Monday, November 03, 2014
Goodness!
Andrew Wilson @ DG on God's "goodness.":
But back to experience. Over-thinking, doing too much theology, this will only lead one down bad roads. We have a penchant for thinking ourselves into box canyons that only deepen the depression and alienate us from God. But to experience God is to know His goodness, regardless of circumstances.
When I am angry with my wife and I think about it to much I just get angrier. But when I look at her and know her love for me and the love I have for her, the anger melts away. There are some things we just cannot think our way through. This guy admits as much, but then insists on more. Speaking of bax canyons....
experience goodness theology
It’s easy to affirm the goodness of God in the abstract. It’s easy to affirm it when things are going well. But when your children are going backwards on a daily basis, it becomes much harder. When the worship leader goes for a bit of call-and-response — “God is good, all the time, and all the time …” — it can by a real physical challenge to squeeze out the words you know come next: “… God is good!” Singing becomes a fight between the truths you know and the emotions you feel. Pastoral ministry involves you exhorting others to hold onto things you’re struggling to hold onto yourself.I find it fascinating that he proclaims "theology" as the only way through the dilemma and then ends by relying on experience. I find it troubling that his theological analysis ignores our fallen nature. In this latter statement I am not referring to a quid pro quo sort of thing like his children's autism resulting from specific sin in his life. Rather I am referring to the fact that we are fallen. the world is fallen. hence bad stuff happens. It's simple really. God has little to do with it - it's about us and our fallen nature.
Over time, the only way through this is theological: you have to wrestle with what it actually means for the psalmist (no stranger to suffering himself!) to say that Yahweh is good.
[...]
We may well not understand why God has done it, of course. Job didn’t either. But we can be confident, based on Scripture and on our experience, that as sure as milk is white, Yahweh is good. Taste and see!
But back to experience. Over-thinking, doing too much theology, this will only lead one down bad roads. We have a penchant for thinking ourselves into box canyons that only deepen the depression and alienate us from God. But to experience God is to know His goodness, regardless of circumstances.
When I am angry with my wife and I think about it to much I just get angrier. But when I look at her and know her love for me and the love I have for her, the anger melts away. There are some things we just cannot think our way through. This guy admits as much, but then insists on more. Speaking of bax canyons....
experience goodness theology
