What an amazing night. Donald Miller spoke at my home congregation here in Nashville. I won't deconstruct or recreate (ha ha) what he said. He spoke on a topic that is apparently a chapter in his second book, "Searching for God Knows What": Romeo, Juliet, and Jesus. It was a thought-provoking, funny, and enlightening presentation, complete with music and video clips. Would you expect anything else from a true postmodern?
He was a better speaker than I had been led to believe, and looked nothing like I had visualized. He actually looks like someone I would know, rather than an intellectual liberal published author. Whatever that means.
Anyway, if you get a chance to hear him, go. I highly recommend "Blue Like Jazz", although it is trendy. I haven't read his other books yet, but they're on my list.
Other highlights of the night included dinner with friends and seeing Stacy, a friend from high school, and George, a friend from Pepperdine, neither of whom I had seen in years, and talking for a long time to my friend Austin, from youth group.
I just realized I haven't explained what is a mystery. Donald touched tonight on a thought I have had many times over the last couple of years, that by breaking our faith down into parts or steps or pieces of information, we lose our sense of mystery. Instead of being an indescribable being of awesome power, God becomes a genie - someone who does what we want, if we ask Him in the right way. I think we lose an incredible part of who He is when we do that, and I think it's just plain disrespectful. We, as humans, will never have the intellect or perspective to understand or explain God. Therefore He will always be mystery. You can rail against that or revel in it. I have made my choice, and have found joy there. I can't explain it; it's a mystery, and if that line combined with the earlier reference makes anyone else think of "Shakespeare in Love", please tell me, so I won't feel like such a dweeb. Thank you.
He was a better speaker than I had been led to believe, and looked nothing like I had visualized. He actually looks like someone I would know, rather than an intellectual liberal published author. Whatever that means.
Anyway, if you get a chance to hear him, go. I highly recommend "Blue Like Jazz", although it is trendy. I haven't read his other books yet, but they're on my list.
Other highlights of the night included dinner with friends and seeing Stacy, a friend from high school, and George, a friend from Pepperdine, neither of whom I had seen in years, and talking for a long time to my friend Austin, from youth group.
I just realized I haven't explained what is a mystery. Donald touched tonight on a thought I have had many times over the last couple of years, that by breaking our faith down into parts or steps or pieces of information, we lose our sense of mystery. Instead of being an indescribable being of awesome power, God becomes a genie - someone who does what we want, if we ask Him in the right way. I think we lose an incredible part of who He is when we do that, and I think it's just plain disrespectful. We, as humans, will never have the intellect or perspective to understand or explain God. Therefore He will always be mystery. You can rail against that or revel in it. I have made my choice, and have found joy there. I can't explain it; it's a mystery, and if that line combined with the earlier reference makes anyone else think of "Shakespeare in Love", please tell me, so I won't feel like such a dweeb. Thank you.
Amen, from dweeb to another!
Well, having not seen Shakespare in Love (yes, I know...I'm so behind the times!), I can't comment on the appropriateness of said quote. But I can say this...I do like what you have to say about never being able to fully comprehend or describe God. Makes me think of the passage in Exodus where Moses wants to see God and God finally goes, sure, but you can only see my back in passing from behind a rock...and Moses does all this and his face is still radiating like a sun after it.
Personally, I know that I like to fit things into a context. I took a strengths class/test and it was one of my top five. So, I am one of those who likes to go back and analyze things to death and find a pattern...or the context as it were. Hence why I cannot watch a TV show I've not seen that I want to see if I've even missed just one single minute..some call it anal retentive,I call it quirk and endearing..it helps me sleep at night. But back to my point...often I want the whole picture, the context as it were and one thing I have to accept is that I don't always see all of it..some things I have to take on faith and being part of the big picture as it were.