Faith Networking for Passionate Spirituality
Food for thought
This is a small portion of Christian Wilman's article "God is Not Beyond," which can be found in the 2/24/09 issue of The Christian Centurey. I found it interesting, especially the part that I put in bold type...it's somewhat unnerving how well it describes me. Anyway, it's some food for thought.
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"You continually seek something that will resolve your anxieties once and for all, will push you over into a consistent and comforting belief. You read book after book, you seek out intense experiences in nature or in conversations with people whom you respect and who seem to rest more securely in their belief than you. Sometimes it seems that gains are made, for all of these things can and do provide relief and instruction. But always the anxieties come back, are the norm from which faith deviates, if faith is even what you could call these intense but somehow vague and fleeting experiences of God. You have forgotten, or perhaps simply will not let yourself see, what true faith is, its active and outward nature (as opposed to active but inward, which is what all of those activities above are). Do not pray to be at peace in your belief. Pray that your anxieties be given peaceful outlets, that you may be the means to a peace which you yourself do not feel."
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"You continually seek something that will resolve your anxieties once and for all, will push you over into a consistent and comforting belief. You read book after book, you seek out intense experiences in nature or in conversations with people whom you respect and who seem to rest more securely in their belief than you. Sometimes it seems that gains are made, for all of these things can and do provide relief and instruction. But always the anxieties come back, are the norm from which faith deviates, if faith is even what you could call these intense but somehow vague and fleeting experiences of God. You have forgotten, or perhaps simply will not let yourself see, what true faith is, its active and outward nature (as opposed to active but inward, which is what all of those activities above are). Do not pray to be at peace in your belief. Pray that your anxieties be given peaceful outlets, that you may be the means to a peace which you yourself do not feel."
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Comment by Caitlin on March 26, 2009 at 9:53am - I don't know. Is Wilman right? Is it wrong to try to find some semblance of faith and wholeness through study and conversation? It is a somewhat self-centered approach, I suppose, and "self-centered" doesn't sound consistant with the self-giving nature of Christian faith. And yet, how do you give yourself away in outward-directed activity when you are a mess on the inside? How do you find the energy and dedication to do that? It seems like a chicken-or-egg-first question.
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