A Reflection on Theological Approach

A: "Is God the most powerful being?"
B: "Yes."
A: "Is it more powerful to take control of everything or relinquish control of some things?"
B: "To take control of everything."
A: "Then God takes control of everything."

The previous dialog displays a chain of thought that leads people to inaccurate theological understandings. We often carve for ourselves measuring sticks out of our own concepts of such attributes as power, glory, and might, to compare statements about God against. We will easily admit that God is the most powerful being, while just as easily assuming that our own current perception of "powerful" is complete and accurate. We overlook that we are assuming we have an infallible concept of attributes such as "power" and "glory." I am not yet convinced that " goodness" can be far removed from "truth," but I am, however, convinced that attributes such as "glorious," "powerful," and "mighty" are secondary to "truth" in the same way that "bright" and "warmth" are secondary to "light". We may have only a fuzzy understanding of what warmth is as nomads in an arctic climate, and would therefore be grossly mistaken if we were to measure what the sun was according to our understanding of the warmth of mittens or the brightness of a flame.

I believe it is more accurate to begin from a question of "is such a proposition the truest to associate with God" than from that of "is such a proposition the most glorious to a associate with God."

I do not, therefore, assume our current perception of "truth" is infallible, but I do think that we assume less that we have a complete and accurate understanding of it, and therefore take more care in examining how and why we approve a statement as true or not. We use many things when weighing a statement for its truth. For example: our current understanding of other things, our relationships and other experiences, and the relationships and experiences of others as heard or documented. We work at resolving our understanding of truth (changing and hopefully increasing it) by examining many things. It probably doesn't always happen, but I think too often, we leave our current concepts of power, glory, and might unchallenged - accepting the default posture of "our parents" (i.e. the present world age).

I'm sure Jesus would've made the best official ruler Isreal had ever seen to date, but that didn't stop Him from eluding them every time they tryed to make Him king. Those guys had no concept of the type of power He came to display.

Law is the Expression of Character

This is a thought that makes sense of some things I am seeing at the moment. I would apply this proposition to both the natural and judicial ways in which we use the word "law." "Natural Law," referring to the ways that we humans describe the consistency of the way we observe our world to work, and "Judicial Law," referring to the ways that we humans decide what consistent results will follow an action.

When something is consistently occurring, it is because someone is choosing consistently.

That might sound like a stretch with how we think about natural laws (that would be a fun discussion), but I'm mostly intrigued now with how we think about things like Wisdom and Truth.

Think about how we use the word "wisdom." If someone is wise, or if someone chooses wisely for example. What do we mean? We mean something like "a type of choice" or "a way of choosing" that is wise. Perhaps both based upon the way something is done and that things that result. Jesus is quoted by Matthew of saying "...wisdom is justified of her children." (KJV) "...wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." (NAS) That speaks to how someone might know that something is wise because of what results. The author of the book of Proverbs has much to say about "wisdom" and often personifies it. I'm not trying to be romantic, I actually think that it might be more accurate to model these concepts as expressions of someone's character. The mind bender here comes into play when we are considering what effects the mind of God have on matter, energy, and time. If John is right in saying, "and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." (-John 1:3) regarding the person Jesus ("the Word became flesh" -John 1:14), then it can't be all that much of a stretch to think about those things [matter, energy, and time] as maintaining some connection to that someone who created them.

This would probably take a while to unpack, but I think what I'd like to put on the table for chewing on is that: when someone "follows wisdom," they are actually acting in accordance with someone else's character - someone who defines and dictates what is "wise."

...Enough to be Dangerous

I've got 29 years of breathes lived so far - a good 12 of them where I've been aggressively pursuing learning of Jesus - the last 5 or so of which I've been bathing regularly in scripture (in a way that's more than just the sprinkling I've baptized myself with since I could read).

While doing my best at serving and equipping fellow betrothed believers as a part of a local church, I'm becoming more and more confident in who God is (i.e. that I'm seeing a clear and accurate picture of who God is). What I'm struck with at the moment is how simple His heart is. No, no, I'm not trying to pull off that cocky, somewhat condescending persuasion I sometimes pick-up from preachers trying to turn their amps up to 11 - hear me out.

I'm pretty much seeing, all throughout scripture, that God's heart and mind could pretty much just be understood as a Dad who wants a big family to enjoy all that He has with. Seriously, that's it. From Genesis-naked-in-the-garden to Revelation-awestruck-at-seas-of-crystal, I keep seeing that same strategy on God's part in relation to how He's interacting with humans: He wants us happy with Him, like a great-grampa at his family reunion - all his kids playing in the yard, music blasting, grills fired, stories recounted, good times.

I think parents and those in authority can relate to this: they just want folks to get along with each other. If that could be done without the judicial and executive branches of government, all the better. But in experience - that don't work so hot. What's the end of all that? For people to treat each other well; to love each other.

But after all those words, here's my point: The God of the Bible, Easy to Understand; The Bible, Not so Easy to Understand. This could ruffle some feathers, I'm sorry, that's really not my aim. I'm just trying to communicate an analogy which I think displays why we get so theologically messed up and confused scripturally.

Any musicians reading this? How about computer users? I suppose just about anyone who ever learned or is learning anything can relate to this. Have you ever learned "just enough" about something to be dangerous? That can be some shaky middle-ground: when you know just enough about something to start operating out of it, but not enough to troubleshoot things when they go wrong. It's like that place where you haven't quite gotten a handle on just how much of something you DON'T know. Perhaps that little bit of knowing something gets you too big for your britches, and you think you can run the whole marathon after learning to lace your boots. There's just a lot of time and content that our scriptures cover - multiple ages, multiple cultures - just about every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. That's a lot. He's a big God. Our history is a big history. This stuff isn't so easy to get after a quick read through.

I think it really helps that new believers have a pretty good sense that there's a lot they don't know - which really helps us rely on God's knowing how to take care of us. It's when we get into adolescence and think a driver's license grants us the wisdom and the right where things can get really rocky.

So why am I saying this? I suppose because I can, but also because I really think that it would help a lot of not-so-young believers to get tethered to their Good-Hearted Father by allowing themselves a lot of grace when it comes to their trying to resolve all their questions from experience and scripture. You guys should feel free to live a long time in that tension of unanswered questions, where you're just not sure why things look as messy as they do at times, all the while being affectionate with The Overseer of all things.

If you build your faith upon your understanding of the bible: not so stable. If you build you faith upon the God of the bible: stable. I hope that made sense - I'm not trying to do a switcheroo here. Be free to question and doubt and walk and love - all at the same time - God can really handle all that.

Why Wisdom?

Here's a sharing of some stuff that seems to be coming more clearly and closely into view. On one hand, I'm mostly just going to say, "This thing that's true is actually, really true." On the other, I just don't care enough to not spew what's got me really excited at the moment.

Where I'll end up is at some version of "Wisdom is good. Fearing/revering God is good. Humility is good." I think I'm just seeing a bit more clearly the gears that connect fear and humility with wisdom: how this works.

I'm not sure how well I'll be able to paint this blueprint in words, but here goes…

There's some huge correlation between one's posture of heart (as in, how willing one is to love another) and to how able they are to see things like they are (i.e. know what is true). I think this has to do with the fact that the same "person" who is at the steering wheel of our emotions and intentions is the same as the one who steers our minds. Therefore, if you desire/intend to do someone harm, then you will use your mind/thinking, as a worker uses a tool, to produce such. Essentially, you will "warp" or "bend" your reasoning (or stringing together of facts/events) in order to arrive, not at what is the most true, but at what is the most in line with your desires. This produces the "blindness of un-love." I think this is some of what Jesus was speaking about when He said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness."

Are you willing to see good with your eye? If so, you will see things clearly as they are. If not, you will go blindly.

If you can see this connection, then you may also be amazed at noting that this wisdom of seeing things as they are is not a function then of how clever you are, (one's intelligence; sharpness of the hardware of the mind) but a function of what posture you choose to set your heart towards. I love that. This totally lends itself to showing how God may have designed in a sort of "safe-guard" against stuff that's not good, i.e. a way to put a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon and not a serial killer (even though they can and do get their hands on them).

What I'm seeing is that God seems to look within His children's hearts and give good gifts according to what they will do with them. He put a boy who is really good at looking after a bunch of sheep in charge of ruling the nation that is called by His Name. He put the big guns in the hands of the good-hearted small fries. Here's where I'm basically saying that it is very good to be humble, and God, seeing you, will feel compelled to exalt you. It is very good to fear God (not as in "Oh, look at that mean, scary deity who gets a kick out of spooking all his little-faith-lings," but as in, "Keep in mind that the hot chick you're going out with tonight has an armed and very protective father waiting at home for the news of the night."), and God, seeing you, will give you the ability to make choices that effect a lot of His children. It is very good to seek wisdom, and you will know and trust The Creator, the maker of life pleasure, and He will share this with you.

If I would sketch a flow-chart of this, it would look something like (see above)...

So here's the change that I'd like for you to leave with in your pocket: pay close attention to how you direct your intentions. Take seriously what you set your heart on. God is the designer of this machine we call the human being, and He designed it well. Pretend that God does actually hear all the stuff that flies between your ears. No, better yet, pretend that everyone else can (or at least will) hear what thoughts you think of them, and therefore, even if it's hard and goes against the grain of what you're now like, wield your will like an artist beautifying a dusty canvas. This is one of the awesome ways in which we were created in the likeness of God: we have the power to create, out of nothing, choices. Choices that effect the present in it's singular impact, and the future in it's impact on the choice maker themself.