I'm a huge C.S. Lewis fan. I've been working my way through "Mere Christianity" for quite a long time now, trying my hardest to take it slow and think through what he's writing, while at the same time wanting to gulp down more and more of his analogies.
I read the chapter on faith last week. If you look at the post from Oct. 6, you'll recall I was in a bad mood.
Lews speaks to the issue of mood swings in the faith chapter. I'll reproduce an excerpt here: ". . . Faith . . . is the art of holding on to the things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." It seems to me that the claim relies on two premises: first, that reason is the basis of the choice to accept whatever "things" you believe (assuming you believe anything at all), and second, that your moods will change. I like this perspective because it provides a place for both logic and emotion in regards to faith. Do I have faith in God? Sure do. Do I always feel like I have faith in God? Nope.
What inspires me about Lewis's definition of faith here is that faith itself is separate from the feeling. Feelings come and go, but faith is something far deeper. So, the measure of my faith isn't how good I'm feeling; it's whether or not I still believe what I've said I believe when war, famine, and pestilence (figuratively speaking) come. Even better, the notion of "blind faith" doesn't really apply since reason has already overcome doubt (again, assuming I have any beliefs at all).
All this is to say: I'm encouraged. For years I've been basing my faith in God on the feeling. When I screw up and do something stupid, it takes me days to regain my "faith" because I think I have to wait for the good feeling to return. So I am now at the point of "[recognizing] the fact that [my] moods change" (another quote from the faith chapter), and I can now move on to the next part of the prescription. More to come about that.
Appreciate your thoughts and comments.
Jeff
20 October 2008
06 October 2008
fire
In many ways my negligence towards the blog has been just another symptom of an overall crappy month. It has been crappy because of me. God does not change. When I have a "bad" day, week, month or year, it's because of me. I hate that I have the power to affect my own attitude. I love that God is never the problem, because then I at least know which of us needs fixing.
I'm really glad Bernice shared those lyrics in her comments to the last post. The last 10 minutes have been the divine confluence of a series of thoughts that have all had the flame metaphor burning at the core. I'm going to share them now.
Let me start with a book I've been reading. It's called "The History of God" by a reknowned religious scholar named Karen Armstrong. Let me tell you, this book will mess with your theology. To start, it's not clear what the author's own views are, though she attempts to explain them in her introduction. Basically the book is exploring the "god" of the 3 major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Maybe a better way of describing it is the book is exploring the human perception of God in all 3.
So far I'm just reading about the God of Judaism. It has been fascinating to me to learn about the culture and the social context in which God revealed himself to the Israelites. These were polytheistic times. The Babylonians believed in a number of deities, and the Israelites would have too. Then they made a covenant with God, and vowed to serve him above all the others. That was unprecedented for the time, and the whole Old Testament records the Israelites' struggle in upholding their end of the covenant, and continual dabbling with other gods.
This is where the flame metaphor comes in. God asked for complete and unconditional loyalty. He asks nothing less of us. This is why a flame is such an appropriate image: something is either on fire or it's not. I'm not a chemist or a physicist, but as I understand it, there is a combustion point of every material. Once ablaze, we say it's "on fire." There are varying degrees of heat, of course, but there's still the point at which something catches fire.
Nearly every song I've heard on my computer's playlist for the last little while has been about this very thing. Right now it's Delerious: "All the Way." Am I going all the way with God? Are you? You've either been set on fire or not. If not, then pray the lyrics of the old song "Lord light the Fire Again." That's what I'm going to do right now.
The best part is, fire spreads.
Jeff
I'm really glad Bernice shared those lyrics in her comments to the last post. The last 10 minutes have been the divine confluence of a series of thoughts that have all had the flame metaphor burning at the core. I'm going to share them now.
Let me start with a book I've been reading. It's called "The History of God" by a reknowned religious scholar named Karen Armstrong. Let me tell you, this book will mess with your theology. To start, it's not clear what the author's own views are, though she attempts to explain them in her introduction. Basically the book is exploring the "god" of the 3 major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Maybe a better way of describing it is the book is exploring the human perception of God in all 3.
So far I'm just reading about the God of Judaism. It has been fascinating to me to learn about the culture and the social context in which God revealed himself to the Israelites. These were polytheistic times. The Babylonians believed in a number of deities, and the Israelites would have too. Then they made a covenant with God, and vowed to serve him above all the others. That was unprecedented for the time, and the whole Old Testament records the Israelites' struggle in upholding their end of the covenant, and continual dabbling with other gods.
This is where the flame metaphor comes in. God asked for complete and unconditional loyalty. He asks nothing less of us. This is why a flame is such an appropriate image: something is either on fire or it's not. I'm not a chemist or a physicist, but as I understand it, there is a combustion point of every material. Once ablaze, we say it's "on fire." There are varying degrees of heat, of course, but there's still the point at which something catches fire.
Nearly every song I've heard on my computer's playlist for the last little while has been about this very thing. Right now it's Delerious: "All the Way." Am I going all the way with God? Are you? You've either been set on fire or not. If not, then pray the lyrics of the old song "Lord light the Fire Again." That's what I'm going to do right now.
The best part is, fire spreads.
Jeff
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