A Conviction

In the Gospel of Luke the Greatest Commandments are given, not by Jesus, but by a teacher of the law who desired assurance of the way to eternal life. His answer,

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

is affirmed by Jesus as the way to eternal life. But even with this affirmation, the lawyer wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus then launched into the parable of the Good Samaritan:

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he out two denarii, gave them to the inkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." 

Although these two sections of the same passages (the Greatest Commandments and the Good Samaritan story) are well known, we tend to read them separately. But here we have Jesus, giving us a definition of what it means to be a neighbor to someone, right after affirming that loving our neighbor is one of the greatest commandments that will lead us into eternal life. The two parts of the passage should not be separated.

But I think it's pretty incredible that here, Jesus explains in detail how to really live out what He is teaching. I can't think of any other place where He really does that. So, in other words, pay attention. Greatest commandment --> specific application. Got it?

The reason that this has been on my heart recently is because of this application to my life. In the past year or two, the Lord has really given me a heart to love those who are loveless, those that are on the fringes of society, those that the rest of the world tends to pass by on the other side of the road. Not that I'm super good at it now (I'm not), but it's just been weighing on my heart more and more how crucial it is for the life of a Christian to live like this, to "Go and do likewise." Not only for the sake of just doing good things, but for the sake of seeing the image of God in the Undesireables of this world. For knowing God's heart for those who no one else cares about. For allowing God to use us to be His hands and feet, which can be as much of a benefit to us as to those we are helping. For knowing that every human being needs to know the love of Jesus Christ, in whatever form it may take.

Last week I made a vow with the Lord, one which I'm not quite sure how to keep yet, but that won't keep me from trying. I told the Lord that I will never intentionally avoid eye contact with a homeless person or someone whose presence makes me uncomfortable. I will try to never miss an opportunity to buy a hungry person a meal and have a conversation with them and try to befriend them. I will do whatever I can, no matter how small of a gesture, to help someone and show them the love of Jesus Christ.

It's been difficult at times, especially when all someone wants from you is cash, which you should never give to a homeless person. But still, I think just making the effort to see them as a real person with real needs, regardless of whether they are telling you the truth or not, has to count for something. I have faith in the love of Jesus Christ to have power in people's lives, whether I see the effects or not. 

In God's Kingdom, there are no social boundaries. God has called us to love all people, regardless of race, class, gender, or hygiene. And people need to know that love. They need to know that they are accepted in the eyes of the Lord, and thus in ours as well. And we need to know that they are real people with real stories and real hurts that need healing. 

Refuse to let social boundaries contain the love of God. Refuse to allow your discomfort to contain the love of God. Allow God's love to work through you to love the unlovable, comfort the uncomfortable, bring hope to the hopeless, and bring the light of God's Kingdom to this world.

Amen. 

Psalm 27:1

"The LORD is my light and my salvation;
     whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
     of whom shall I be afraid?"
Psalm 27:1

This verse has been my anthem the past week or so. It began when a brother told me that during a time of prayer over me, this was the psalm that came to his mind for me. I've been meditating and praying on it since then, and the impact of what it means still hasn't fully been revealed to me yet, I don't think. But I pray you are  blessed by this meditation, as I have been.

The LORD is my light.
What is light? It is a wave and a particle (somehow), and it is a force, not opposite of darkness, but one that chases away all darkness. Because darkness is not a separate force opposite of light, but rather it is the absence of light. Where a light shines, no darkness can remain within the reach of that light (see John 1:5). For the LORD to be our light, it means that He is the one who illumines our lives and chases away the darkness. There can be no darkness where the light of the LORD is shining. There can be no falsehood where Truth is king. There can be no depression where Joy is master. There can be no hate where Love reigns.
      LORD, be my light. Be the One that illumines my path and my life. Be the light that chases away the darkness in me. Let Your light shine through me, to bring the light of Your truth to a dark world. 


The LORD is my salvation.
How easy it is for us to say this and take it for granted, or to not even grasp the fullness of what it means. The LORD is salvation to the lost, wholeness to the broken, healing for the sick, joy for the downtrodden. The LORD has paid the debt owed on us, brought us out of our exile into His freedom, cleansed us from all our sins and brought us into the glory of His Kingdom. Nothing can compare to the greatness of the salvation that we have through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! What a Savior! My words cannot even begin to do it justice. All the books in the world could not hold enough praise, and the extent of our language is frustratingly limited to express the greatness of our salvation.
LORD, be my salvation, now and forever. Daily your mercy restores me to Your will and keeps me dwelling in Your presence. You are my rescue, my salvation, the hope of my glory. Use me to bring the news of your great Salvation to the world. 


The LORD is the stronghold of my life.
A stronghold is a place you can go to be safe. The alternate word used in the Scripture is "refuge." A haven. A sanctuary. A place of rest and security. A place like home. A place that is a solid rock upon which to stand amidst a sea of chaos. A fortress of peace in the midst of a war surrounding you. When all around is bearing down on you with demands, persecutions, criticisms, stress, conflict, hatred--the LORD is a refuge. He is a stronghold whose walls of protection nothing can penetrate. Run to Him and let Him receive you in love. The stronghold of the LORD is a place where you know you can trust Him to protect. It is a place where you know you are safe. It is a place where you know you are loved.
LORD, be the stronghold of my life, the refuge of protection that I run to when I am troubled. In the good time and bad, You are constant, and You never change as a source of love and goodness and protection from all evil. Let the peace of Your refuge be shown in my life, that others may know the power of Your love. 


With the LORD, there is no fear. His perfect love casts out all fear. With the knowledge of His great salvation, living in His all-pervading Light, secure in the comfort of His refuge, there is nothing that can come against us. If our God is for us, who can be against us? Know the goodness of the LORD, His goodness that is for you. Meditate on His light, His salvation, and His stronghold and what these can really mean for you in your day to day life. And be blessed by the Lord of all the universe, Who loves you more than you can imagine, and desires to be known and loved by you.

Amen, and glory be to our God forever and ever!

Side-Effects of a New Creation

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view (according to the flesh); even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

                                                     2 Corinthians 5:16-17

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Galatians 2:20

These two oft-quoted Scriptures in our modern Christianese are also two of the most ignored. It's really easy to quote Scripture that can inspire us and make us feel good, but when it comes down to looking at what these really mean for our lives, it's easy to look only as far as we're comfortable. 

The Lord has been hitting me over the head with this the past couple weeks. I came into this year fully expecting that it would change my life. Recently I realized that my prayer for God to change me was really more like "Lord, change me, but only in the ways I want to change." I want to grow spiritually and in my maturity, but only in ways that conform to my plan for my life. Really, I don't want to be single anymore, I don't want to give up my things, I don't want God to mess up my plans. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21

Do we really realize that we are, in fact, a new creation? Do we really know that the old "us" has passed away, and we are being made new in the name of Jesus Christ? Have we really crucified our old lives to be in conformity with Jesus?

That's the unfortunate side-effect of being a new creation: that newness requires change, discipleship requires a cost, and crucifixion requires dying to self. 

But it's this radical change that Christ calls us to, and it is for this purpose that He came. This is the purpose of God for you--to make you a new creation. But first you must die. 

"Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." 

John 12:24-25

We need to stop getting in the way of allowing God to bear fruit with our lives. What are you holding back? What part of your old life are you holding onto? In this life, with this faith, it is not about you. It is about a God Who is bigger than you can possibly imagine, Whose love goes farther than you can comprehend, Whose greatness we can never even put into words, Whose glory lights up the whole universe! This God is your salvation, and you owe him everything. 

If you're reading this, please don't just read and nod your head and say "Amen, brother." Please take time to examine your own life and ask the Lord what He wants from you. What are you holding onto that is keeping you from the Lord? If your automatic answer is "Nothing," then search deeper. And then search again. This is the most important thing you can do with you life--do you really understand that, at your core? 

This is stuff I'm just re-learning and trying to apply to my own life again, and I feel the Lord calling me to share it. This is the Gospel that He wants us to preach. This is Good News. 

How Sweet It Is

"How sweet it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity." (Psalm 133:1)


This was the verse on my mind all throughout the week that I was able to attend to COA (Campus Outreach Academy). When we arrived last Sunday, I knew a total of about 5 people beforehand (and those I had just met the week before), out of about 90 people altogether at this retreat. But after just a few days, it was easy (and necessary!) for me to call all these people my brothers and sisters. It was awesome how a group of people from all different backgrounds could come together to worship and fellowship with such passion. 


The focus of the COA this year was on ecumenism. If you don't know what that is, by definition it's


/ɪˈkjuːmənɪz(ə)m/ (noun) the principle or aim of promoting unity among the world's Christian Churches.


Ecumenism and Christian unity have long been strong parts of the calling that the Lord has put on my life, so I loved every minute of it. And what was even cooler than all the talks was seeing ecumenism lived out in a very real way at the retreat. There were Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists (I think I was the only one of those, actually), and others--all worshiping and fellowshipping together. It was a beautiful thing. I love corporate worship, and witnessing a huge crowd all lift up their hands and voices to the King of kings. But to see that happening among traditionally disparate groups who have been unable to worship together because of their differences--that was incredible. 


And we ask, how can we make this happen in a larger context, out in the world? The answer, I've found, is with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit longs to bring believers together and to unite us under one purpose and one Name. UCO and its supporting communities were borne out of the charismatic renewal movement that started in the 1960s, right here in Ann Arbor. This movement believes strongly in the work of the Holy Spirit and working for ecumenism. And the latter can only be possible by the former. It's really cool to see the results of this being worked out in real life. I've never really had any Catholic friends, and I didn't really know that there were any Orthodox believers in America. But now I can say I have friends (more so, brothers and sisters) in both denominations, and many others. 


The COA has made me very excited for what this year is going to bring, and the work that the Lord is going to do through us. Unfortunately, I had to leave COA early (it's actually still going on now), to come home and be with my family as we wait for my grandpa to pass away. So if you all wouldn't mind sending a prayer for my family in this time, we'd appreciate it. 

Update

The Catherine Street houses in Ann Arbor

After four days of living on Catherine Street, things are going very well. The brothers here are great, and I've felt very welcomed. When I first got here on Monday evening, I joined several of the guys who met up with a large group to play soccer. I didn't have cleats, so I didn't play well, but it was a lot of fun. Then we came back and ate some dinner, and a few of us went out onto the porch and smoked a pipe and drank beer. Not exactly what I was expecting for my first night of living with the monks, but it was awesome. Since my job hasn't started yet, there hasn't been much to do during the day. Usually I try to do some reading (and often fall asleep), or take a walk, etc. But every night there's been something going on, whether it be soccer, going for ice cream, watching a movie, or going to a prayer meeting and then to the pub afterward. 

The brothers join together for prayer three times a day: in the morning, evening, and right before bed. Eating meals together is very important for their community life, and everyone helps out with the cooking and cleaning. I'm actually looking forward to learning how to cook well. I don't think the brothers would enjoy my grilled cheese as much as I do. 

On Sunday I leave for the Campus Outreach Academy (COA), a nine retreat for training people in UCO. It's weird, because since I'm on UCO staff this year, I'm expected to lead parts of this, even though I have no idea what I'm doing, and the people I'm leading will know a lot more than I do. But from what I've been hearing about it, COA is always an awesome time, so I am looking forward to it. 

Spiritually, it has been a very interesting week. I struggled a lot spiritually this past summer, so to jump right into an environment where seeking God is built into the structure of the day has been good for me, but I'm hesitant to jump right into this place where it's so easy. I don't want the strength of my faith to be entirely reliant on my context, because what will happen then when I leave this place? Faith is something that needs to come from my own convictions and relationship with God, which still is not where it needs to be. So this week has included a lot of quiet repentance and prayer for renewal and obedience. 

The other things I'm struggling with is the worship of the brothers here. The Servants of the Word was born out of the charismatic movement a few decades ago, so there is a lot of focus on speaking in tongues and prophecy and the other spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are things that I am by no means opposed to, but given my background and my personal experiences in worship, it's not what I'm accustomed to. I know that the Holy Spirit has power to work in our lives, especially in worship, but I just don't know. This year will be a good one for learning more about the Spirit and how He can work in my life. I'm excited to learn and grow as much as I can this year, and my prayer is that God will prepare my heart and mind for what is to come. 

A New Adventure

Hello.

If you're new here, welcome to my blog. You're just in time to join me on this new journey I'm about to begin.  For the next year I'll be living with the Servants of the Word, a neo-monastic community, in Ann Arbor, MI. I'm going to be working on staff with their University Christian Outreach (UCO), a evangelistic and discipleship-oriented college ministry directed at the students of the University of Michigan. I'm doing all of this under the umbrella of what's called the GAP program, which is where young adults like myself take a year to do service of some type. So the cool thing with that is that I'll be doing this alongside peers who are doing similar things. 


Some ask why I choose to do this with my year after college. In short, there are 4 main reasons:


1. Celibacy - For the past two years I've felt called by the Lord to commit myself to not dating. This I have done, but as for the long term, I have no idea where God is leading me. So one of my biggest intentions for this year is to explore the call to celibacy and whether or not that might be where God is calling me. I don't expect to have it nailed down by the end of one year (for many it takes several years to make a decision like that, as it should!), but this will be a good start for me. 


2. Spiritual growth - Spiritual disciplines are things that I have never been very good at, and this year will no doubt be very good for developing those more fully in my everyday life. Also, I realize that I just have a lot more growing to do spiritually in order to become the leader that God has called me to be. I fully expect this year to impact my life in an awesome way in this category. 


3. Not academic - I'm planning on going to grad school after this, and toward the end of my college career I just felt burnt out on academics, so this is a welcome break from the stresses of school work. 


4. Awesomeness - who gets to say that they've lived with monks? I mean, seriously, it's going to be a pretty awesome experience, and I'm excited for it. 


This year is something I'm very excited for, and I expect to learn and be challenged and grow a lot. So, hopefully I will use this medium of my blog to keep all you folks out there updated on what's going on, and I'm sure I'll jot down things I learn and all that stuff too. I greatly appreciate all your prayers, and I hope you will join me in praising God for the great work that He does through this!

Desensitized

When I was in 8th grade, a kid in my class was killed. His name was Butch Harris, and he died when he was hit by an out of control car while he was riding his bike along the road. I didn't really know Butch. We didn't really run in the same circles, and I can't even remember if I ever talked to him. His death didn't have much of an emotional impact on me at the time. I don't know if it was too much for my 14 year old mind to register, or if I just didn't care that much. But I remember my mom talking to me about it, and expressing concern at my lack of concern. She said that she was worried that I'd been "desensitized" too much by TV, video games, and such.

And I remember being really offended by that comment. I mean, here she is, attacking the TV I choose to watch and the games I choose to play, claiming that they are somehow poisoning my mind. All because I didn't have an emotional reaction to the death of a kid I barely knew? I was really annoyed with her for that. I mean, they talked about the kids that shot up Columbine as being influenced by their violent video games and music, but everyone knew that that was just crap. We can't be controlled by the media we consume.  We are individuals with free will to choose how we behave. We are our own creatures to control.

Now that I'm older and slightly smarter, I see things a bit differently. As I've grown, I've found myself less and less entertained by violence in movies and video games. Instead of cheering when the bad guy gets killed, I often find myself wondering if he had a family that loved him and how he got on the wrong track. That's stupid, some might think. It's a fictional character--no one really died here. It was an actor who was paid to look like he died. But, on the other hand, if our movies are supposed to be a reflection of life and reality, I have to ask myself--am I really cheering for a human life that just ended? A human, made-in-the-image-of-God life?

The main reason that I became a pacifist is that I value the sacredness of life. I believe that each and every person has incomparable value simply because they are human, and they have worth and feelings and thoughts and hopes and dreams and people that love them for the complexities of their personalities and yes, even their flaws. And every time a person is killed, whether in real life or on TV, it represents the cheapening of that sacred life, in that situation and in our society.

I'm currently finishing up a book called On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by military psychologist Dave Grossman. It's a fascinating book, but toward the end, he discusses how the conditioning of America and her children through media is eerily similar to the conditioning of soldiers in preparation for war. Using classical and operant conditioning methods, the military has to break down the soldier's resistance to killing the enemy. Through our media, we are conditioned to be entertained by violence instead of disturbed by it, making it easy to emotionally distance ourselves from the enemy, and from other people. One fact that Grossman cites is that, at the time of his writing (1995), there had already been over 200 studies demonstrating the correlation between television and violence. And, even though correlation does not equal causation, there has to come a point, maybe after 200 studies, where you know causation is present.

So my question is this: does there come a point when we realize how much the media influences our behavior, and if so, do we do anything about it? Is it possible for us to become re-sensitized to the horrors of violence and death? Can we as people learn to value people again?

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this issue, since it can be a sensitive (no pun intended) issue. What do you think? Does violent media cause us to be more violent? Have we been desensitized to violence and war and death? Have you noticed this in your own life at all?

Confidence

It is often thought that success will build confidence. But I think that real confidence is in being okay with your failures, content with not being the best at something. Real confidence comes from being secure in your identity, which, while being shaped by your experiences, is not defined by them. 

When confidence turns into arrogance, I don't want to say that that is borne out of an insecurity of identity, because I can't make that judgment. But it seems to me that real confidence leads to humility. If you're confident in who you are, you don't need to be the best, you don't need to make yourself feel superior. Maybe, when we really have confidence in who we are, we can actually stop focusing on ourselves and begin to love others.

Hauerwas - America's god is Dying

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer thus got it right when he characterized American Protestantism as 'Protestantism without Reformation.'

That is why it has been possible for Americans to synthesize three seemingly antithetical traditions: evangelical Protestantism, republican political ideology and commonsense moral reasoning. For Americans, faith in God is indistinguishable from loyalty to their country.

American Protestants do not have to believe in God because they believe in belief. That is why we have never been able to produce an interesting atheist in America. The god most Americans say they believe in is just not interesting enough to deny. Thus the only kind of atheism that counts in America is to call into question the proposition that everyone has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

--Stanley Hauerwas, excerpted from "America's god is Dying," on ABC's Religion and Ethics Portal, July 20, 2010.

Read the whole article here. 

The Costs of War

War is an environment that will psychologically debilitate 98 percent of all who participate in it for any length of time. And the 2 percent who are not driven insane by war appear to have already been insane--aggressive psychopaths--before coming to the battlefield.

-Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Killing, p. 50 


I've just started reading this book, and so far it's pretty chilling, as exhibited by the quote above. According to Grossman, there is something innate in humans (and all animals, for that matter) that resists the killing of its own species. War, killing, and violence have a much greater impact on us than I think we've realized before. And governments have to compensate for that by conditioning soldiers to conquer that resistance. And cultures condition their children with violent video games and movies that glorify the act of killing, making it seem easy.


When we have to be conditioned to not resist killing our own brothers and sisters, something has gone wrong. We were not made for violence.

You are God's Child

You,
human being,
no matter who you are,

you are God's child,

you are included in God's love,
out of the pure, incomprehensible grace of God;
accept this word, believe in it,
trust in his rule
rather than in yourself or in your own party,
rather than in your own work or your own religion.
God does as he wills.

Turn your misery into God's blessed presence,
and from within your guilt and distress
hear the voice
of the eternal, living God.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditation and Prayer, ed. by Peter Frick


This is why I am a pacifist. I know this wasn't Bonhoeffer's point in this meditation, but these are the thoughts that have led me to my commitment. How can I cause harm to something/someone God loves so much? How can I support the killing of a human being, made in the image of God? There is so much hope for each person in the love of God through Jesus Christ. How can I take that away?

I feel that this principle is slowly and surely changing me. Changing how I view the world, how I view people. May God's "blessed presence" be with me as I live it out.

Truth and Love

Insight, knowledge, truth
without love is nothing--
it is not even truth,
for truth is God, and God is truth.

So truth without love is a lie; it is nothing.
Truth just for oneself
truth spoken in enmity and hate
is not truth but a lie,
for truth brings us into God's presence,
and God is love.

Truth
is either the clarity of love,
or it is nothing.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Meditation and Prayer, ed. Peter Frick

Justice

In yesterday's paper, there was an article written by a reporter who got to witness the execution of a man in Utah who was convicted of two murders. Apparently, it was the first execution by firing squad in Utah (the only state that still permits such a method) since 1996, which was made it a news-worthy event. The reporter chronicled the final moments of this man, who had no final words, and how the bullets ripped through the target on the left side of his chest without much flair or excitement. There was no visible blood pouring out, and there was no dramatic reaction from the condemned man save a clenched fist. By all standards, justice was carried out swiftly and cleanly in this execution, despite the seemingly archaic method.

Yes, justice was served here. This man killed a man in a robbery, then years later killed again and severely wounded another man. He was a violent offender, a ruthless criminal, the scum of humanity. He got what he deserved. People may argue about the ethics of the death penalty, but the issue at hand here is justice. This man killed, so he was killed. This speaks to how we as a society define justice--evening things out, keeping things fair. Justice, karma, fairness, equity--these are the things that keep society in order, and for which our justice system works for. These are good things.

And yet, as I read this article chronicling this man's death, I hated almost every word of it. Not just because I'm a pacifist and don't support the death penalty. But because in the world's eyes, this was so right. A man's life ended, probably without him knowing any form of redemption, and Lady Justice smiled on (although I don't know how she sees through that blindfold).

It was then that I realized that at the root of my discomfort with this was in the inconsistencies between definitions of justice. I believe God defines justice much differently than any government does. Or rather, maybe at the root they're the same definition, but the end and means of justice are different. We can still define justice as "making things right." But to what end? What is "right"?

To the world, it's almost as if the end is to even the playing field, as if killing the bad guys will create more good in the world. But to God, the end goal is to bring people back to Him, to the way He intended us to live within His purposes. That which is right, or righteous, is that which is within God's purposes and intentions for mankind. God's justice is about us, being reconciled with Him. For God, the means of that justice are the forgiveness and redemption offered to us through Jesus Christ.

God's justice is rooted in His love for His fallen children. God's justice is in the open arms of the father embracing the prodigal son. God's justice is in the anxious heart of the shepherd searching for that one lost sheep. God's justice is in the blood of a Savior who was crucified unjustly on a Roman cross.

God's justice isn't about getting what you deserve; it's about Grace.

Praise God that we do not get what we deserve. If so, we would all deserve eternal punishment. We are sinners who live in a fallen world. We have fallen away from God and from our purpose as created beings. Real justice is getting us back to that purpose, back to God.

Real justice is grace.

Silence

We are silent
early in the morning
because God should have the first word,
and we are silent before going to bed
because the last word also belongs to God.

In the end,
silence means nothing other than waiting
for God's Word
and coming from God's Word
with a blessing.

Real silence,
real stillness,
really holding one's tongue,
comes only as the sober consequence of
spiritual silence.

There is a wonderful
power in being silent
--the power of clarification, purification,
and the focus on what is essential.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Meditation and Prayer, ed. Peter Frick

Knowing the Unknowable

In a discussion with a few friends this past weekend, we were talking about how our theological attempts necessarily limits God. Whenever we try to define God through our limited language, this is an attempt to contain the Uncontainable. We talked about the purpose of apophatic (or negative) theology in trying to avoid this, where we attempt to define God by saying what He is not. But even that puts limitations on God, just in a more roundabout way.

We ended that discussion on a note of helplessness--what can we even do? How can we even know this God who cannot be contained in our knowledge?

I believe that the purpose of theology is to know God. Not to contain Him, but to explore who He is. And, praise the Lord, we have a God who desires to be known! Everything God has done in Scripture and today for His people is to reconcile the separation between God and man, and to reveal Himself to us. God reveals Himself to us not in clear, definable terms, but relationally and mysteriously. Not that He desires to remain cryptic and unknown, but to show us that He is a mystery, far beyond what we know and experience. He desires to show us Himself in how He relates to us and what He's done for us.

He reveals Himself most of all through the Incarnation in becoming one of us. For in Jesus, "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him" (Colossians 1:19). In Jesus we find God's greatest act of revelation. In Jesus, God makes Himself known to us. In Jesus, the truth of who God is is shown by the love and justice of the Gospel.

Though our language will always necessarily limit our experience, whether of God or anything else, we are stuck with it, and must be content to know that which has been given us to know. We have a God that wants to be known. Do all you can to know Him as He is.