What Matters About Me
- Jack C. Getz
- I am who I am, not what I have done. For those who care about pedigree, I have little more than being a former public school teacher and a pastor/denominational adminstrator. The following insights come from a couple of tests I took. They may explain why I am a Contrarian and why I decided to do a blog about it. The first test is a standardized personality profile. The second is something strange called a Brain Type test! 1)“Jack lives outside traditional boundaries and ahead of the curve. When others focus on limitations, Jack creates new possibilities and ideas. He is a doer, not just a dreamer. Well grounded in reality, logic and analytical thinking. He enjoys meeting and working with other creative and ambitious people...a fearless leader. Only 3-5% of U.S. population has these qualities.” 2) Jack's Intellectual Type is Word Warrior. This means he has exceptional verbal skills. He can can easily make sense of complex issues and takes an unusually creative approach to solving problems. His strengths also make him a visionary. Even without trying he's able to come up with lots of new and creative ideas. (Like blogging as Contrarian?)
This challenges common ideas about the purpose of praying. Not a rehash of old dogma.
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As our understanding of God is limited, so too is our ability to describe Him, His attributes or characteristics, in words, I think. They help but they are woefully inadequate!
ReplyDeleteI think it is our experience with God that brings understanding and context to the words of scripture.
ReplyDeleteAnd vise versa. No experience with God creates a different view of scripture.
ReplyDeleteI love earnest, sincere evangelicals. I grew up with them; I’ve even considered myself one. Can you hear a “but” coming?
ReplyDeleteWell, yes. I’m all for “upholding it [Scripture’s authority] as the reliable Word of God.”, but like Arends, I agree that to more fully understand scripture is to appreciate “metaphors and analogies” and even story. Clearly, Jesus found a way to communicate to his own generation while still speaking to all those who have come since. Time and place in the Old and New Testaments (context) do add to our understanding. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through scripture, but do any of us believe that He will “speak” exactly the same thing to you as to me? Perhaps we can agree that He will not ever “speak” out of character. That’s reassuring, and as Arends says, “’Connotations of imperfection or limitation must be deleted from any word when it is applied to God. . . .“ But not so much with us.
Things haven’t changed all that much since Arends attended college. Churches and the airwaves are still jam-packed with evangelical preachers pounding the pulpit and their listeners with the Bible, claiming all too often to have the definitive take on every verse of scripture. I think we need to take a breath and put it in perspective.
J. I Packer has it right. We are all like “two-year-olds with a father who has a brain of Einsteinian proportions.” Again, this is an analogy (a simile to be exact) or we’ll run the risk of denigrating God with our always-less-than adequate descriptions! The more we get into scripture, the more we find; it’s an exciting process of discovery, “a nuanced adventure,” as Arends states, and well worth the effort. However, this side of heaven, we will always “see through a glass darkly.” When we see “face to face,” and only then, will we fully comprehend.
Now that's a well conceived and well stated view! Keep the mystery in the equation but don't forget the Reasonable service side of faith.
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