gramsšµš¼
and 'open door' theology
dear friends,
the nickname saga continues. not only does smol nephew call me ābidetā, but he also associates me with grandmas. I present to you, Exhibit B:
yes. the peppered-haired bespectacled grams in the corner of the page is apparently tedderās mental schema of me. i love it. he could not be more spot on šµš¼
enjoy this weekās hodgepodge!
a book
Iām in Book 3 of The Chronicles of Prydain. I like that it begins with an older character assuring a much younger one who doesnāt want things to change:
Child, child, do you not see? For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are.
And then sets her off on a journey.
a quote
Iāve been thinking a lot about how the Bible should be both deep study and turn our lives upside-down. Grateful to be soon starting this Scripture Practice with a handful of friends. I like that it already quoted Dallas Willard:
We come to Scripture as part of a conscious strategy to cooperate with God for the full redemption of our lives.
fodder for thought
Remember The Sparrow book, that Iām obsessed with? Iām waiting for a few friends to finish reading so that we can talk about it. Until then, some big picture themes that I enjoy hearing Skye and Kaitlyn discuss (and also adhoc chats with my bro-in-law over dinner).
One of the things this book wrestles with is trying to discern Godās will. Thereās a character in the book who talks about āif you see a turtle on top of a fence post, it didnāt get there by itself.ā This comes up a number of times in the novel as a way of saying there are things beyond coincidence that are signs that God is pointing us in a certain direction to go, to do a certain thing, including going on the mission to this other planet. So the book characters take these as evidence that āGod is leading us to do this. He is with us.ā Of course, it all goes horribly badly. Pretty much everyone is dead. Tragedy falls upon the alien species. The wrestling that Sandoz has to do at the end of the novel is āI thought this was Godās will.ā and if this is true then āis God responsible for all the evil that happened?ā
I squirm a bit with this āOpen Door Theologyā, which is āthereās this open door, so thatās the one God wants me to go through.ā I can think of numerous moments in my life when there was a very open door for me to walk through that was clearly not aligned with Godās character. Like it would have been flat-out sinful. So to just say āopen doors are Godās willā is kind of weird. On the flip-side, we also have to think through how do we evaluate success. Because many of us have walked through open doors and things have turned out well in some circumstances, and looking back we think āoh Iām glad I walked through that door, it seemed like God blessed it.ā Ok, so what happens when you walk through a door, like in this novel, and it turns out horrifically painful and tragic and fraught with peril and calamity? Is it evidence of it not being what God wanted you to do? Itās pretty hard when you put it up against the Cross. Which clearly, the Father guided Jesus toward the cross. It was His will. It was His plan for the salvation of the world. And it included enduring horrific evil. So I donāt think we can just discern Godās will by simply an open or closed door, and by assessing āI walked through it and good things or bad things happened.ā Itās all more complicated than that.
TLDR: the more I read good novels and the more I live life, the more I have no idea how anything works. But Jesus does. So I trust in his goodness and authority.
be well, friends! drink water! stretch! smile at your neighbors! play mahjong!
love,
gramma reb
"TLDR: the more I read good novels and the more I live life, the more I have no idea how anything works. But Jesus does. So I trust in his goodness and authority."
Amen to that!