Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Meditation in the Toolshed
I had to read Meditation in the Toolshed a few times before starting to understand the concept that Lewis was trying to get across. Even when I had thought that I understood the point of our reading the discussion in class proved me wrong. I had simply looked at the reading as C.S. Lewis trying to point out that one can not look at something only objectively nor can a person look at something with pure emotion. There needs to be a balance of both. However, once in class this topic was expanded in many different directions, but the one that appealed to me the most was how we need to be this way with God. We can know everything there is to know about religion and the scripture, but if we do not have a relationship with Christ we can never understand true faith. Also, if one has true faith the have the yearning to learn everything they can about the wonderful and amazing God. It was also brought up that we need to approach our faith like a child, first experiencing all of the joy and awe with our heart, then begining to ask why like and older child would. However looking both at and along something does not always work, it depends on the context of the situation. Also, the danger lies in thinking that we know everything and forgetting to see the whole, not just the aspect we are looking at.
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I love how you used this knowledge with discussing our relationship with God. It is so true that just being theologically sound is not enough, it's not even close to enough. We must experience God, and we must understand what it really is to love and have true faith. Only then will we enter into a complete relationship with our creator. I think in this situation the 'emotion' must come first. We have to really accept God as our creator in order to enter the relationship, then we can begin discussing and delving into the theology.
ReplyDeleteI think going along with thinking like a child is that often adults over think and over analyze the simplest things in life. When it was brought up that the majority of the time a child who is too young to communicate verbally by asking why that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is good because we should often times just trust God and go along with Him and not ask questions. Questions are not bad but can sometimes get in the way of something simple but amazing that God is trying to show us. I really got a lot out of that portion of the discussion in class today. Thanks for bringing it back up.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot have true faith unless we have a relationship with God. I was thinking about this statement and realized some of the most profound encounters with God are experienced, not necessarily learned intellectually. But like you said, it spurs our interest and thirst to learn more about God. Our knowledge of God can also help us to worship,know, and love Him more completely.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked the child analogy that was used in class. It is important for us to have this child-like faith because we will get frustrated by the seeming lack of answers that there are for the questions that we have about God. If all we did was ask questions, we would be unsatisfied. The important ingredient is the faith that we must have to take him at his word.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about the aspect of how we must both understand Christianity and follow Christ. That's a useful illustration of Lewis' point. I feel like as Christians we teeter between the two extremes and perhaps too many of us live just at one extreme.
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