example. Moreover, we need to understand that in order to worship well we need to be better acquainted with the story of Scripture and the truths that it reveals to us. You cannot love a God you don’t know anything about. Therefore, a better understanding of Christ and Scripture is paramount in the lives of believers and would be the main focus of my ministry beyond graduation.
My ministry goals are anchored in a desire to see believers own and embrace the centrality of the Word of God in their lives. Our greatest resource in life is Scripture and it would thrill me to have the opportunity to encourage believers to grow deeper in their knowledge of God’s Word in my ministry. Now, my purpose would not be for acquiring knowledge for knowledge’s sake. That is a pointless task in-and-of itself. Rather, I wish to point others to the God of Scripture, not the God so often trivialized by others. A greater knowledge of God and Scripture is a working knowledge, because, from the overflow of this knowledge, fruit and good works are sure to abound in the lives of believers. The more you know about God the more you fall in love with Him and want for others to fall in love with Him.
Of course, a greater knowledge of God does not come by osmosis. Rather, it comes with an unwavering dedication to know Him better through the reading and studying of Scripture, living and sharing life within a community of believers, and living out our faith in the world. This is a difficult, but worthwhile, task. Therefore, my ministry would consist of working towards strengthening and growing a church’s (or ministry’s) small groups ministry, equipping classes (e.g. classes on church history, major doctrines of the faith, missions, etc.), and missionary projects outside of the church. I believe that the greatest gauge to the health of a church is to look at how believers interact on a smaller, more intimate, level. I believe that a small group environment is most conducive for drawing out honesty and accountability from others and facilitating an intimate setting for believers to engage in legitimate conversations about the story and truths of Scripture. What’s more, these conversations can easily overflow into a discussion of how Scripture should orient our lives and how it could change a community and culture. God’s Word has the power to transform lives and transform a community and culture. That transformation begins in the heart and works its way into a body of believers and out into the world. This, I believe, is what Christian community is all about.
In short, I long for believers to rally around Scripture and be better educated about the God revealed in the Bible. I want believers to run to the cross of Christ. I want to see Christ penetrate the hearts of believers, both young and old. I want to be a witness to the Gospel that takes the most coarse, vulgar mouth and fills it with holy poetry. I want to see the glint in someone’s eyes when they talk about Christ and I want their tears to flow and their laughter to echo with joy for Christ. I want to feel the warmth of believers, gathered together to give thanks and praise to the God that rescues sinners and the God that continues to work on us, in spite of our frailty and propensity to run from Him.
I pray that my education and experience at Dallas Theological Seminary will challenge me and equip me with the tools necessary to lead others towards Christ and an authentic, loving community that sees change within a community and culture.
The Honesty Room
There’s a phrase that’s often used around my house. It’s not really profound; it’s not really clever. Whenever one of us wishes to be transparent we simply say, “Okay. This is the honesty room. You can tell me whatever’s really on your mind right now.” The point of the honesty room is to create an environment of openness that draws out a conversation that bypasses the deflections and smokescreens we’re so apt to use when faced with the choice to be brutally honest.
Honesty room. I believe there’s something conveyed by that phrase. What immediately comes to mind is trust. When anyone speaks that phrase he/she is essentially saying, “You can trust me with what you have to say. I won’t freak out. I won’t judge you. I’ll just listen and ask any questions when I see the opportunity.” As simple as this sounds, how many times have we balked at the chance to uncover our truest thoughts before another? How many times have we been paralyzed by the fear of being found out and exposed for being something less than what others expect us to be?
I ask those questions only because I have failed many times, in conversation, to be honest with someone. Whether it’s a confrontation that needs to happen because I’ve hurt someone or I’ve been hurt or the way I truly feel about someone, I have neglected the opportunities set before me to level with someone. “The timing’s not right.” “She won’t understand.” “He won’t take what I have to say well.” So we bypass that opportunity in favor of silence and the hope that someday we’ll get another opportunity. Like most anyone, I look at my past and wish for another chance. I tell myself, “If I had another crack at it, I’d nail it. I’d leave nothing on the table. I’d be completely honest so that there’s no confusion about the way I feel.” Sometimes we get that opportunity but so often we don’t. In a way, I wish to right the wrong of leaving my heart unspoken for in any number of different conversations.
Fortunately, there is the possibility of approaching our conversations differently. It’s not always easy, but it’s well worth the effort. I have found that to be true within the past few years of my life. When the opportunity is there to be honest with someone in conversation I tell myself, “The feeling of getting this off your chest is exponentially greater than the weight of regret. Be bold and leave nothing unsaid.” I’m not trying to be anyone’s life coach here. I’m only sharing with you what I’ve experienced in trying to leave my thoughts open to others and not tightly clenched within.
An honest conversation needs to be loose. If it’s tight and rigid, you feel blocked in and unable to express yourself completely. This can easily lead to a sterile exchange of words that does nothing more than take up air. Honesty between friends isn’t a formal debate. There’s no moderator. We need to feel like we have room enough in our conversations to move around and let our thoughts flow freely without the fear of those words being seized by another and contorted and construed and made to be something else.
Personally, I find a sense of release when I’m honest in my conversations. It’s liberating because the opportunity to be completely and unabashedly honest is rare. Too often we have given our words to someone else only to see them abused and thrown to the dogs. There are times when we just feel foolish for having said what we said. Sometimes we can’t even get the words out before we receive an onslaught of advice from the person we’ve confided in. We ask ourselves, “Were they even listening to me or were they just waiting for me to shut up so you could talk?” Whether they were well meaning with their advice is beside the point. We weren’t allowed the occasion or the freedom to let our thoughts and ideas breath.
Of course, there’s an element of risk involved in honest conversations. I’ll admit that. You might feel the fool afterwards. Your words might not be received well. But, of course, that’s the very nature of risk. You risk something every time you wish to reveal to another what is really going in your head and in your heart. Our mind can play dirty tricks on us when we are confronted with the opportunity to be honest. All sorts of rationalizations justify our silence. But you know as well as I do that our silence will ultimately haunt us. We’ll always end up replaying the conversation over in our mind, wishing it could’ve taken a different turn. It’s like a movie you’ve watched a hundred times where something heartbreaking happens and, each time you watch it, you wish it’d turn out differently. But it never does. Jenny always dies in Forrest Gump and the Permian Panthers never can reach over the goal line to win the championship in Friday Night Lights.
If we are to have honest conversations we’ll need to set aside our fears and, instead, embrace the freedom that comes from a heart fully exposed for all to see. No one is truly alone in their thoughts. You can tell yourself, “No one’s ever felt this way before. No one will understand,” but that just isn’t true. If anything, I think it’s a testament to our own narcissism to think that our experiences and emotions are unique. While they are unique to our own life, those experiences are just part of the great tapestry of the human experience. The ebb and flow of life affects us all. We all know the joy of a smile. We all know what it feels like to have the hours pass by like minutes in conversation. We all know the coldness of rejection. We all know what it means to have our heart ache because we can’t be near someone. We all know the rapture of delight that comes when we reunite with someone we love.
If we can better understand the fact that we aren’t alone in our thoughts then we have taken a giant leap towards having more honest conversations. The honesty room should be a place to gather together and admit that we don’t have it together and we’re walking around in the dark half the time. The playing field has been leveled and no one gets out of this life without having to experience the full range of human emotion, whether it’s unspeakable joy or horrible sorrow. There are no exceptions.
You can be a millionaire or you can be a beggar
It really doesn’t matter
‘Cause sooner or later your heart will break
The Bible As Story
The Bible is literature. Of course, it is far more than literature. What God wants us to know about himself, about ourselves, and about the direction of history has been revealed to us in Scripture. What I find incredible about God is the fact that he chooses to reveal himself through narrative.
If you were to read through the entire Bible as if you were reading a novel I dare say that you would find it uninteresting. On the contrary, I believe that you would find the story of Scripture as engrossing and fascinating as any story you’ve ever read before. This story of the Bible is compelling because it involves the same range of human emotions that everyone experiences. In the same way that a movie or a book captivates us, Scripture engages the heart and mind, because it’s piercing that place in all of us that cannot help but be enticed by heroes, villains, epic battles, struggles, tragedy, redemption, etc. And this is no accident. God had a definite purpose in framing the truths of Scripture within narrative.
R.C. Sproul once wrote:
When people say the Bible is dull it makes me wonder why. Biblical characters are full of life. There is a unique quality of passion about them. Their lives reveal dram, pathos, lust, crime, devotion and every conceivable aspect of human existence. There is rebuke, remorse, contrition, consolation, practical wisdom, philosophical reflection and, most of all, truth. Perhaps the dullness some experience is due to the antiquity of the material that may seem foreign…the characters of biblical history are real. Though their life settings are different from ours, their struggles and concerns are very much like ours. (‘Knowing Scripture’, pg. 15)
A Copernican revolution took place in my mind a few years ago when I began to understand that the Bible wasn’t a textbook or simply a guidebook for life. Interestingly enough, it was reading through various books of the Old Testament that this idea of the Bible as literature and story began to germinate. When I read through the historical books of the Old Testament I couldn’t help but notice what was going on. A narrative was being played out and, on top of that, a meta-narrative. Every character’s story was telling another, greater story about God himself; even though the authors of these books were separated by time and space, a consistent theme was being played out and the story was moving somewhere.
I believe that the greatest testament to the Scripture’s authenticity is the fact that God’s story of redemption works its way into every book of the Bible. From Genesis through Revelation, God has been moving history in a given direction towards his glory. The story of Scripture is rich and wrought with emotional tension. Adam fails and sin and death enter into the world, putting mankind in a perilous position. All hope is lost if God doesn’t act. And he acts with such mastery to construct a story where he promises to provide a way. As the hero of Scripture God chooses to actively involve himself within his creation. His involvement reached its apex when he condescended and left the throne of heaven to live among us. The Incarnation is the most unlikely story in all of literature. Unfortunately, the popularity of the Incarnation in western society has made the story too comfortable to us. When we’re comfortable with the story we lose sight of its absolute profundity. That the God of the universe would choose to live as a man-to grow weary, to be hungry, to sweat, to bleed, to die-is the most remarkable plot twist ever conceived.
Who is God? This is the hardest and most important question that anyone ever has to deal with. Why? Because everything hangs in the balance when you choose to answer that question. You’re responsible for your answer whether you’re right or wrong. Fortunately, God has answered the question for us in the story of Scripture. Of course, God could have declared the answer with the voices of a million angels singing his attributes to us from heaven. But he chose another route. Rather than directly answer the question, he tells a story.
The First Post: An Introduction & Thoughts on God
I will attempt to transfer what goes on in my head into these posts. In what little experience I have in writing, the most productive writing comes when I allow my hands to move in the same current of my thoughts. It’s fast and, honestly, sometimes those words get away from me. But it’s worth the effort, because sometimes I find that my words are right alongside my thoughts. That’s when writing isn’t so difficult and doesn’t feel like a chore at all. In fact, it’s fun.
Now, the only way to make this fun for me is to talk about the things that I find interesting. Personally, I find theology fascinating. What’s more perplexing than a finite creature trying to comprehend an infinite God? Simply put, that is theology. It is the study of God and how he relates to us and how we relate to him. The two questions that are sure to dominate the conversations within this blog are: 1) Who am I? and 2) Who is God?
Sometimes I think you’d be better off trying to define beauty than God. At the very least, you could point to something and say, “That’s beautiful.” It’s impossible to define an undefinable and infinite God. Thankfully, God has spoken out of eternity and given us his very words to sift through and study in order that we may begin to catch a glimpse of eternity and into the very heart and mind of God. Not only that, but God has left an unmistakeable impression upon his creation that echoes his nature and attributes.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)
God can be found in a perfectly still lake covered with fog in the cool of morning or in the distinct aroma of a fragrance that recalls a kiss from lips as delicious as honey. In short, God takes pleasure in making himself known in the glory of his creation and human experience that often leave us speechless. The magnificence of his character is that he delights in those moments that surprise us and leave us dumbstruck with an empty mouth. Whether it’s a blanket of stars in the heavens or the melody of a song that allows us to see the world in different colors, we’re left with a feeling of inadequacy to describe, in words, what we feel in the presence of that moment. It is in those moments, when there’s nothing for us to offer, that God whispers into the silence, “I Am.”
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
We read to know that we’re not alone in this world, that there’s someone who’s felt the way we’ve felt before. We go to the poets in an attempt to find mercy in the words that we can’t, ourselves, take captive. We fall upon and lift up the words of men and women that have attempted to reach out and touch something that’s beyond their grasp. And there are times when God chooses to align the thoughts and words of men together with his divine thoughts and words in perfect constellation. The result is a beautiful revelation.
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:24-27)
