The Problem of Individuality (Choice Topic 3)

     I go to First Church in Port Warwick and one of the most common phrases you will hear Bob, the pastor, say is: "Today is not about you, it is about God.  If you get a good feeling or learn something, that is great. But that's not why we are here."  The church today thrives off appeals to individuality and people constantly checking the opportunity cost of serving God before doing it.  That is why this statement and belief is so countercultural, serving God has become another activity and something that is done for ourselves.  I am incredibly guilty of this as I find myself thinking at times about what I will learn, what I will gain, and what general benefit will this service give me.  It is so easy for someone to know that service is about God and not about us but it is exceedingly difficult to actually believe that at times.  It is so difficult and simply due to our human condition that I think it may just require a genuine prayer that God would increase as I decrease (John 3:30) without trying to just figure it out.  I often put pressure on myself for sanctification and being more like God but I think the only way to truly be thinking of Him with no regard for myself requires God's sovereign hand.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Landscapes of the Sacred #2

In Landscapes of the Sacred, Ch. 10 discusses the tension between place and placelessness is Christian Spirituality. It discusses the two approaches to sacred place: kataphatic and apophatic.  Kataphatic rejoices in discerning the presence of God in the “thisness” of various places [place] while a pophatic: skeptical of an image’s ability to contain the mystery of the Holy [placelessness]. In one specific section, The Christian Imagination and a Theology of Place, Lane discusses how God is here, but not only here. He writes, “A theology of transcendance will never be comfortable with place.” He goes on to describe 5 “motifs by which the religious imagination is able to ‘create’ places or landscapes that become embodied means of experiencing the divine presence.” The first comes from John Calvin, he “spoke of the natural world as a theater full of wonders in which God’s glory becomes apparent..” The second is n ature as a ‘second book’ alongside scripture as a way to read the presen...
Read more

Outside Reading #3

Themes of wilderness and the presence of God are especially evident throughout the psalms. Some examples include: Ps. 63:1-2 "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and glory." Ps. 78:14-16 "He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas; He brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. Ps. 136:16 "to Him who led his people through the wilderness; His love endures forever." Ps. 107:4-6 "some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress." Woven into these examples, is the idea that wilderness puts us ...
Read more

Personal #2 - Prayer

As we have thoroughly discussed communication with God in this class, I have thought back to my own prayer life. In my other class, an independent study on Reformation Theology, we discussed John Calvin, who writes four main rules of prayer. First, that reverence is absolutely necessary in prayer. Second,  we pray from a sincere sense of want, and with patience. Third, we yield all confidence in ourselves and humbly plead for pardon. And fourth, we pray with confident hope. These two lines of thought regarding prayer have showed me a few things: how dynamic prayer is, how my selfish nature can blind me to the true meaning of prayer, and how God desires us to "empty ourselves" in prayer so that His Holy Spirit may fill us. I have noticed the flaw in my prayer life - I often do not enter into the presence of God with a sense of reverence. I do not "empty myself." I am consumed with my selfish agenda and often insist that prayer be a monologue in which I get to express...
Read more