So, I want to address some ideas brought to mind by a certain camp director I’m quite fond of, Curt Parsley. If you want to catch up on the discussion, read his response to my blog titled :Time, why you punish me? (Which was named after a Hootie and the Blowfish song, btw.)
First of all, I definitely dig the idea that God’s time is out of our realm of understanding when we limit ourselves to thinking of Him within our time and world. I was reading more of Einstein’s Dreams today and the world that was describe in the chapter I read was a world in which time is measured by quality and not by quantity. This constructs a world in which things react to causation rather than quantitative time. So, instead of the birth of a child being recorded by date and time, it is associated with the feeling and understanding of the moment. I think a lot of my memories from early childhood are stored in a similar way. I remember things by what I was feeling or perceiving at the moment and not necessarily by the exact age I was when they happened. And I think experiencing time in this way also produces that age-old feeling of deja-vu– when you can’t quite put your finger on what you’re remembering, but you know it’s there somewhere.
And I like the idea of time as a book like C.S. Lewis used. I think this helps a lot of us get a closer glimpse at God’s feelings towards humanity and how He can endure watching us perpetually mess things up…but here’s the thing.
Gilbert, our new minister, has got me thinking about left vs. right brainedness. You can read his post on it by clicking on the blogroll link to the right that says “Gilbert.” But I have to say, every time I’ve tried to categorize myself into one or the other, I realize that I am absolutely smack dab in the middle of both. I think most people would categorize me as being left brained…on the outside I seem very logical and practical; not to mention my choice of major. But those who know me well…and there aren’t very many that do…know that inside I am extremely right brained. (An English major at heart, as Jenny Towns would put it, or a closet liberal in the words of Gary Spear.) But my different ways of thinking and perceiving the world help shape who I am in response to Christ. How I think about Christ. Do I see him as my friend, my teacher, my savior, etc? And furthermore, it has impacted my decision to believe that there is a God at all. I’ve said before, I don’t like apologetics done with the intent in mind to “back up” scientifically that there is a God. I don’t think that’s a normal thing to say for a left brained person to say. But when I was in middle school I thought apologetics were the only way to defend my faith.
I think this begs a good question though. How do we make Christ-following look attractive and worth-while to those that are extremely left-brained? Those that make their decision about God based entirely on the “logicalness” of believing that there is a God?
The above is my first question for everyone to answer. Here is the second.
My answer to the above question is this: Gary said something to me at camp this past summer that has stuck with me. He said, “Buss, we’ve got to be living in a way that makes people look at us, see Jesus, and say, ‘I wanna get me some of that.’ And I think that’s my answer. I need to be living life in a way that makes others want to follow. In a way that makes others want to leave their fishing nets behind, so to speak.
So here is the second question: What does that look like in the life of a Christian? What is it that we should be doing that will set us apart? I want specific examples.
I have some answers to the second question as well, but I’d rather hear yours. So, respond. Don’t be afraid of me finding out you read this…I wouldn’t make this a public journal if I didn’t want to have an audience. I just want insights. This is important for us as the Body if we’re going to thrive in this world. And I’m so tired of “Christianity” I could scream. How can we be Christ-followers? What does this look like in your life?
Who inspires you with how they’re living? And if you’re not a Christian, what kind of living would make you interested in becoming one?
I’m by no means an expert at, well anything really, but here’s my thoughts.
First question: “How do we make Christ-following look attractive and worth-while to those that are extremely left-brained?” Answer: Believing there is a God that created everything, he still exists, and he’s is in control is the basic core to our faith. Admittedly, I think the logic train derails at some point along that path, but this belief in God is just as logical (and more so really) as the big bang theory or whatever other cosmic ideas that are out there. For me, none of this is about the age of the universe or evolution. It’s about a core belief in an omnipotent, omnipresent divine God that was there at the beginning. To believe in something else, for example, one must start with the belief that something was made out of nothing and it randomly or with some intelligence formed into something greater than the sum of its parts. That begs the question: where did intelligence come from? Who created that? What caused the bang to happen that made something from nothing? The same rules of physics must apply then as apply now for us to believe that God wasn’t there. Simply isn’t possible. So that line of thinking to me is illogical, more so than believing in an eternal God. Argument #2 is “Who made God”? Good question, but if you answer that, then the next question is “who made the being that made God?” “Where are these beings now?” The whole thing keeps going, but to me it all comes down to an unshakeable faith in something, whether we want to see it that way or not. You either have faith God was there, is here, and will always be here, or you put your faith in a theory with even less proof. The extreme left brainer may decide to trick his brain, but he is still making a decision to believe in something, even if it is nothing. Pretty illogical either way you look at it.
I’m going to answer your questions with a story. Jesus used to tell stories to answer questions and I definitely want to be like Him.
When I started my current job back in 1990, I met another young engineer named Jeff. He was a unique individual – an ex-Navy sailor who put himself through engineering school while working full time and read the dictionary during potty breaks to keep his vocabulary sharp. He was married to an atheist and declared himself to be a semi-agnostic soon after we met. His dad was a Baptist minister and Jeff had been a faithful Christian until he left home. We had some shallow conversations about religion, but never came close to approaching anything I would consider significant. We worked in the same office for about nine years and had lot of conversations about everything under the sun especially in the 2-3 years he sat across the aisle from my cubicle. During those years we sat close, he left his wife and endured a messy divorce. I ended up moving to a different building, but still talked to Jeff occasionally when our paths crossed. A couple of years after I moved, he called me to let me know he was going to church again. This thrilled me to no end, but then he dropped the bombshell. He told me he wanted to call and thank me because I was a major influence on his decision. I didn’t understand how he could consider me an influence since we rarely talked about anything religious. He told me that I had allowed him to see that you could be a Christian and not be a kook.
This is the part where the angelic choir kicks in as I ascend into the clouds…except I didn’t really do anything. My influence on Jeff wasn’t because of my superior understanding of scripture. I never invited Jeff to church or shared the steps of salvation. My only influence was a life lived trying to be like Jesus – good days and bad days – succeeding and failing – growing and shrinking. To Jeff, I was a fellow engineer and friend who happened to be a Christian while not being a lunatic. That is what he needed in his life at that time to bring him back to Jesus (his own personal “I gotta get me some of that…”). Since I’m not smart enough to pull off a scheme like that, of course I have to give all the credit to God. God knew what Jeff needed to bring him home and I was pliable enough to allow God to use me.