I'm reading through the Bible again this year (although I only started a few days ago). I've gotten through Genesis 18 so far. What struck me today is how often Abraham (and others before and after him) had questions for God. And how often he questioned God. The distinction between the two is that one seeks information, the other seeks a Plan B. (Both responses, by the way, are quite natural. God tends to be far more gracious about the question that seeks more information than the question that seeks an alternative. But with both, He knows that we are limited. Notice the response of Zechariah, the father of John the baptizer in contrast to Mary, the mother of Jesus the Messiah in Luke 1. Similar questions, but different responses from God. Zechariah's seems to question God's ability, Mary's seems to question the logistics, as it were.)
What began to roll around in my head is how often over the years people have said to me (and I have sometimes thought to myself), "Why doesn't God show Himself to me. Then I would believe. Then I would follow Him. I would have no question about His existence or His authority."
The Biblical narrative says different. The Biblical story, in fact, tells us that even if God were to show up in your bedroom some night, you'd still have questions and you'd still question. In other words, our problem is deeper than simply needing some sort of external "proof" of God's existence. We are so broken that even if God deigned to appear in a way that you could see, you would still remain, at your core, unconvinced to some degree. That's how self-focused we are.
It reminds me of the time early in our relationship when Sharon flew to Coeur d'Alene to visit me without my knowing about it. She plotted with my parents to keep it a secret. I came home from spending time with friends and walked into my bedroom. There, sitting in a chair in the corner of my bedroom, was Sharon. I looked at her, turned and walked out of the room. I could not take in the fact that Sharon was in Idaho. I had just spoken with her the day before. She was in Redondo Beach, CA, not Coeur d'Alene, ID. It just didn't fit.
In the same way, when we encounter God in His word we are expecting it to fit our paradigm, our understand of life and how it works. It is no wonder that we are conflicted with what He reveals about Himself and the way life really works. We're living in Cd'A and He's in Redondo Beach. The worlds cannot occupy the same space. But that's the beauty, isn't it? He leaves His home to come into our space. He condescends to communicate. And as difficult as it is for us to comprehend, He continually shows us who He is and what He has done for us. Slowly, over time, we ask less questions and we question Him less, but it will never go away completely because He is God and we are not.
So our response, really, is always about faith whether we have had a direct, physical encounter with God or a "secondary" encounter by means of Scripture. Either way, we need to moving toward the place where we trust Him. And then live accordingly.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Welcome Home
Sharon returned home from Germany last evening. It is these relatively brief separations that remind me how much I appreciate our friendship. I am painfully aware that for many marriages, this kind of friendship is missing. I have known the joy of this friendship for most of our 35 years (When I introduce Sharon and I in public speaking settings I say, only half-jokingly, that we have been married 35 years, 34 of them happily.). When I have opportunity to talk with young adults about what they are looking for in a mate, I emphasize the importance of this factor. C.S. Lewis, in his book "Four Loves," talks eloquently about the importance of "side by side" love, the love that works alongside each other and enjoys the camaraderie of friendship. Oh, the joy of this friendship with Sharon, my lover and best friend.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
The Journey Continues...
On the way home from Munich we traveled back through Zurich. We had time before we needed to be back in Kandern, so we took a detour into the old city of Zurich. There we saw the church from which Zwingli launched the Swiss branch of the Reformation. (On our last trip to Germany, we saw Calvin's church in Geneva, Switzerland. Now I just need to get to Wittenburg.) We enjoyed people watching along the Platz Promenade where people gathered on a glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon. We drove home, having visited 3 major European cities in 3 European countries in 3 days. Pretty impressive. And, yes, we did stop for coffee at Starbucks near the Platz Promenade in Zurich and I did get my mug.
The Problem of Sin
Saturday was our trip to Munich and Dachau. We spent 4 hours at Dachau, which was the first of Hitler's work camps and became the model for all others. Even experiments and camp organization were first tested at Dachau before becoming the rule at the other camps. It was sobering and disturbing. It was set up in 1933 on the site of a former munitions factory.
As you wander the grounds, you keep asking yourself questions like, "How could this happen?" and "Was anything being done to stop this by those who lived nearby?" and "Why were the Allies so slow in seeking to stop Hitler?" and "Isn't it a bit scary that many of the conditions that were true of Germany in the early 30's are now true of America in terms of economy and the prevailing view of the value of human life?"
The image I always had of the furnaces was that they were at the camps for purpose of extermination. Eventually that was true at some of the camps. Originally, though, they were there as a way of dealing with the many bodies of those who died of disease, overwork, malnourishment, and fatal lead poisoning (bullets from the guards). Extermination camps were built for the purpose of extermination alone. Work camps were built to extract work from the undesirables, the less-than-human population (which turned out to be most people who were not German or were German but were not Nazi. Roman Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelicals, homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles and those whose political views were different than the Nazis were all treated with contempt and found their way into work camps or extermination camps by the millions.)
After 4 hours of Dachau where people endured unimaginable cruelty and degradation, we went into Munich on the S Bahn to have dinner. We did sightseeing first (and bought a Munich Starbucks mug. But I didn't have a Zurich mug.), then we began looking for a restaurant. Between the crowds who were in town for the Munich soccer team's home game, thus filling the restaurants, and the dietary restrictions of one of our travel companions, we spent at least an hour walking the streets of Munich searching for dinner. We finally got back on the train to our pensione, stopping by the restaurant that had first been recommended to us by our innkeeper. We dined on fabulous food.
Now for the embarrassing, self-revelation part of the blog. During our walking tour of downtown Munich in search of food, I was quiet most of the time. I was tired and I was hungry and, I discovered, I was irritated. Irritated that I wasn't able to eat when I wanted or what I wanted. How ungrateful and self-focused is that? But it's true. After 4 hours of seeing graphic evidence of man's fallen nature and rebellion against God, I was faced with my own, more subtle, sin nature. My traveling companions will tell you I held it in pretty well, but it began to leak out as I became more tired and more hungry. Did I commit an unpardonable sin? Was my sin as heinous as those committed by the Third Reich? No. But the root of it is the same. Self-centered rather than God-centered. Our home group will begin a study in Paul's letter to the Christians at Rome when we get back from this vacation. I've been reading chapter 1 through the middle of 3. Not a pretty picture of mankind. Yet an accurate one. The gospel is good news because without it we would be trapped in our bad news. Left to ourselves, we will express our self-centeredness in greater or lesser ways. Christ, alone, can redeem a self-focused, God-ignoring mankind. And he did! That, indeed, is good news.
As you wander the grounds, you keep asking yourself questions like, "How could this happen?" and "Was anything being done to stop this by those who lived nearby?" and "Why were the Allies so slow in seeking to stop Hitler?" and "Isn't it a bit scary that many of the conditions that were true of Germany in the early 30's are now true of America in terms of economy and the prevailing view of the value of human life?"
The image I always had of the furnaces was that they were at the camps for purpose of extermination. Eventually that was true at some of the camps. Originally, though, they were there as a way of dealing with the many bodies of those who died of disease, overwork, malnourishment, and fatal lead poisoning (bullets from the guards). Extermination camps were built for the purpose of extermination alone. Work camps were built to extract work from the undesirables, the less-than-human population (which turned out to be most people who were not German or were German but were not Nazi. Roman Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelicals, homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles and those whose political views were different than the Nazis were all treated with contempt and found their way into work camps or extermination camps by the millions.)
After 4 hours of Dachau where people endured unimaginable cruelty and degradation, we went into Munich on the S Bahn to have dinner. We did sightseeing first (and bought a Munich Starbucks mug. But I didn't have a Zurich mug.), then we began looking for a restaurant. Between the crowds who were in town for the Munich soccer team's home game, thus filling the restaurants, and the dietary restrictions of one of our travel companions, we spent at least an hour walking the streets of Munich searching for dinner. We finally got back on the train to our pensione, stopping by the restaurant that had first been recommended to us by our innkeeper. We dined on fabulous food.
Now for the embarrassing, self-revelation part of the blog. During our walking tour of downtown Munich in search of food, I was quiet most of the time. I was tired and I was hungry and, I discovered, I was irritated. Irritated that I wasn't able to eat when I wanted or what I wanted. How ungrateful and self-focused is that? But it's true. After 4 hours of seeing graphic evidence of man's fallen nature and rebellion against God, I was faced with my own, more subtle, sin nature. My traveling companions will tell you I held it in pretty well, but it began to leak out as I became more tired and more hungry. Did I commit an unpardonable sin? Was my sin as heinous as those committed by the Third Reich? No. But the root of it is the same. Self-centered rather than God-centered. Our home group will begin a study in Paul's letter to the Christians at Rome when we get back from this vacation. I've been reading chapter 1 through the middle of 3. Not a pretty picture of mankind. Yet an accurate one. The gospel is good news because without it we would be trapped in our bad news. Left to ourselves, we will express our self-centeredness in greater or lesser ways. Christ, alone, can redeem a self-focused, God-ignoring mankind. And he did! That, indeed, is good news.
Schnitzel, Without Noodles
On Thursday we drove to Salzburg, Austria. We walked the city, enjoyed the view and the food. I ate half of my first chocolate covered pretzel (Kristi got the other half). Wunderbar!
If you ever get to Salzburg, be sure you take the "original" Sound of Music tour (not the "unique" Sound of Music tour which is also available). The guide could take his sabbatical at Disneyland doing the Jungle Cruise. He is great. He's been doing the tour for 12 years. (Maybe that's why he's worked on his schtick.) Apple strudel with vanilla sauce in Mondsee (where the church is located where the Captain and Maria, in the movie, were married).
Salzburg has salt mines, hence the name. How, with so much useless information in my head, could I have never heard that before? We strolled through the Mirabel Gardens twice. This is where much of Do-Re-Mi was filmed. Very fun. We walked to the castle which was begun in the 600's (yes, 600's, not 1600's) and finished in the 1700's. (America is such a young country.) People in earlier generations were in much less of a hurry and took a much longer view of life, even though their own lives were shorter.
We finished our Friday with Schnitzel in one of the oldest establishments in Salzburg. The waiter was a space cadet who, even after we asked for the bill, would look at us, and the other customers who wanted their bills, and would then go off to do something else. Eventually we almost grabbed him by the shirt front to get our bill, paid it, and strolled back to our pensione.
If you ever get to Salzburg, be sure you take the "original" Sound of Music tour (not the "unique" Sound of Music tour which is also available). The guide could take his sabbatical at Disneyland doing the Jungle Cruise. He is great. He's been doing the tour for 12 years. (Maybe that's why he's worked on his schtick.) Apple strudel with vanilla sauce in Mondsee (where the church is located where the Captain and Maria, in the movie, were married).
Salzburg has salt mines, hence the name. How, with so much useless information in my head, could I have never heard that before? We strolled through the Mirabel Gardens twice. This is where much of Do-Re-Mi was filmed. Very fun. We walked to the castle which was begun in the 600's (yes, 600's, not 1600's) and finished in the 1700's. (America is such a young country.) People in earlier generations were in much less of a hurry and took a much longer view of life, even though their own lives were shorter.
We finished our Friday with Schnitzel in one of the oldest establishments in Salzburg. The waiter was a space cadet who, even after we asked for the bill, would look at us, and the other customers who wanted their bills, and would then go off to do something else. Eventually we almost grabbed him by the shirt front to get our bill, paid it, and strolled back to our pensione.
Cosmopolitan
Our first meal in Kandern, Germany was Chinese food in a restaurant run by Vietnamese from Australia. How's that for cosmopolitan?
But I Didn't Have My Mug
Sharon and I are enjoying our trip to Germany to visit Kristi. We've been here a week now and our days have been full. Along the way I've picked up some insights into myself. Mostly about expectations. We flew into Zurich, arriving Tuesday morning. Kristi had told me I should pick up my Zurich Starbucks mug in the airport so we wouldn't forget and because we weren't planning to spend time in Zurich on this trip. After using the WC, our first stop was the Starbucks. No Zurich mugs. The coffee was good, but I didn't have my mug. I wondered if there was a Starbucks along the Autobahn before leaving Zurich. Nope. So we headed to Kandern. My mind would drift back to the mug I never purchased. The scenery is magnificent year-round, but this is Spring when it is spectacular. I enjoyed it, even with my jet lag. But I didn't have my mug. Not having my Zurich Starbucks mug didn't overshadow the view, the fact that we had arrived safely or the anticipation of spending time with Kristi. But I didn't have my mug.
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