truth = perspective + relationship + reality

Randy's on target to point out the obvious 'truth' that the scriptures are all about things that happened to people and how God made ways for people to know and experience God and to learn how to live--to really live--as part of the rest of creation. I think the issue of truth is important, but not in the ways that I've heard that it was important in the past. This may help point out part of the problem in the conversation between those who are coming from a more modern/enlightenment/foundationalist perspective and those who are coming from a post-modern/post-enlightenment/post-foundationalist perspective--we're not talking about the same thing when we say 'truth.'

For me, truth used to be something you could possess. It was propositional, absolute, and undeniable--it was there for me to stand on. Truth was like Gibraltar. I saw postmodernity (through the eyes of watchmen of modernity) as quicksand. If postmodernity thought there was truth at all it would be like warm Jello: slippery, slimey, oozey. These ways of thinking and talking about truth objectify truth--they make it into a thing.

I think now that truth is like holding someone's hand. I remember the first time I held Torie's hand. Actually, a fonder memory is the first time we almost held hands. It was thrilling. So much mystery, so much fear and trembling. So much love (really wanting the best for her) and desire (wanting to be loved by her). We were walking back from the fireworks show over Lake Michigan and there were sparks flying of the tips of our fingers as they brushed against each other with each stride. We didn't take hold. We brushed knuckles.

We held hands the next day, and got married six years later.

When I hold Torie's hand, I experience someone who is there--really there. I don't have to recite a mantra, "She's there. She's there. She's really, really there." I'm not hung up on proving to everyone--or even myself--that she's there beside me--not a rock or a foundation or a pile of quicksand, but a living, breathing, growing, relating person.

When I hold Torie's hand, I hear what she's saying to me when we talk--or not. I don't know what she's thinking until she tells me--and even then there is often misunderstanding, miscommunication--but the more I know her, the more I can pick up on unspoken communication. My perspective on what she is saying is shaped by a long history of experiences as I learn how to better interpret the spoken and unspoken ways of communication. We get better at it, but I find that I am still often wrong about what she's feeling and thinking about--and so we talk more and understand each other better.

There's so much that can be picked apart in this analogy by those who care to, but for me, to reduce truth to abstract statements is not only unhelpful and unsatisfying, it is unreal. It may even be a form of idolatry--replacing a mysterious relationship with God with propositions one can place respectfully on a shelf (think about how 'absolute truth' can become an idol...). We all trust something and/or someone--maybe even many 'someones'--so let's just be honest about it get busy living.

As you brush knuckes with Reality, may sparks fly between your fingertips.

experience = biblical truth

Don't quote me on that title; I simply wanted to be provocative. My experience does not really equal the stories of the Scripture, but they are similar. They share the same story.

Adam and Eve learned to walk with God after the fall; Abraham was faithful. God walked with his people. Fast forward. Mary and Joseph were faithful. Twelve disciples became seventy who became thousands, and the were faithful; and the story of God with his people continued.

Fast forward. I have a Bible from my grandmother's great grandpa. I am the fifth generation to have that Bible. The story of God with his people runs deep in my family. It runs very deep.

So, I am reading D.A. Carson's book on the emerging church, and he's critical of those who suggest experience is of great value and perhaps even trumps the Bible.

Pause.

I'm about ready to pull my fricken hair out of my head. Why does this disturb me so much?

IS not the Bible a collection of stories of God with his people that have endured generations? Were these events as recorded in the Bible not experiences of Adam, Eve, Abraham, Deborah, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John?

Did not God reveal himself through his creation, through the life of his Son, and through the writers of every page of the Bible? Yes, yes, yes.

These are stories. These are truths. These are the experiences of God with his people. Do we not believe that the Spirit of the living God continues to guide his people?

To suggest that experience and the truth of the Scriptures are different things is to tell God that he no longer reveals himself to his people. I wonder how generations learned of God when they could not read? I wonder what I would believe if it were not for the life of four incredible grandparents who lived the kingdom of God before my very eyes.

I lived into the story of God with his people as it was revealed to Andrew & Gert and Rhine & Gert by their parents and grandparents and generations before. I was born into the story of God.

So, to suggest that experience is something that is held above biblical truth is absurd. Biblical truth always enlightens experience as we move forward. Likewise, the living Spirit of God enlightens our lives when the Bible doesn't have clear answers.

To suggest that our experience is of little value questions the ability of the Spirit to direct God's people. It questions the very sovereignty of God, and it suggests that my story is worthless unless it adheres to the text in exactly the same manner as the biblical theologian who foregoes the experience of the Spirit with his people.

So, at the end of the day, who is more faithful? Perhaps this is a confusing and frustrating argument for you, and that is half of my point. At the end of the day, does God embrace us or not?

At the end of the day, people such as Carson can beat us up, but it's really only God's faithfulness that he's calling into question. Really.

(Don, I wish you would have returned some phone calls before you wrote that book.)

Fireflies in the night...

Last night I finished mowing the lawn in the dark. It was an adventure to guess where the weeds were growing that needed trimming. As I finished the lawn, the fireflies began to come alive. They flickered as if they were lighting the way for the entire neighborhood.

Tonight I went to the funeral home for a friend who was overcome by cancer cells earlier this week. His name is Matt Ringerwole, and he now lives in the perfect presence of God. Seven months from a well trained Navy man body to his last breath.

I don't get it. I see the kingdom in fireflies, but then I see pain in the eyes of a sister who has lost her only brother to cancer. I want to believe that the kingdom of God is at hand. I do beleive. But then I wonder if just hoping to get to heaven is an easier option to believe...

... help me out here. I need your assurance...

Andrew Jones recently spoke about emergence... Phil Goodacre has some great notes that are worth a minute of your time.

A small piece from the notes:

A definition of ministry was presented that seems so simple, but is really quite profound:
1. giving gifts
2. telling stories
3. throwing parties
4. making friends

Read more by clicking here.

~ On another front, Joel and I have been quite absent from this blog over the past two months. First, our blog had technical issues, and then we have been busy with job changes as well as several trips. We'll be posting more over the summer.

Blessings.