From the great Dane: "God in Heaven, let me really feel my nothingness, not in order to despair over it, but in order to feel the more powerfully the greatness of your goodness." ('The Prayers of Kierkegaard', Perry D. Lefevre, ed., Chicago, 1956, p. 5.) Similarly, I've found Richard Foster's "Freedom Of Simplicity" worthy of delighted study. ...thanks Mark Galli for sharing this wisdom.
Mark, Interesting musings, worthy of careful consideration. But, my reaction is overall on the negative side, to my surprise. Negative is perhaps too strong, uncomfortable is closer. So, I have wondered why for the better part of the last hour plus.
Too much in the nature of seeming navel-gazing by Koenemann and Marmion as you describe (I do not know the writings of either) is my conclusion, a strained pietism.
Abandonment sounds so "godly" but what does it mean in practice? I venture that this side of Glory no one does or can completely abandon oneself to God--our inner man constantly rattles our cage. I would suggest that we get closest to abandonment when we recognize and take seriously who God "Is." And then act upon it in daily life in gratitude.
There is a precious little book written by the father of a good friend many years ago, titled "Turtle on a Fencepost," that transformed my thinking. And a second like unto the first, an admonition of our long-time pastor, now deceased, in every benediction on every Sunday morning, "You (as a believer) go nowhere by accident." Once we as believers realize we are but like the turtle on a fencepost--who did not get on the fencepost on its own, nor we on our fenceposts, but instead by God's gracious and providential workings in our lives, and realize it daily, and hourly, and continuously, we understand our nothingness. Otherwise, we miss it altogether. It follows as the night the day.
Prayer and silence are okay but they do not summon the voice of God. God speaks through his Word. We certainly can and should contemplate the Word in prayer and (verbal) silence (without inner speaking to ourselves and God, there is no prayer). But, is not the seemingly elusive will of God elusive because we do not read and follow the Word? Does not the Word describe and explain our sinful nature so that we can readily see it comports with reality and our need for a savior? And the nature and reality of evil?
If we follow the Word, our nothingness is readily apparent compared to our Creator. How could it be otherwise? We owe our lives, our very next breath to his graciousness. My sense is that few, including believers, really grasp the awesome I AM-ness of God and the sinfulness of sin. Thank you, RC, for your wonderful teaching on such matters.
The "feel good about ourselves" era is over, although many who still live and sleep in Christian la-la land have yet to be awakened. The feel-good sense in large part was fostered by a Christian-sourced culture that is now substantially ended. People's values were predominantly Christian even if they denied Christ. No more. Evil, always present since the Garden, often hidden, has blossomed into proudful arrogance, proclaiming evil to be good and good evil, daring God. My musings these days are mainly lament.
Self-esteem as a relevant concept does not compute. Yes, nothingness is abhorrent to the world but it is the key to the believer. To the extent God has given talents, we should be grateful but tremble.
I do like simplicity, but it is a rarity. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" and then gave us the greatest commandment and the one next in line: Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. Simple concept, very hard in application, especially the neighbor part. Do I love my neighbor if I am not friendly to the guy next door? Of course not, easy one. Do I love my neighbor if I accept untruth as truth? Have to think about that one, hard, requires work. Do I love my neighbor if my so-called Christian conscience ignores a Christian ethic? Ouch....Do I love my neighbor if I don't take seriously the parable of the talents? Huh? [Think about it]. It's getting warm in here...almost unnerving.
One of my life mysteries has been the consideration of what it means to "lose" myself in order to "find" myself in Christ and how to "die" in order to "live". Reflecting on Genesis 3 and their desire to step outside God's plan in order to grasp something they were afraid of missing out in is, I think, part of the story. Adam and Eve allowed fear of losing something to enter into their relationship with God. We've been struggling with the same problem ever since.
We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old.
- Frederick Buechner
What deadens us most to God's presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continually engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought.
https://ascensionfromdarkness.substack.com/p/to-those-who-think-im-mean-and-scary
I wrote about the void recently too. Its by far the most beautiful thing thats ever come out of me.
From the great Dane: "God in Heaven, let me really feel my nothingness, not in order to despair over it, but in order to feel the more powerfully the greatness of your goodness." ('The Prayers of Kierkegaard', Perry D. Lefevre, ed., Chicago, 1956, p. 5.) Similarly, I've found Richard Foster's "Freedom Of Simplicity" worthy of delighted study. ...thanks Mark Galli for sharing this wisdom.
Mark, Interesting musings, worthy of careful consideration. But, my reaction is overall on the negative side, to my surprise. Negative is perhaps too strong, uncomfortable is closer. So, I have wondered why for the better part of the last hour plus.
Too much in the nature of seeming navel-gazing by Koenemann and Marmion as you describe (I do not know the writings of either) is my conclusion, a strained pietism.
Abandonment sounds so "godly" but what does it mean in practice? I venture that this side of Glory no one does or can completely abandon oneself to God--our inner man constantly rattles our cage. I would suggest that we get closest to abandonment when we recognize and take seriously who God "Is." And then act upon it in daily life in gratitude.
There is a precious little book written by the father of a good friend many years ago, titled "Turtle on a Fencepost," that transformed my thinking. And a second like unto the first, an admonition of our long-time pastor, now deceased, in every benediction on every Sunday morning, "You (as a believer) go nowhere by accident." Once we as believers realize we are but like the turtle on a fencepost--who did not get on the fencepost on its own, nor we on our fenceposts, but instead by God's gracious and providential workings in our lives, and realize it daily, and hourly, and continuously, we understand our nothingness. Otherwise, we miss it altogether. It follows as the night the day.
Prayer and silence are okay but they do not summon the voice of God. God speaks through his Word. We certainly can and should contemplate the Word in prayer and (verbal) silence (without inner speaking to ourselves and God, there is no prayer). But, is not the seemingly elusive will of God elusive because we do not read and follow the Word? Does not the Word describe and explain our sinful nature so that we can readily see it comports with reality and our need for a savior? And the nature and reality of evil?
If we follow the Word, our nothingness is readily apparent compared to our Creator. How could it be otherwise? We owe our lives, our very next breath to his graciousness. My sense is that few, including believers, really grasp the awesome I AM-ness of God and the sinfulness of sin. Thank you, RC, for your wonderful teaching on such matters.
The "feel good about ourselves" era is over, although many who still live and sleep in Christian la-la land have yet to be awakened. The feel-good sense in large part was fostered by a Christian-sourced culture that is now substantially ended. People's values were predominantly Christian even if they denied Christ. No more. Evil, always present since the Garden, often hidden, has blossomed into proudful arrogance, proclaiming evil to be good and good evil, daring God. My musings these days are mainly lament.
Self-esteem as a relevant concept does not compute. Yes, nothingness is abhorrent to the world but it is the key to the believer. To the extent God has given talents, we should be grateful but tremble.
I do like simplicity, but it is a rarity. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" and then gave us the greatest commandment and the one next in line: Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. Simple concept, very hard in application, especially the neighbor part. Do I love my neighbor if I am not friendly to the guy next door? Of course not, easy one. Do I love my neighbor if I accept untruth as truth? Have to think about that one, hard, requires work. Do I love my neighbor if my so-called Christian conscience ignores a Christian ethic? Ouch....Do I love my neighbor if I don't take seriously the parable of the talents? Huh? [Think about it]. It's getting warm in here...almost unnerving.
Unnerving can be a good thing as well as silence.
One of my life mysteries has been the consideration of what it means to "lose" myself in order to "find" myself in Christ and how to "die" in order to "live". Reflecting on Genesis 3 and their desire to step outside God's plan in order to grasp something they were afraid of missing out in is, I think, part of the story. Adam and Eve allowed fear of losing something to enter into their relationship with God. We've been struggling with the same problem ever since.
We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old.
- Frederick Buechner
What deadens us most to God's presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continually engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought.
- Frederick Buechner