So this evening I picked up Seeking God's Face again and one thing in today's readings really resonated with me. But before I get to that, I have to preface it with a little story so you can see a nifty little connection (I love how God works sometimes... okay, really, I love how God works all of the time). To explain: I've been hearing a lot about Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, about hell (or a possible lack of it) and also about Francis Chan's book (apparently a rebutal of sorts, but don't quote me on that), Erasing Hell, and finally tonight I decided to do a little exploring as I wanted to know more about them. I placed both books on hold at my local library (although I think I'll be waiting a while for both of them) and ended up watching Francis Chan's video on the subject (you can find it by following the link above, attached to the title of his book). In the video (which I loved), Chan talks about how he believes we have to be humble and recognize that there are things about God that we will never understand and that He has and will make decisions that we would never make (he says this much better than I do - watch the video!). He's talking about this in general but also in the specific context of hell and God allowing people to go there. Then I went to read today's Bible Song in Seeking God's Face, which is from Psalm 36, and it says, "Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep" (v. 5-6). And it seems to me that that last line is exactly what Francis Chan was talking about. God's justice IS like the great deep. Even in today's advanced technological society, we know very little about the ocean. One site I found says, "95 percent of this realm [the ocean] remains unexplored, unseen by human eyes" (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html). Our understanding of God's justice is much the same. It's beyond our knowledge base, perhaps even beyond our knowledge capability. And I, for one, am perfectly okay with that. In fact, in some ways, it makes it easier for me, especially when faced with things that I know about God's nature that I'm uncomfortable with. It almost feels like a cop out, although I don't think it is, to say, "Well, He's God and even if I don't like it or totally get it, I'm okay with that, because He's God and He knows infinitely better than I do", but I like believing in a God who is so much greater than I and who is a grand Mystery. It gives me hope and makes me feel secure, knowing that God is in control (because goodness knows, if I was to make all the decisions, I'd screw it all up, royally). And I'm thankful for the reminders I got today to be humble before God and accept His judgment as infinitely wiser and more sound than mine.
25.8.11
SGF: Ordinary Time - Week 11, Day 5
Well, in typical fashion, I completely fell off the blogging boat and haven't written in months. I've also been very sporadic (read: only a few times) in keeping up with the devotional readings in Seeking God's Face. A friend of mine recently asked me if she could have the link to my blog, which prompted me to a) feel guilty about not blogging in so long and b) feel inspired to pick it up again. Hopefully the combination of guilt and inspiration will help me keep at this a little more consistently.
So this evening I picked up Seeking God's Face again and one thing in today's readings really resonated with me. But before I get to that, I have to preface it with a little story so you can see a nifty little connection (I love how God works sometimes... okay, really, I love how God works all of the time). To explain: I've been hearing a lot about Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, about hell (or a possible lack of it) and also about Francis Chan's book (apparently a rebutal of sorts, but don't quote me on that), Erasing Hell, and finally tonight I decided to do a little exploring as I wanted to know more about them. I placed both books on hold at my local library (although I think I'll be waiting a while for both of them) and ended up watching Francis Chan's video on the subject (you can find it by following the link above, attached to the title of his book). In the video (which I loved), Chan talks about how he believes we have to be humble and recognize that there are things about God that we will never understand and that He has and will make decisions that we would never make (he says this much better than I do - watch the video!). He's talking about this in general but also in the specific context of hell and God allowing people to go there. Then I went to read today's Bible Song in Seeking God's Face, which is from Psalm 36, and it says, "Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep" (v. 5-6). And it seems to me that that last line is exactly what Francis Chan was talking about. God's justice IS like the great deep. Even in today's advanced technological society, we know very little about the ocean. One site I found says, "95 percent of this realm [the ocean] remains unexplored, unseen by human eyes" (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html). Our understanding of God's justice is much the same. It's beyond our knowledge base, perhaps even beyond our knowledge capability. And I, for one, am perfectly okay with that. In fact, in some ways, it makes it easier for me, especially when faced with things that I know about God's nature that I'm uncomfortable with. It almost feels like a cop out, although I don't think it is, to say, "Well, He's God and even if I don't like it or totally get it, I'm okay with that, because He's God and He knows infinitely better than I do", but I like believing in a God who is so much greater than I and who is a grand Mystery. It gives me hope and makes me feel secure, knowing that God is in control (because goodness knows, if I was to make all the decisions, I'd screw it all up, royally). And I'm thankful for the reminders I got today to be humble before God and accept His judgment as infinitely wiser and more sound than mine.
So this evening I picked up Seeking God's Face again and one thing in today's readings really resonated with me. But before I get to that, I have to preface it with a little story so you can see a nifty little connection (I love how God works sometimes... okay, really, I love how God works all of the time). To explain: I've been hearing a lot about Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, about hell (or a possible lack of it) and also about Francis Chan's book (apparently a rebutal of sorts, but don't quote me on that), Erasing Hell, and finally tonight I decided to do a little exploring as I wanted to know more about them. I placed both books on hold at my local library (although I think I'll be waiting a while for both of them) and ended up watching Francis Chan's video on the subject (you can find it by following the link above, attached to the title of his book). In the video (which I loved), Chan talks about how he believes we have to be humble and recognize that there are things about God that we will never understand and that He has and will make decisions that we would never make (he says this much better than I do - watch the video!). He's talking about this in general but also in the specific context of hell and God allowing people to go there. Then I went to read today's Bible Song in Seeking God's Face, which is from Psalm 36, and it says, "Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep" (v. 5-6). And it seems to me that that last line is exactly what Francis Chan was talking about. God's justice IS like the great deep. Even in today's advanced technological society, we know very little about the ocean. One site I found says, "95 percent of this realm [the ocean] remains unexplored, unseen by human eyes" (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html). Our understanding of God's justice is much the same. It's beyond our knowledge base, perhaps even beyond our knowledge capability. And I, for one, am perfectly okay with that. In fact, in some ways, it makes it easier for me, especially when faced with things that I know about God's nature that I'm uncomfortable with. It almost feels like a cop out, although I don't think it is, to say, "Well, He's God and even if I don't like it or totally get it, I'm okay with that, because He's God and He knows infinitely better than I do", but I like believing in a God who is so much greater than I and who is a grand Mystery. It gives me hope and makes me feel secure, knowing that God is in control (because goodness knows, if I was to make all the decisions, I'd screw it all up, royally). And I'm thankful for the reminders I got today to be humble before God and accept His judgment as infinitely wiser and more sound than mine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment