My wife thinks I’m weird. Well, mostly because I’m always lost in thought, pondering one thing or another that, to her, isn’t worth considering in the first place. Maybe she’s right; but, to me, when humanity at large, and especially believers, seldom stop to consider their existence, content to take life as it comes to them and asking questions only when they catch a brick, they’re missing out on an important part of what salvation is all about. Theology doesn’t solve the mystery. Conversion doesn’t end the interrogative. It opens an oasis to which we might run, its waters able to meet our thirst in more ways than one. Going “behind the veil with the Holy Ghost” has never been restricted to some appointed prayer closet. Good sermons get clarified in the next step; illumination is worked out in a dialogue on a daily basis; and truth, in any way our minds attempt to contain it, is always bigger than any definition we assign it. It’s like looking at the universe and trying to limit it to our solar system, like peering into a microscope and stopping with an amoeba. Who has God in a box? That’s not to say there’s some need on my part to continually encounter miracles, to discover something new because what’s already known has somehow lost its “glow”. The wonder remains, because He, alone, is the attraction, having given me permission to bring unto Him whatsoever occupies my mind, having always been patient with my tendency to drift in and out of the connection. After all, this isn’t some attempt to “conquer” Him, but a desire to better understand me and this relationship that has been restored unto me. Grace, I have found, doesn’t just say “You’re forgiven”, but “Take me with you as you go”……
Good quote. Good advice.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt Hubby thinks I'm weird or at least wonders if I have some kind of low grade fever or something because he asked me a little while ago why I don't seem to read anymore. We often read and discussed the same books. I wonder if he thinks that I have stopped thinking.
Having read voraciously all my life, I'm equally surprised by my dwindling lack of interest in the last few years. In the last ten years or so, most fiction has become unappealing and predictable; it has to be something unusual to hook me at all. And in the last three or four, I seldom even pick up my favourite authors though I can handle snippets here and there. I still do appreciate them.
I recently returned to reading the Bible which thankfully does come in the form of pre-packaged snippets. In the last couple of years, I'd rarely read it at all and seemed to need a break. Now, I'm happy to report that I enjoy and appreciate it as much as I ever did, if not more.
I guess there's a need to let my mind float around a bit, undirected. I could be wrong but I suspect that your wife does a lot of pondering.
I get the feeling it's me she mostly ponders. Just about all my reading is theological thinking; and I don't mean all this tv evangelist celebrity stuff that has flooded the book stores for the last few decades. Lately, I've been devouring Catholic authors, not always in agreement. but at least finding some sanity in what they say. I'll e-mail you a few suggestions on some religious fictional novels, though, but with no wish to halt you in your present pursuit of the Word.....
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