Tionight I am not drinking. Perhaps this should happed more often and be less of a big deal when it does. Hmmm. Not sure how convicted I feel about that.
Also, through lent I 'gave up' speeding. I tried to be conscious of my speed and never deliberately went above the posted limit. Now Lent is over, why I am I happy doing 80 on the motorway. Should we all, as Christians, religiously obey the speeding laws? I suspect Jesus would if he was here, but for some reason, even though this would be an easy area to do the right thing, i persist in breaking the law, just a little bit, most days. What do you all think?
Still, I did just catch up with a psalm on our new Vicar's blog at http://godsipod.wordpress.com and it felt good. Even if this one was about leaning on God when the bottom falls out of your world and at the moment my world feels quite solidly bottomed.
Anyhoo, God Bless. Be happy. Let me know what you think of my speeding.
Rob
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Theology vs reality
A friend of mine is having a tough time at the moment. Her friends' son died last weekend. He was 18 months old. He went to sleep one night with a regular looking case of chicken-pox and just never woke up. Turns out he had some kind of streptococcal infection as well. This poor family are still reeling from this, as well as coping with the long term illness of their other child. In all of this, my friend called me, just to vent, to weep, to talk to someone. I listened, I told her I'd pray. I had o real comfort for her in the immediacy of her pain.
I've been reading a lot about suffering lately. I led a small group session on 'why there is suffering in the world' so I had to bone up. I read St Thomas Aquinas, C S Lewis and various other great thinkers. I have, currently, at my mental fingertips, more of the answers on this topic than I have ever had. I could have said that our concept of evil and unjustness points to an objective standard of goodness and justice; that a world without suffering would not allow us to learn courage, humility, grace and other virtues; I could have said that it will all be OK if you just take the long view, the eternal perspective. I could have said this, and yet, and yet...
None of it would have helped.
Now, I cannot begin to fathom the agony of this family. I feel for them, for their grief and turmoil must dwarf anything I have ever gone through, and I hesitate to even begin to compare my troubles to theirs, but here's what I've found in my limited experience. In the middle of pain, theology hasn't helped me. My friends help a little, my church helps a lot, but my God, the Jesus who loves me, the Holy Spirit who fills me with peace, calm, strength and joy gets me though the toughest of times that I have had to face. The theology, all that study stuff in between the tough times, maybe that lays good foundations for the tough times, but when the storm rages nothing reaches the parts others don't like the Almighty Himself.
Even more so, it helps just knowing he's been through so much more than I can fathom; the pain of crucifixion and the agony of separation from the Father's love that had always surrounded him. He's been there, he gets it. It gives him a the validity to get inside my pain with me. I can only hope this helps when I have to deal with something as agonising as losing a child. I guess that's what faith is
For those keeping me accountable, this week I managed to dig my bible out twice. I'll keep trying. How are you all doing out there? Please, comment and follow if you can.
Much love,
Rob
I've been reading a lot about suffering lately. I led a small group session on 'why there is suffering in the world' so I had to bone up. I read St Thomas Aquinas, C S Lewis and various other great thinkers. I have, currently, at my mental fingertips, more of the answers on this topic than I have ever had. I could have said that our concept of evil and unjustness points to an objective standard of goodness and justice; that a world without suffering would not allow us to learn courage, humility, grace and other virtues; I could have said that it will all be OK if you just take the long view, the eternal perspective. I could have said this, and yet, and yet...
None of it would have helped.
Now, I cannot begin to fathom the agony of this family. I feel for them, for their grief and turmoil must dwarf anything I have ever gone through, and I hesitate to even begin to compare my troubles to theirs, but here's what I've found in my limited experience. In the middle of pain, theology hasn't helped me. My friends help a little, my church helps a lot, but my God, the Jesus who loves me, the Holy Spirit who fills me with peace, calm, strength and joy gets me though the toughest of times that I have had to face. The theology, all that study stuff in between the tough times, maybe that lays good foundations for the tough times, but when the storm rages nothing reaches the parts others don't like the Almighty Himself.
Even more so, it helps just knowing he's been through so much more than I can fathom; the pain of crucifixion and the agony of separation from the Father's love that had always surrounded him. He's been there, he gets it. It gives him a the validity to get inside my pain with me. I can only hope this helps when I have to deal with something as agonising as losing a child. I guess that's what faith is
For those keeping me accountable, this week I managed to dig my bible out twice. I'll keep trying. How are you all doing out there? Please, comment and follow if you can.
Much love,
Rob
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
...and so it begins
So, blog 1.
I'm still not entirely sure how this will work, what I'll write about and not write about, who might be reading etc. I suppose we'll figure that out as we go along.
Today, guilt and my bible.
Mostly that's what I get from my bible, guilt that I'm not reading it. My motivation for finding time for it waxes and wanes, but I know I should read it, and generally it's worth doing. No surprise there, It's been a pretty popular book for thousands of years so it must have some validity.
Anyway, today the knowledge that I was about to blog spurred me on. I hope living my faith out here in the blogosphere will keep me accountable and make me do the things I know I should.
So, before I indulged myself with toast and lemon curd and a cup of Earl Grey with a good chunk of Sci-Fi I found time to crack open Romans (we've got a sermon series coming up at church so it seemed as good a place as any). One of the verses jumped out at me: "I am not ashamed of the gospel." I thought "yeah, that''s me" but realised perhaps I am a little. In day to day life my faith doesn't get the press it ought to when I talk to my friends and colleagues who don't believe. Maybe this is a step in the right direction, maybe not, but it seemed serendipitous that that particular verse popped out today.
Anyway, enough blogging, my lovely wife wants me back, all to herself.
I'm still not entirely sure how this will work, what I'll write about and not write about, who might be reading etc. I suppose we'll figure that out as we go along.
Today, guilt and my bible.
Mostly that's what I get from my bible, guilt that I'm not reading it. My motivation for finding time for it waxes and wanes, but I know I should read it, and generally it's worth doing. No surprise there, It's been a pretty popular book for thousands of years so it must have some validity.
Anyway, today the knowledge that I was about to blog spurred me on. I hope living my faith out here in the blogosphere will keep me accountable and make me do the things I know I should.
So, before I indulged myself with toast and lemon curd and a cup of Earl Grey with a good chunk of Sci-Fi I found time to crack open Romans (we've got a sermon series coming up at church so it seemed as good a place as any). One of the verses jumped out at me: "I am not ashamed of the gospel." I thought "yeah, that''s me" but realised perhaps I am a little. In day to day life my faith doesn't get the press it ought to when I talk to my friends and colleagues who don't believe. Maybe this is a step in the right direction, maybe not, but it seemed serendipitous that that particular verse popped out today.
Anyway, enough blogging, my lovely wife wants me back, all to herself.
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