I had a roommate about sixteen years ago tell me that there must not be alien life because the God he serves doesn't hold secrets from him. I was a new follower at the time, and although something didn't sound right I didn't know what it was so I ended the conversation. I don't know how I feel about alien life but the Universe is pretty damn big and pretty damn old so I guess I won't be surprised either way. In any case, if it's true that his God didn't hold secrets from him, I should have asked him if he could explain the nature of Gravity, how to create an ion drive, or if he knew the blue prints to stabilize and wormhole. Of course I should have asked him if wormholes (Einstein-Rosen Bridges) existed first.
More recently, I had someone say that they were concerned about me because he felt I was driving a bus but didn't know what destination I was heading too. I was slightly taken back by the comment, so I agreed with it. I still do, but the bus is a bad analogy for me. For all you bus drivers out there, I appreciate you. But me, I see myself aboard a ship bound for uncharted waters to explore and experience wonderful adventure and danger, trusting in the hands of God to guide me. I want to sail into dark waters.
On a slightly different note, it has been discovered that the Universe is expanding much more rapidly than it should be. Gravity should be slowing the Universe down, but there is some mystery force that is causing it to continue to expand. This has excited and perplexed the best cosmologists of the day. They have appropriately called this mysterious force "Dark Energy". We don't know what the hell it is, we just know it's doing something that otherwise would be impossible.
Isn't this kind of like the Holy Spirit? We can't really explain her away. We can't ignore her. We can't directly observe her. She is a mystery. But she's there. And she's so powerful she is above all natural laws. That should indeed excite and perplex us.
So the point is this. We don't know jack shit. Everything we know is based on observation - which can be flawed, personal experience - which is limited in scope, or understanding - which is fleeting.
Or revelation. Which is in some ways above the other three, but can also be the most dangerous. After all, David Koresh claimed he had revelation. So did the Unibomber.
Which is why as a post-modern thinker, I'm okay with not knowing if there are aliens, if I don't know how to drive a bus, and if I can't understand Dark Energy. I don't deny absolute truth. I just question it's ability to found completely, even by revelation.
All truth should be found in the person of Jesus. If he says He is the Truth, then why do we keep trying to find answers apart from that? Jesus is the Truth. Everything else is speculation. Some speculations are more probable than others. (For example it is highly probable that the sun will rise tomorrow. But we can't guarantee this. Someday it won't.)
Nonetheless, I like questions, I like mystery, and I like the unknown. I like the fact that the only rock I stand on is Jesus. I even like the fact that He is more mysterious and wild and perplexing than I thought He was.
So to quote a U2 song, "We thought we had the answers, but it was the questions we had wrong"
The only question we should pursue the answer to is the questions Jesus gave, "Who do you say that I am?"
5 comments:
Hear, hear! The thing i hate is that as a post-modern embracer, I am labeled as someone who does not believe in truth. I totally believe in truth, but i realize that I have alot of shit the prevents me from understanding it to the fullest extent.
As with the analogy of the bus, I would hate to know fully of where this bus was going. One of my favorite things about traveling is the process of getting there. I know that God will redeem me, and is ultimatly guiding me. I am enjoying the ride. And really, one of my favorite experiences in life was wandering around the Tokyo airport on the way to my destination of Taipei. But wait it wasn't my destination, but it was a great moment of being alone in an Asian land as a white boy.
But you know, the reason the Isrealites were in desert for 40 years was because they didn't have bus driver, and totally not that God was wanting them to have an experience.
Oh yeah, and all those years of slavery and exile were because of no bus driver with a honnest destination, but in no way was God working through existentialism... or was it?
hehehe ... my question is, if you knew how to do everything, would you be the best leader ever? So what does driving a bus have to do with anything? You're smart, you could learn in, say, a morning.
In any case, I'm reading this really cool book right now (but I can't remember the name ... it's on my blog ... how's that for blog-whoring). It's about growing organic communities. The author writes that one of the biggest mistakes we make is to set goals, and master plans for organic communities (i.e. know where we're going to drive the bus), when really, we should just know what we hope for (look for uncharted waters). So ... keep sailing ... the sun, the moon and the stars will guide you ... May the God of all mercy keep from the rocks.
The title of the book is Organic Community and it's by Joseph R. Myers ... I'm on ch. 3 (I think) and it's really good ... like reading all of my ideas that were scattered and unformed all put together and made whole and having someone tell me why they're good ideas.
Hmmm.....with your description of the ship, how come I get of picture of you as a sort of cosmic Jack Sparrow. Arg...
Great Post, Great Conversation.
I've been told that I'm like other things that start with the world jack...
Post a Comment