Comments on: Because My Greatest Fear Is Being Misunderstood

By: David

David — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:05:18 +0000

What so many others are struggling to understand here (and misunderstanding your writings as a consequence) is a timeless truth that I’m glad to have grabbed hold of several years ago: The more you know about God, the more you know you don’t know.

The brightest, most educated, and most spiritually mature pastors and Christian leaders I’ve interacted with have corroborated this fact for me.

It’s sort of like realizing that the Earth isn’t flat, then once you circumnavigate the Earth to verify this fact, you discover in the process that the Earth revolves around the sun instead of vice versa. So upon setting out to explore the solar system, you discover that the galaxy is staggeringly more vast than the extent of the comparatively tiny solar system. You have now learned more indisputable truths about the world around you, but you have also learned that the world you thought you knew is only the tip of the iceberg.

This is how my experience of being a Christian works, anyway. It doesn’t mean I can choose to selectively ignore truths I’ve already learned. But it constantly reveals that God is more vast and complex than I previously gave Him credit for. It reminds me that the bits of knowledge that I have managed to attain over the years are trifling fractions of molecules of crumbs of the full knowledge of God’s truth.

By: Stretch Mark Mama

Stretch Mark Mama — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:35:50 +0000

I understood the first post completely, if that helps any.

I’ve spent the last 5++ years throwing out my old definition of “Christianity” and trying to write a new one. My old one was filled with pages and pages of certainties and the new one? Has not gotten any further than this:

Love God. Love others.

That’s all I got.

I’m old enough now (mid-thirties) to feel comfortable with all my questions, though. I just don’t lead a small group. I would be tarred and feathered.

By: Bill Whitt

Bill Whitt — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:26:03 +0000

Again, great thoughts! And well said.

1 Cor. 13:11: “Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.”

It’s a fact that we’ll never get it exactly right here on earth. But I hope that fact will not extinguish in us a constant desire to learn more about Jesus everyday and to pursue a deeper and truer picture of Jesus each day than we had the day before. Maybe that journey is exactly what this post is about!

BYW, as great as unity is, I still think some things are worth the argument. Could Jesus be one of them??? (Think about other cults or religions who believe in “Jesus” ... but not the same Jesus of the Scriptures at all.)

By: Shaun Groves

Shaun Groves — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:06:59 +0000

No need to apologize, Amy. I completely understand. I wonder if our shared longing for certainty is a longing God places in us for Him, for the day this glass we look through will be broken forever.

By: Amy @ My Friend Amy

Amy @ My Friend Amy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:45:50 +0000

As the one who said it took me down the path of despair, I feel I should apologize. You were right to say I was being dramatic, I am very dramatic, but it was a little true. I only mean that I am so completely uncertain so much of the time that sometimes I long for a little certainty. Sometimes I just want to look at what can bring us together rather than what keeps us separate. (I’m not saying you were focusing on that and I think you actually were trying to bring us together by helping us understand that no one’s got it all right)
Thanks for your grace, Shaun.

By: Loren

Loren — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:00:23 +0000

interesting…I remember taking systematic theology in college. HUGE book, 18 year olds and a professor espousing on why our doctrine was right (at least that is what I remember). It didn’t lend to open discussion on theories of atonement for example, but cemented them more as facts of atonement.

I’m still glad I took the class, although I do wish NT Wright taught it.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:27:47 +0000

Perhaps this is a good reason to avoid teaching/accepting systematic theology. If God planned on us knowing him systematically, wouldn’t the Bible look more like a textbook?

God wrote a story, and its in this story (and perhaps even in our own story) that we begin to understand him.

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:08:15 +0000

well said. we’re all clueless, yet saved by grace.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:34:54 +0000

I have been misunderstood in the past. Usually from my own thoughtlessness. Never the intention to hurt anyone, just being honest. Once I became a believer, I was hurting people all over the place, because now I was narrow-minded and a Jesus Freak!
I am seeing a theme in my life though, through Him we care more, we are more humble, we are more patient. We try not to let our surroundings, upbringing, etc. influence our actions. The Bible is clear, that others will hate us as they hated Him. This is the narrow path, this is the walk. I also believe the Lord is clear with His intentions (through His Word), it is us, mere humans, that twist it around and make black and white, grey.

By: Veretax

Veretax — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:22:29 +0000

Actually, Shaun, I didn’t understand the post at all and though you were perhaps just telling an anecdote to make a point that somehow escaped me on that post.

As a person that loves to debate in online media, I know what its like to say something and then find out later that what you thought would be clear, concise language gets interpreted six ways past sunday.

So no worries here.