Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Spelling vs. Writing – A lesson for church leaders

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Digging DeeperThere is more to writing a good story than having perfect spelling. Winning a spelling bee does not immediately make you a good writer. Knowing the spelling, meaning and origin of words is foundational to good writing. But good writing is so much more than these.

In the same way, good theology is foundational to living the Christian life, but the Christian life is so much more than good theology.

The danger to those of us who identify as church leaders is that we can be quick to dispense knowledge and think our job is finished when we do.

But, if we are in the business of helping others to write their stories, we owe it to them to not stop at providing information.

Years ago one of my daughters was given a list of words by her teacher and instructed to use each of the words in a story. Even though she was, and remains, a creative child, she found this assignment frustrating and it took some effort to get her past her frustration.

Now, I could have drilled her ad nauseum on the correct spelling of every word on her list, but improvement in spelling would not have helped her at all with her assignment.

We can work very hard to make sure that the people in our churches have lots of Bible knowledge and are theologically grounded. This is a good thing, but too often we stop there and don’t spend the time to understand their situations and help them with their own, personal story.

Jesus had many people appeal to him for information and sometimes his responses were surprising if not annoying. When one questioner addressed him as “Good Teacher,” Jesus asked him “why do you call me good” (Luke 18:19). When a woman asked Jesus to give her the living water, Jesus told her to go get her husband (John 4:16).

As we consider these recorded events in Jesus’ life, we can see that his response was intended to go deeper than the original request. Jesus was drawing his questioner to consider his story in a new, deeper and better way.

Can we admit the fact that we like being the one who knows the answer? Can we admit that sometimes we respond with our primary motivation to be admired for our knowledge? After we repent of our pride, we can then seek to be used by God to assist others in drawing into deeper relationship with Jesus.

There is nothing wrong with having or dispensing knowledge, but wisdom should dictate how we do it.

We should take a page from Jesus’ playbook and dig deep enough to understand the “why” before we address the “what.”

Submit a question or topic to Attempts at Honesty

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QuestionI would enjoy hearing from you if you have a suggested topic for a post or if you have a question about the Bible or church life. You can use the contact form on this blog, or you can enter your question or suggestion in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

I don’t offer this because I am an expert, but to stimulate discussion. The goal of the discussion is to arrive at a Biblically accurate viewpoint on the topic at hand allowing for legitimate disagreement where Scripture is not absolutely clear.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you with questions and suggestions.

How Long, O Lord?

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AbandonedHow long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)

l don’t have anyone trying to kill me. But I do have times when l wonder if God is listening or if he cares. I assume that this is true of all Christians. The tragedy is that on any given Sunday, in any given church, it is unlikely that you will find anyone who shows signs of questioning God’s concern for them. Too often we stuff down our doubts and feelings of frustration and paste on our “spiritual” smile and pretend that everything is OK.

You may have noticed that I have not posted much in the last few weeks. Life has been chaotic, or at least more chaotic than normal.  Nothing really bad has happened to me personally but the stuff happening around me has stripped away any illusion of control that I might have had. It is too easy to lose perspective and be overwhelmed by the circumstances.

Some examples: my manager unexpectedly left for a competitor, a manager that I liked and with whom I worked well. I have been assigned a role in the company that is not my first choice but I am still obliged to do it well. I read that government officials cannot restrain themselves from spending more than they have, putting our country in financial jeopardy. The news media promotes and applauds immorality that would not have been tolerated a generation ago. I have uncertainty about what form of ministry I am called to. The list of things that can destroy my focus and cause me to question God’s concern for myself and the people around me is seemingly inexhaustible.

To make matters worse, there are some who say that allowing these things to bother me is a sign of spiritual weakness or a lack of trust in God. It is these “Job’s counselors” that pressure people into pretending that everything is OK even when it is not.

This Is why I like the Psalms, especially the psalms of David. David keeps it real. In Psalm 13 we see the man after God’s own heart admitting his own sense of alienation and frustration with God.

We do not serve a God who always makes it easy. Life is sometimes difficult and it is no different for the Christian. In a sense it may be worse for the Christian because we have the expectation that it could be better.

God allows us to go through difficult times. He allows us to go through dry times where it feels like our prayers never make it past the ceiling in the room. God allows the knuckleheads to remain in power both in the government and in the church. Often, he leaves us wondering why.

It is in those times when the promise of Jesus begins to bring comfort. He will be with me to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). To fix our predicament, God came down to be one of us to feel our pain and offer a solution for it. While this may not make the process easier, it should affect the result.

We can be honest about our struggles knowing that in the end, God will make it right. We don’t have to pretend that everything is well with us. We can be honest. David was.

Hypothesis, research and faith

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According to Science Buddies, the steps to conducting scientific experiment are as follows:

  1. Ask a Question
  2. Do Background Research
  3. Construct a Hypothesis
  4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
  5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
  6. Communicate Your Results

Research

It seems to me that Christian thinkers follow much the same method. We ask questions about life and destiny, we do research, we draw some conclusions based on research, test our experience against our conclusions and communicate the results.

Those who argue that faith and science are incompatible would quibble with this. Thanks to The Poached Egg, I ran across the following definition of atheism from the American Atheist:

“Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity, which implies that nothing exists but natural phenomena (matter), that thought is a property or function of matter, and that death irreversibly and totally terminates individual organic units. This definition means that there are no forces, phenomena, or entities which exist outside of or apart from physical nature, or which transcend nature, or are “super” natural, nor can there be. Humankind is on its own.”

The difference between Christian and atheist thinkers lies in what is allowed as evidence. If you are not open to the idea of God, nor are open to any supernatural explanation of the world, then you will not agree that the Christian world view provides an acceptable explanation of what we see.

However, if you are open to God being part of the explanation of what we see then I believe that an open examination of the evidence will bring you to the conclusion that faith is reasonable. You may still choose to disbelieve, but such an openness will allow for faith to be considered a reasonable response to the evidence.

Within the scientific community there are sometimes opposing theories interpreting a given set of data. Science is not monolithic on all topics; there is room for disagreement and interpretation. This indicates to me that there is a gap between what is certain and what is probable in the minds of the scientists.

Why then do those who consider science as antagonistic to faith not allow Christians to have similar gaps? We get criticized for not having sufficient evidence to prove the existence of God beyond doubt. We are not allowed gaps in our knowledge yet science has gaps. In my mind this is a double standard.

As with science, the existence of gaps in our knowledge does not invalidate what we do know to be true. If Jesus was right, we know how things will ultimately be resolved. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully.” Until then, let’s act upon what we do know, while waiting for the gaps to be resolved.

May that resolution be soon!

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