The complex and simple christian life
9 Jun 2006
The older I get the more complex, life seems to be and the more simple. One of the priveleges of having been a pastor/minister, is the opening of my life to hundreds of people, in a way that I wouldn’t be able to do, and wasn’t able with my previous jobs. It didn’t mean I wasn’t connected to people and life, just that the volume of life of others I experience has increased so much.
Along with that comes the experience, and at times flood tide of pain. Of abuse, drugs, still births, illness, young people dying, mental illness, abandonement, divorce, criticism, hostility, loss, more loss, and even more loss. Sometimes in the face of this, life seems too hard, too complex, utterly overwhelminging and I want to run for the hills, live in the countryside, scale back my exposure to people, to the few I can handle.
My life with my own family, of alcoholic and abusive parents, of siblings in dire situatiions is overwhelming enough, I often feel I have no bandwidth for anyone else.
Yet in the midst of this, I find a stillness, that is growing, a peace around my faith and love for Jesus. The increasing times, I have to open my arms, and my heart to Him, and say I can’t cope, and then sometimes sense his comfort and prescence.
French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur described the challenge of life to faith as – the move from a naivety of faith through a ‘desert of criticism’ and into a second naivety of faith. I feel I am often in a dessert of loss and grief. I long for the second naivety of faith. When C S Lewis wrote about the loss of his wife, he wrote ‘Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything’.
I take heart from Luther, and increasingly see that God is most revealed in death of Christ on the Cross, that these experiences can be taken to the cross, and I can experience the cross in my own, soul, mind, spirit and body. That I can pray and ask God to help me see through these times, and experiences and find Jesus.
And my hope is the resurrection and Glory of God, that transforms all these moments, in Christ.
Tagged: Grief, Life, Loss, Pain, Theology
17 comments
Trackback
Comment by homileo
2.01 pm on 9 Jun 2006
The day that my son was taken away from me still reverberates in my mind, heart and soul like it happened yesterday and yet somehow miraculously, God’s faith in me has survived and I sense his presence in the midst of the pain. I have come to understand that in order to fulfil my calling I have to be the wounded healer.
Comment by PurplePastor
2.07 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Thanks, Jason. You spoke right into my current experience as a pastor and follower of Jesus.
Comment by Existential Punk
3.31 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Jason, thanks for taking the time to open up your soul to us. Much appreciated cuz i certainly resonate with much of what you are saying.
Comment by Jason
6.45 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Homileo: thank you for being vulnerble here with that…Jason
Comment by Jason
6.46 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Purple: Thanks, I think so many of us are in that/this place…glad to have your company my friend. Jason.
Comment by Jason
6.47 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Existential: thanks for the encouragement…It’s been a hard week…glad to have you along for the journey.
Comment by Existential Punk
7.37 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Jase, thanx for being apart of the journey too! Anything in particular you need prayer for?
Comment by Dean Whisnant
8.47 pm on 9 Jun 2006
It’s kinda funny. I made a conscious decision to come to this community here on Jason’s blog to connect and find community with others like me. The first several comments I left were in joy and passion. Soon afterwards I found (or took) criticism that I wasn’t expecting. Much has been good criticism to work through and much has been laborious and making me want to throw my hands up and return to silence. I’ve let myself go down a road that I never wanted to go, in fact the innocence of my emergent faith, from a modern faith , has been tarnished (please forgive the labels).
All of the dialog that we have here is important in a Kingdom sense, but the times that seem most refreshing are those in which we share ideas and encourage one other. The times in which we get into in-depth, philosophical, I’m right, you’re wrong debates are too taxing to really be uplifting. As I said, I’m an easy target to get into this type of discussion.
I’m going to do my best to pull myself back into a more “feel good†attitude, whether some agree or disagree with this, that’s fine. Hopefully that will help return, at least me, to a naivety of faith.
Comment by dh
9.22 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Dean, what do you mean naivety of Faith. I never have thought of Faith as that way. Now if you are talking about Faith as a child I understand. I assume thatiswhatyou mean. I want to appologize if I as a modern Christian had a bad impact on your innocence of your Faith. That was never the intent. I have been encouraged and I take you have to. Yet, the Bible talks about iron sharpens iron. Looking into that analogy in the Bible placing us as the knives you can see that the sharpening process can be painful but at the same time for proper character building and grwoing in Faith closer to God. I hope looking into this analogy helps you as it has me as I pondered the concept. Love in Christ. DH :)
Comment by Jason
9.24 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Dean: thank you, like you I long for a new dialetic, not the polarising, of proving I’m right, and losing something of my character in the process. You’ve modelled something very refreshing for me, at any rate, thank you.
Comment by Jason
9.27 pm on 9 Jun 2006
DH: Maybe naivety doesn’t mean immature in development like a child, but is about gentleness of spirit, and openess to question, and mystery, which is what I see writing out.
In that sense I think mature christians should be Naive, something Iraneus talked about before Paul ricouer.
Comment by dh
10.31 pm on 9 Jun 2006
Oh, I’m sorry. Immature was not what I meant when I referenced naivety. If that was understood from what I said I appologize. That was totally not the intent.
With regard to openess to question. How does that fit in relation to “Be ready to give an answer to the hope of your calling.”? I totally agree with the gentleness in spirit and the mystery but one can have both of those without a questioning attitude. I try to be gentle and I do wonder at the mystery of God and all of the aspects but that mystery comes from the definitive of what God says and the reveleation that is consistent with that as well. Iraneus before Paul? I’m not sure about that. I think Iraneus was around as early as 130AD while Paul died in 65-67AD. So I think Paul mentioned BEFORE Iraneus about how we should grow in Christ and the wisdom of living and knowing Christ from a non-naive standpoint before Iraneus said we should be naive. However, in terms of being simple concerning evil we should be “naive” like Paul said but thatis something different.
Comment by Jason
10.35 pm on 9 Jun 2006
DH: Sorry my friend, I meant Iraneus, before Paul Riceour the french philsopher I qouted in the piece, not st.paul.
Great to have you r around DH, Jase
Comment by Dean Whisnant
3.57 am on 10 Jun 2006
DH… I think Jase explained the naivety piece well, I was referring to his quote in the article. I didn’t take your statement to mean immature, no worries there. I think our conversations have been for the most part very kind and loving.
Jase… Thank you, this community, in all of it’s differences it is beautiful and I couldn’t imagine not being a part of it.
All… Let me paint a bit of a picture, not one that needs to be touched up, but one that is a story in itself, though other stories and pictures exist.. We all have a very rich history in this faith that we walk. Part of this rich history has been a constant refining and refuting of what the exact perfect meaning of the faith is. The definitions we have come up with have been dividing and uniting.
We unite ourselves in Christ and in our group with common beliefs that are somewhat different from others. We’ve created Eastern and Western. We’ve created Catholic and Protestant. We’ve created Baptist and Nazarene. We’ve created the inner-city church and the suburbian church. We’ve created those who sit in the front and those who sit in the back. We’ve created those on the right side and the left side of the aisle. We’ve likely created even smaller, united but divided groups within.
Once we’ve done all of the uniting and dividing we’ve created an environment that no matter which group we are a part of, we feel criticism from other groups (some innocent and some harsh) and we give criticism of other groups (some innocent and some harsh).
So here we are, with choices in how we interact on this most sacred subject.
And in my innocence I hear the cries from Heaven of our Creator:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
Yes, this is the untarnished faith that I long to live. Though we are different, in this we are the same.
Peace!
Comment by Paul
8.35 am on 10 Jun 2006
Thank you for sharing Jase – that sort of reminded me of a psalm – maybe it was just the flow of honest reflection, seeking, pain and remembering a hope in something that transcends the situation…
Pain is all to evident in life and an antidote maybe to your last post on the culture of happiness – pain reminds me that I cannot guarantee happiness that life happens beyond my control and influence.
Pain gives me a choice of trying to drown it out/avoid it/lose myself/withdraw or to open myself/to seek help/ seek something more – that is maybe a naviety of faith as seeking God doesn’t mean avoidance of pain or doubt but to be embraced by God in the midst of my hurt and confusion…
In Jesus I see someone who spoke the words of the Kingdom, did the works of the Kingdom but also expereinced the wounds of the Kingdom – despised, misunderstood, ignored, rejected, betrayed, killed in horrific fashion…
And as you reminded me there is a hope in the ressurection, in the making of all things new, in knowing that there will be a time of no more tears, death, loss or seperation for ever and ever…
Comment by Jason
1.56 pm on 11 Jun 2006
Thanks Paul, that’s very encouraging.
I think the motif of ‘hope’ is going to be so important, in the place of ‘certainty’ that was so destructive in modernity.
Comment by GMD
6.28 am on 12 Jun 2006
There’s a line in Bruce Almighty that was in a part that was cut out where Morgan Feeman playing God says ‘To paint a beautiful picture we sometimes need to use dark colours’. I’ve been pondering on that line a lot recently and it seems it’s equally valid here.
This is a post that stops me in my tracks and makes me think, deeply, profoundly, looking gormlesly into space…
Comments are now closed.