Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Sidewalks, Umbrellas, and Systematic Theology



            Maybe God doesn’t care about order; or rather maybe he only cares about it as much as he cares about chaos. Maybe he doesn’t care if every note in a musical piece is played in complete harmony with the others. Maybe he doesn’t care if the musician spent a long time tuning his instrument to get just the right sound. Maybe God doesn’t care about sidewalks. Maybe he doesn’t care about umbrellas either?
            I think it speaks to the nature of man to make sidewalks in places where God makes wild. God didn’t create cities; he created gardens. Our desire to make sense of our world is a gift from God, but it is also a burden. A burden so great it can completely overwhelm our viewpoint. Blinding us to the truth, as if truth is like rain and we hold up our umbrella to protect us from seeing it. And if we hold too much to the search for order, logic, and answers - we miss a great mystery of why God may care about sidewalks or umbrellas.

            Strong personalities write systematic theologies building on deduction by each carefully thought out deduction. Building up truth and knowledge not only protect themselves from doubt but to provide every answer uncertainty may seek. While it is helpful, sometimes all the logic and deduction cannot prepare us for the simple request that comes from God.  
                                                                 GO
                                                                       If our muscles don’t twitch from expectation of the Divine when we review these manuals of theology, then what’s the point? If they do, then it has served a great purpose.

            When God says go, what do we do? Do we go immediately? Do we carefully consider why would God call us to _____? Do search for answers from friends and teachers? Do look for signs and sidewalks? OR do we simply go.
            Often the place God calls us is not paved in sidewalks. We get exposed to the elements of our weaknesses and insecurities and have to confront the wilderness of our lives. Maybe God doesn’t care about sidewalks and umbrellas. Maybe he does. If he cared enough about them, however, he would have created them, right?

1 comment:

  1. There is much to consider about this but I'm not convinced that God doesn't care about order. Everything in creation is orderly, the Scriptures are orderly, Jesus' fulfilment of prophecy and the feasts of the Lord were orderly. But I agree that the more we tend to strain and look for the order instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and teach us, the more we tend to miss the point.

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