understanding.

in my class on early church fathers, we recently had to read anselm's proslogium. it is essentially a discourse on proving the existence of God, whom anselm defines as "a being than which nothing greater can be conceived." this work was originally titled "faith seeking understanding," so needless to say, i was intrigued from the start.

i wanted to share these thoughts from chapter I:

"I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe--that unless I believed, I should not understand." 

unfortunately, i think i have this backwards most of the time. i seek understanding as a prerequisite to belief, but according to anselm, without belief, there will not be understanding.

i was convicted by this c.s. lewis quote on my brother's blog:

"If Christianity were something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about."

so maybe i just need to get over the fact that i will always have unanswered questions and will never simply understand this faith. perhaps satisfaction comes in the seeking, in the wrestling, in the hungering and thirsting.

matthew 5.6-- "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

thoughts about God.

"That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignorable thoughts about God."

--a.w. tozer, cited in renovation of the heart, by dallas willard

i'm pretty sure that my idea of God is way off sometimes. i mean, if i'm really honest with myself, my actual thoughts about God are probably not even close to being in line with His actual character. and without a doubt, the way i live is in direct relation to my concept of who God is. 

for example, in chapel this week, the speaker asked: do you really know that God loves you? what if you lived like you really believed that?

i've been thinking about those questions all week. i want to know the truth about God. i want to know Him. 

 

healing.

a friend shared this with me. interesting thoughts. i think it's by brennan manning. enjoy!

Healing is a response to a crisis of another person...

Healing becomes the opportunity to pass off to another human being what I have received from the Lord Jesus; namely His unconditional acceptance of me as I am, not as I should be. He loves me whether in a state of grace or disgrace, whether I live up to the lofty expectations of His gospel or I don't. He comes to me where I live and loves me as I am. 

When I have passed that same reality on to another human being, the result most often has been the inner healing of their heart through the touch of my affirmation. To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary...When a person is evoked for who she is, not who she is not, the most often result will be the inner healing of her heart through the touch of affirmation.

Finally, brethren, Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Phil. 4:8