Wednesday, April 19, 2006

How to be self-obsorbed (how?)

If you read this, I’m curious to know what you think...

Does the Bible show God’s “method” to be
1) Accomplishment
2) State of Being

For example, the idea of “God’s glory revealed.” Is that an issue of it finally being seen or that the universe is in an ongoing state of revealing?

For example, am I to “learn a lesson” (faith, obedience, morality, etc.) or am I to “become” something (faithful, obedient, moral)?


Is God trying to teach me “something” or is it more how to live, no matter what the somethings are? Does God put me in difficult situations or does life happen with God altering how I live in this world? Put most awkwardly, is God trying to make me Become something or rather Become someone Becoming?

A large part of this springs from the sense that if the former in each case is true, then how can I not be overwhelmed when I look at my life - so much going on, so many places where I think I see God's hand, etc. - SHOULD I be overwhelmed, is that the proper place to be?

[I know there are examples of both in the Bible. The question pertains to discerning does God have a primary method while the other is a tool or simply situational.]

1 comment:

Katie said...

Hey David,
Wow this is an old post and I'm not sure if you'll even read this comment but oh well here goes me jumping into the heady conversation.

Oh and a caveat: I may be way off on this but oh well it's my mind in action so here goes:

I think the key to this dilemma is time. We see things on a linear basis, moving from chaos toward completion. God exists where there is no time, no incompletion, no chaos. He isn't in a state of evolution but we are. This reality of time messes with my head when I think of subjects like this. Am I to achieve gold stars of Christianity on my pathway to becoming more like Him, or is my becoming more like Him accomplished amongst the failures or successes in relation to the "somethings". I often ask myself what is my end state supposed to be here on this earth, or better is there an end state at all? Should I be living with that in mind? Or much like the whole whopper of pre-destination, choosing, etc. is God's mind so beyond my understanding or comprehension that I try to build some type of framework or boundaries to his infinite wisdom. And in the process of that do I miss the lesson/becoming because I'm trying so hard to figure out the process.

So yep, that made no sense at all but hey I got to think about it and that was fun