A prayer by Brendan Manning. It took a number of decades for me to get to a place where this sort of thing makes sense to me. That makes me wonder what else I will learn.
May all your expectations be frustrated;
may all your plans be thwarted;
may all your desires be withered into nothingness...
taht you may experience the powerlessness
and poverty of a child;
and sing and dance in the poverty of God;
Who is the Father, Son, and Spirit. Amen.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Chance
This will have to be a first draft of several attempts. I want to go after the concept of chance. My last post was originally going to be called Chance vs. Choice. As I wrote that one, I found that choice was plenty to bite off in one post. I also realized that I wasn’t sure that choice and chance are necessarily opposed. However, I do believe that the sovereignty of God is antithetical to the idea of chance.
First define terms:
chance Function: noun1 a: something that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention or observable cause b: the assumed impersonal purposeless determiner of unaccountable happenings: LUCK c: the fortuitous or incalculable element in existence:
It is meaning 1b that I want to dwell on. “The assumed impersonal determiner of unaccountable happenings”.
So something happens. Why did it happen?
That domino fell because the one before it fell and hit it. Cause and effect works just fine. If the second domino didn’t fall after being hit by the first, we would seek a cause.
It must be glued down. Why do we seek a cause? If chance ruled, we would just say there was a chance it would fall down when hit and a chance it wouldn’t. However, we are so sure that one domino will knock down another, that folks spend weeks building elaborate patterns of dominos, just to push the first and watch the rest fall and fall and fall.
We largely work on the assumption that the universe behaves in a deterministic way. Natural laws are thought to be our best effort at describing how bits of the universe will behave as they do. The pebble falls to the ground. The hot steel glows various colors as its temperature rises higher and higher. Of course we generalize: one object attracts another by gravitation and a heated body will radiate energy to cooler surroundings.
Now we just need the first domino. Once it is set into motion, all else that happens could be known by someone with enough knowledge of the natural laws that would prevail.
But who or what pushed the first domino? And will anyone or anything ever intervene once the dominos have begun to fall according to the law that governs such things?
One idea is that of the prime mover: the one who sets the first domino into motion. It might be speculated that the dominos always existed. I suppose one might even suppose an infinitely long chain of dominos that had started falling an infinitely long time ago. Yet the idea of a start is still there haunting us with the need for a starter.
If we were to suppose that the first domino fell by chance, why not presume that all the rest are simply falling by chance as well. Where do we get the sense of certainty that one domino pushed means that the rest will fall? I don’t think I can imagine thirty seconds of life on earth where I did not operate in the certainty that cause and effect were operating. Abandon all hope you who enter there.
However, neither can I imagine that whoever, or whatever, moved the first domino would necessarily stand back and refrain from ever stopping a domino collision. If I saw a domino stop, and could find no discernable reason for it to do so, I would be likely to consider it a miracle. A miracle might be defined as follows: an extraordinary event manifesting the intervention of someone or something acting outside the scope of the natural laws.
Now I want to call up choice again. Something can choose to act outside the scope of the natural laws. Without choice a universe is at best an enormously intricate domino pattern that has always been in motion and will always be in motion. There are no choices. Choice is banned. Every domino must fall just as it has always been destined to fall in accordance with the natural laws.
That is the universe at its best without choice. In it I am a very complicated domino collapse, hitting the keys of the computer as I must. The universe without choice would be at its worst, to my sensibilities. It would be that universe where every domino may fall or not according to chance: the assumed impersonal purposeless determiner of unaccountable happenings
With choice, the universe at its worst is a vast domino fall set into motion by a single choice. No more choices after that. Natural law prevails. It seems a very lonely place to me for the one who made the choice.
In his revelation to man, God seems to be very intent on insisting that we make choices. Choose him or reject him. Choose his way or the other way. And those choices make possible the idea of good and evil, right and wrong. Those universes without choice have no good and evil. Things must either happen according to the rules, or by chance, in a universe without choice. And in a universe that does have choices, I believe that chance is ruled out. God has assured us that if we make the right choice, we will live with him forever. A sovereign God rules over all and there is no chance that can overrule him. A God who is not sovereign really doesn’t rule at all. In any particular instance, chance may intervene. And chance is by definition impersonal and purposeless. It cannot be in accord with Gods purpose because it is by definition purposeless.
God is sovereign. We are able to choose. Nothing is left to chance. Chance is left as no thing.
It is a first draft. Will I choose to revise it? Or is there a chance that I will not? (
Monday, January 02, 2006
Choice
We all struggle with a fundamental question: Why do things happen as they do? I believe that there is a sovereign deity with a plan for all people throughout all time. This implies that God makes choices and events unfold accordingly.
Were God the only one making choices, I do not believe real relationship could exist between God and humans. I cannot fathom a meaningful relationship with something that never does anything that I have not programmed it to do. I may talk about how angry I am with my computer. But what I am really saying is that it doesn’t always do what I planned for it to do. In that sense it takes on a bit of a personality of its own. It can be that way for us with inanimate objects because we are very limited. Even very simple objects can often thwart our purposes. I have cursed a rock for positioning itself where my toe would be stubbed upon it.
However, when we describe God as sovereign, we are perforce saying that his plans are never thwarted. We struggle to understand how it is that humans are able to make choices and yet never thwart God’s plans.
One approach to this thorny subject is to simply declare that we cannot make choices without God’s intervention into the process. Yet, in taking this approach, we actually give up the idea that we can make choices. Some are willing to steadfastly maintain that this is exactly true. We have only the illusion of free will. God is always in the driver’s seat of our conscience. God chooses those who will choose him and he chooses those who will reject him.
I see two large problems with that. First, how can it be that we are in relationship with someone, when that someone makes all the choices? Imagine a marriage where one partner made all the choices and directed all the activities of the married couple. It is a very depressing thought. Yet, we are the bride of Christ. Our marriage is portrayed in the bible as a joyous union. And even while we are still in this sin cursed world, we are given some insight into what it is to be in loving relationships.
Secondly, why would God’s inspired word frequently insist that we choose? Choose whom you will serve. Choose life. Choose understanding. Choose the right.
These are very direct commands from God. He also requires faith of us. Faith is defined as trusting, believing, and acting on that which we believe.
God and humans make choices. I also believe that spirits referred to as angels and demons also make choices, but I will not insist upon that for now.
Sometimes we choose to serve things other than God. We choose death. We choose ignorance. We choose evil. We place our trust improperly. We fail to trust. We do not act on what we believe. Pain, suffering, and even eternal separation from God may result. And yet, God is sovereign. His purposes are made manifest. He is God and we are not.
No choice of ours will thwart his purposes. This is a very great mystery. I do not presume that I understand how it can be so. But it is so.
Were God the only one making choices, I do not believe real relationship could exist between God and humans. I cannot fathom a meaningful relationship with something that never does anything that I have not programmed it to do. I may talk about how angry I am with my computer. But what I am really saying is that it doesn’t always do what I planned for it to do. In that sense it takes on a bit of a personality of its own. It can be that way for us with inanimate objects because we are very limited. Even very simple objects can often thwart our purposes. I have cursed a rock for positioning itself where my toe would be stubbed upon it.
However, when we describe God as sovereign, we are perforce saying that his plans are never thwarted. We struggle to understand how it is that humans are able to make choices and yet never thwart God’s plans.
One approach to this thorny subject is to simply declare that we cannot make choices without God’s intervention into the process. Yet, in taking this approach, we actually give up the idea that we can make choices. Some are willing to steadfastly maintain that this is exactly true. We have only the illusion of free will. God is always in the driver’s seat of our conscience. God chooses those who will choose him and he chooses those who will reject him.
I see two large problems with that. First, how can it be that we are in relationship with someone, when that someone makes all the choices? Imagine a marriage where one partner made all the choices and directed all the activities of the married couple. It is a very depressing thought. Yet, we are the bride of Christ. Our marriage is portrayed in the bible as a joyous union. And even while we are still in this sin cursed world, we are given some insight into what it is to be in loving relationships.
Secondly, why would God’s inspired word frequently insist that we choose? Choose whom you will serve. Choose life. Choose understanding. Choose the right.
These are very direct commands from God. He also requires faith of us. Faith is defined as trusting, believing, and acting on that which we believe.
God and humans make choices. I also believe that spirits referred to as angels and demons also make choices, but I will not insist upon that for now.
Sometimes we choose to serve things other than God. We choose death. We choose ignorance. We choose evil. We place our trust improperly. We fail to trust. We do not act on what we believe. Pain, suffering, and even eternal separation from God may result. And yet, God is sovereign. His purposes are made manifest. He is God and we are not.
No choice of ours will thwart his purposes. This is a very great mystery. I do not presume that I understand how it can be so. But it is so.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Yes to Yesterday; No to Nostalgia
I've been organizing photos for an album that will cover the past 100 years of my mom and dad's family tree. It is taking much longer than I expected. Practically every item evokes memories or speculation about the past. This picture is one I especially liked. It is Barbara at the Oregon coast about twenty years ago. I was stunned by the beauty and freedom I see in her in this photo. I asked myself, am I feeling nostalgia? So I looked up the definition, just to be sure I was properly naming the emotion. Here is the definition:
nostalgia 1 : the state of being homesick 2: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition
I realized that I am not nostalgic. I have no desire to go back. I am grateful for the years I have been given. I am thankful for many wonderful things in my past. The things that were terribly hard were used by God to teach me and grow me. And every day that passes brings me one day closer to an eternity in a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more crying and no more pain.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
C.S. Lewis Quote
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Saturday, December 24, 2005
How Barbara and I Met
I first met Barbara in early December, twenty five years ago. I would like to write that it was “love at first sight”, but I don’t think that is true. The first time I saw Barbara, she walked into my friend’s apartment as I sat at his kitchen table, stuffing take out fried chicken into my mouth. She was very pretty, but I don’t remember immediately falling in love with her.
Learning to love Barbara was a process, not an event. It took most of that evening before I realized that she was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. In those vital first moments, I was really more intent on the chicken than on love. Later, as we danced and chatted at a local night club, I began to realize that I wanted to know her more than anyone else I had ever met. It didn’t have much to do with how she treated me. It had everything to do who she was. And the more I realized who she was, the more I wanted to know. The fact that she seemed somewhat indifferent to my interest in her only made me more certain that it was her that I wanted, and not what she could do for me.
By the end of that evening, I was determined to know her better. I learned that she would likely be attending a Christmas party thrown by a fellow who worked with me at HP. I called the girl I had been dating for the previous few weeks and told her that it was over. I realize now how cold that was, and I regret how I handled it. However, I am positive that freeing myself to pursue Barbara whole heartedly was the right thing to do.
I attended the party and waited anxiously until she arrived. From that moment on, she was my total focus. We danced, laughed, and talked. We talked and talked until the wee hours of the morning. Every other guest had left with the exception of Barbara’s roommate. The roommate was busy becoming very involved with the host of the party. They married not long after that, and as far as I know, are married to this day.
We honestly just talked that first night. At the end of the night, we each drove off to our separate homes. However, I had asked her out. I took her to dinner in San Francisco the next evening. As we waited for our table at the Cliff House, we stood outside, high above the Pacific surf. The sun hung just above the horizon. A chill wind blew in off the ocean, so I took off my leather jacket and hung it around Barbara. Then I stood behind her and circled her with my arms. Both of us still remember that moment vividly.
This weekend Barbara and I spent a romantic two day get away at a cozy little house perched on a cliff above a spectacular section of the Oregon coast. I had lots of time to carefully consider how our love has grown. Twenty five years have passed. I have come to love her more deeply as God has developed my capacity to love. I thank God for the years of love we have had. I thank God for drawing us to him. As we grow ever closer to God, we grow closer to each other.
Learning to love Barbara was a process, not an event. It took most of that evening before I realized that she was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. In those vital first moments, I was really more intent on the chicken than on love. Later, as we danced and chatted at a local night club, I began to realize that I wanted to know her more than anyone else I had ever met. It didn’t have much to do with how she treated me. It had everything to do who she was. And the more I realized who she was, the more I wanted to know. The fact that she seemed somewhat indifferent to my interest in her only made me more certain that it was her that I wanted, and not what she could do for me.
By the end of that evening, I was determined to know her better. I learned that she would likely be attending a Christmas party thrown by a fellow who worked with me at HP. I called the girl I had been dating for the previous few weeks and told her that it was over. I realize now how cold that was, and I regret how I handled it. However, I am positive that freeing myself to pursue Barbara whole heartedly was the right thing to do.
I attended the party and waited anxiously until she arrived. From that moment on, she was my total focus. We danced, laughed, and talked. We talked and talked until the wee hours of the morning. Every other guest had left with the exception of Barbara’s roommate. The roommate was busy becoming very involved with the host of the party. They married not long after that, and as far as I know, are married to this day.
We honestly just talked that first night. At the end of the night, we each drove off to our separate homes. However, I had asked her out. I took her to dinner in San Francisco the next evening. As we waited for our table at the Cliff House, we stood outside, high above the Pacific surf. The sun hung just above the horizon. A chill wind blew in off the ocean, so I took off my leather jacket and hung it around Barbara. Then I stood behind her and circled her with my arms. Both of us still remember that moment vividly.
This weekend Barbara and I spent a romantic two day get away at a cozy little house perched on a cliff above a spectacular section of the Oregon coast. I had lots of time to carefully consider how our love has grown. Twenty five years have passed. I have come to love her more deeply as God has developed my capacity to love. I thank God for the years of love we have had. I thank God for drawing us to him. As we grow ever closer to God, we grow closer to each other.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
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