Thank you for putting so much thought into this exchange, JG. I’m glad we had a chance to explore this topic together, and I suspect there is much more to talk about as time goes on.
Like the Biblical assertion that Christians love God because He first loved them, and the multiple instances throughout scripture that state that God is the One Who chooses. I still haven’t worked through all of what that means (many theologians much smarter than I have written at length about it throughout history), but there is something very powerful in the Christian doctrine that offers a kind of assurance not found in other teachings, secular or spiritual.
Peter wrote that Christians are “kept by the power of God.“ And Jesus stated that those who come to Him will never be cast out. The Old and New Testaments assert that God will never fail or forsake His people. So there are certainly discussions to be had about the idea of choice and keeping. 🙂
It was interesting to read about your experience trying to describe who you are. I feel like that’s the fundamental question of our age, the question of identity and of where we fit. And looking at the way society has gone in the recent past, it seems like we are not able to define that for ourselves. There must be, as you said, something larger than us at work. For the more we attempt to define ourselves, the more we find our thoughts of shooting off in all directions, grasping for an anchor, trying to build a framework through which we attempt to express ideas of ourselves that are nebulous even to us.
But if we seek for God, as Paul said to the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, we find the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.
I totally agree Sam, this was an excellent exchange, and deeply gratifying to be able to explore this topic at such depth when modern life so rarely provides such opportunities. Precisely what you say is so true: one of the most fundamental questions of our moment is how we are to think of ourselves, see ourselves in the world. How, in other words, do we define "home"? In many ways the modern condition is one of homelessness.
Discussions like these, starting to think about how we are to move beyond that condition, using all of the spiritual and philosophical traditions and personal experiences we and thoughtful folks like us have at our disposal—these kinds of discussions are the true work.
Thank you for putting so much thought into this exchange, JG. I’m glad we had a chance to explore this topic together, and I suspect there is much more to talk about as time goes on.
Like the Biblical assertion that Christians love God because He first loved them, and the multiple instances throughout scripture that state that God is the One Who chooses. I still haven’t worked through all of what that means (many theologians much smarter than I have written at length about it throughout history), but there is something very powerful in the Christian doctrine that offers a kind of assurance not found in other teachings, secular or spiritual.
Peter wrote that Christians are “kept by the power of God.“ And Jesus stated that those who come to Him will never be cast out. The Old and New Testaments assert that God will never fail or forsake His people. So there are certainly discussions to be had about the idea of choice and keeping. 🙂
It was interesting to read about your experience trying to describe who you are. I feel like that’s the fundamental question of our age, the question of identity and of where we fit. And looking at the way society has gone in the recent past, it seems like we are not able to define that for ourselves. There must be, as you said, something larger than us at work. For the more we attempt to define ourselves, the more we find our thoughts of shooting off in all directions, grasping for an anchor, trying to build a framework through which we attempt to express ideas of ourselves that are nebulous even to us.
But if we seek for God, as Paul said to the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, we find the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.
I totally agree Sam, this was an excellent exchange, and deeply gratifying to be able to explore this topic at such depth when modern life so rarely provides such opportunities. Precisely what you say is so true: one of the most fundamental questions of our moment is how we are to think of ourselves, see ourselves in the world. How, in other words, do we define "home"? In many ways the modern condition is one of homelessness.
Discussions like these, starting to think about how we are to move beyond that condition, using all of the spiritual and philosophical traditions and personal experiences we and thoughtful folks like us have at our disposal—these kinds of discussions are the true work.