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I get lumps in my throat as I continue to read Sweet & Salty's ongoing "Mamalove" as she calls it. To get the full scoop check out her blog which I delight in day in and day out (see "And God says, 'Oh shit...' entry)!
Liam & Ben are amazing as are their parents Justin & Kate (from what I can tell living on the complete other end of the North American continent and only understanding a morsel of what's going via the blogosphere)...speechless I am...
Peace...peace...peace...
Now look, if you're gonna come round here
And say those sort of things
You gotta take a few on the chin
Yeah, you talk about love and all that stuff
You better wear your thickest skin
Sometimes you can't please everyone
Sometimes you can't please anyone at all
Sew your heart onto your sleeve
And wait for the axe to fall
From "Skin" by the Vigilantes of Love...an oldie but a goodie.
The Vigilantes are no longer officially a band, but the frontman and songwriter is still going, check Bill out and see when he's coming to your neck of the woods.
Just finished reading a blog strand of seemingly infinite length involving folks who claim to follow Jesus, but argue like enemies, belittle their sisters and brothers (of course most of them are men), and (chances are) will never sit down to a cup of coffee or a pint of Guinness (or some Old Rasputin's Russian Imperial Stout...yummy!) and talk as friends who may disagree on a few things but can enjoy one another's company, AND (if possible) friendship. And NO I will not include the tiresome link, I don't want to submit anyone to such torture.
I think Yahweh may actually be wondering, "Where are you?" when watching these incessantly numbing and impersonal diatribes...because, in fact, God has more important things to take care of (i.e. infant twins struggling to survive their first weeks of post-partum existence, not to mention their parents' deep, gut-wrenching questions...God bless Liam and Ben - see original "Oh, shit..." blog).
More to come...
Undoubtedly, some will find a great deal of discomfort with my previous blog. Upon further reflection, somehow I was reminded of the age-old story of the first humans. After having eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (something they were commanded not to do), they noticed they were naked (another completely foreign concern), they heard God walking in the garden (huh?), and then Yahweh asks a fascinating question, "Where are you?"
Always been taken aback by that one...
...from a biblical perspective, then, perhaps our contemporary "Oh, shit..." was for the writer of Genesis, "Where are you?" I don't take this to mean that the creator of the universe is oblivious, but rather that this strange God savored a perpetual 'encounter' (to borrow Buber's language) with the human creatures and then it was violently dismembered.
May we re-member well...
A common statement made by folks in troubled times is that "God is in control..." Watching what goes on in our world (mass shootings, genocide, famine, war, and on and on), and being both a perpetrator and victim of various types of betrayal and harm, I have a difficult time with simply saying that God is, indeed, in control. I'm not sure if I can love a god who is systematically steering this whole train to eternity...I'm not particularly fond of a deity who sits behind the cosmic 'control panel' watching and directing every event in the universe...a god directly instigating and controlling everything, even the brutally destructive and gut-wrenching epidemics such as the sex slave trade makes me want to vomit. How can we ever be convinced that God is in control? A god like that is indeed a cruel and outright abusive parent.
Is God really in CONTROL?!
At this point, I'm convinced that God is NOT in control. In fact the case could be made that God may be a bit surprised by how bad things have gotten, and I am serious when I write that. I don't mean to imply that he is, as the Deists believe, simply someone who wound up the cosmic 'clock' and sits around watching things transpire while never getting his hands dirty in the process. That's equally cruel, but the passive version of the all-controlling god folks seem so comforted by. I happen to feel like God, if authentically 'loving', is actually doubled over in pain by what is going on...he feels everything...AND he actually does get his hands dirty, intervene, heal, and whatever else you can think of. But I still can't believe that God is in control of EVERYTHING! Becaue a loving God could never be in 'control' of Sweet & Salty's present circumstance, nor would it bring much comfort to folks like her either. It's a blog from a woman who has just had twin boys at the tender 28th week of her pregnancy, and her eloquent writing brings this whole idea to light (not to mention her entire blog is incredibly moving and provocative...both my wife and I wish we could actually meet this fascinating couple, the first cyber folks I've wanted to meet...too bad they live in Nova Scotia). A truly loving God might actually say, "Oh, shit!" upon seeing what happens around here because he's neither sitting back in his easy chair nor is he fiendishly manipulating buttons and switches but rather (and please forgive what may seem a bit trite) somehow loving us. This love may choose to heal Liam and Ben (the twin boys), but the reality is he may not, and who are we to ever be so arrogant to presume that "God is in control..." or that "All things work together for those who love Jesus..."
I'm much more comfortable (well, not necessarily 'comfortable') with the possibility of God being sovereign which feels a bit different than 'controlling' and yet still feels so insufficient. All I can come up with is that in some completely mysterious way the creator of the universe is right there in that infant incubator with those twins (a conclusion Kate, aka Sweet & Salty, has come to regarding her boys). In fact, God's sovereignty or control may be the entirely wrong question to begin with! Perhaps it's more a question of presence and love. Perhaps Yahweh's presence and love are one and the same? Perhaps, as one writer has proposed, we need to focus a bit more on God's powerlessness instead of the pseudo-comfort of an always all-powerful deity (and I don't mean to say that I don't think God is technically without power, I agree that God is indeed omni-potent). I would not know the love of God without somehow experiencing his ever-presence and ever-absence. God is the Author of our lives and yet somehow God is NOT the author of sin and evil, that's where we live day in and day out. An always and all-powerful God only makes things worse, but a present God is there. In the midst of pain and sorrow I want to have friends do what Job's friends did early on in his saga...they sat with him for 7 days without saying a word.
I want to let folks experience God's presence on their own, to make conclusions on their own regarding whether or not God is actually there or in control or sovereign or whatever. I delight in a God who says, "Oh, shit!" It means that what he sees breaks his heart like it breaks mine because this isn't the way it's supposed to be and yet it is the way it is. When God says, "Oh, shit," I'm reminded that God is here and that God is love.
"For the Master of the Universe, whose suffering world I do not comprehend." - From Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev