Man, I've read so many good books this semester that my head is spinning. I think I'm going to take a break for at least a week so I can gather my thoughts and allow me to process what I have been learning. And what better way to gather my thoughts than to blog about something I've read in multiple books!
Prayer is a gift from God that needs to be central in my life and the life of the Church. Now prayer can take on many definitions and can be practiced in many different ways (i.e. meditating on scripture, talking to God, sitting in silence, ext...). However, for the sake of this blog, let's just define prayer as any type of activity where one creates space in their life for God. In Henry Nouwen's book "The Way of the Heart," he explains that only through creating this space can one truly be transformed into the image of God. It's in this space set aside for God that one begins to see his or herself for who they really are. We confront our own sin, guilt, pain, and inadequacies. And therefore, it's here that we have a true encounter with God. We realize we can do nothing apart from God and learn to truth of the cross; that we need to live daily out of God's grace for everything we do. And out of this encounter, God then transforms us to have a heart of compassion. We no longer judge or create this hierarchy of people in our lives because we have a correct view of who we are in relation to Christ, and so we can now minister to people with God's heart.
But, I've also been learning that compassion has a different meaning then what I originally thought. It's not just being nice to people, giving them encouraging words, a quick hug, then wishing them well (though sometimes these things great ways to minister to people). However, in Pete Greig's book "Red Moon Rising," he talks about how true intercession (or compassion) is when we allow ourselves to suffer with the people around us. True ministry is sharing life with those who are hurting. And this makes so much sense! I mean Jesus is God's revelation of God's compassionate heart. God sent God's son into the world so that he would suffer with us so that Jesus would be the ultimate minister of God's love and justice.
It doesn't end there. We are called to suffer with those around us, so that we can pass their suffering along to Christ. A quotation from Frank Carver's book "The Cross and the Spirit: Peter and the Way of the Holy," I think accurately sums up everything I've been talking about. "When we recognize our brokenness and come to Christ for healing, we are ready to share in the suffering of others -- not to carry them alone but to pass them on to Christ. Christ experiences us as we experience the life of the world around us, and thus He experiences the world through us."
So let us pray so that we may be transformed into the image of God, and therefore be able to walk alongside the world in their suffering with a compassionate heart that takes up all of their brokenness and gives it back to the Lord Jesus!
8 comments:
Man, it is so great to read these words. There are so many great things going on here, but seeing your growth in knowledge and faith makes me jealous of your bible school education.
I totally agree with you and that author on true intercession, but it makes me wonder about the book of Job. I'm taking a class on the book of Job, and its made me realize the problems I have with it. Job is suffering, and his friends are doing the right thing by trying to be with him, carry his burden, and suffer with him, but he rejects them, and in the end, the friends are punished and Job is rewarded! Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
Sorry for hijacking your blog post with my issues about the book of Job. Lol.
compassion is huge. right off the bat, if we can't feel what other people are feeling, then our actions on their behalf are done out of obligation. and then we kind of miss the point, right?
the problem with job's friends was that they weren't feeling what he was feeling. they didn't have compassion on him. yeah, they showed up, but the first thing Eliphaz says is, "hey man, what are you complaining about? what goes around comes around. it's clear you've been doing some evil things...or else why would God be punishing you?" when Job tries to defend his integrity a little, the others basically tell him he's full of it, and that maybe God should teach him an even harder lesson.
i'd rather have no friends than those friends.
and here's the biggest bummer of it all. we're never told that satan was directly involved in that conversation. i suppose it's possible he was pulling the puppet-strings there but maybe he didn't even have to. maybe he just got the ball rolling, and then left it up to the humans to do the rest of the damage in job's life. it wouldn't surprise me. we can do a lot of damage, and i think the devil banks on that quite a bit. how sad is that? how often do we unwittingly play a part in the devil's works instead of the Lord's works simply because we don't have a genuine kind of compassion for those around us?
Thank you for these words gudy. I SO look forward to continuing our friendship when I get home and hopefully learning some stuff from you. I'm going to love this blog.
@Amy
Yes, that is somewhat what Eliphaz is doing, but it begins as an attempt of comforting Job. But he is acting out of experience, he is behaving as the Torah has taught him, God punishes the wicked. It doesn't say that God punishes the rightgeous in some strange bet with the satan. I would argue that the first sign of beligerence by the friends is before Elihu speaks, when Bildad says gets in Job's face, after Job has called his friends "miserable comforters." Its an escalation on both sides.
The friends are speaking from tradition, they are doing what God taught them to do, and then because they didn't know the full situation, they are punished. I have a problem with that.
i don't know if i see any attempt at real comfort in there. i see what you're saying about them following tradition, but clearly they weren't exactly righteous either, or God wouldn't have gotten angry with them. and the thing is, i don't think i would consider what happened with them punishment. God was angry and told them so, but also said that if they made a sacrifice and asked job to pray, he would accept job's prayer on their behalf and forgive, and then that's just what happened.
i guess. i'm not an expert. gudy, any thoughts, since we seem to have commandeered your blog? :-)
I don't know about you guys, but I think Gudy's blog is a welcome addition to our little community. Added to the list sir. Another source of some great words of wisdom.
To be quite honest (about the whole Job debate) I've never actually read the book. I've actually steered as far away from the OT as I could until about last year. Then I tried to make my way through and I stopped at 2 Kings. So good progress, but still got a lot of stuff to get to.
I think you both have valid points. It seems like Trent's teachers are doing some literary criticism of the text, which usually entails looking at the gaps in the specific texts. Now while although this form of criticism is very enlightening, I also think that it asks certain questions of the text that it was never meant for. Many of these new systemic criticisms bear these ancient (and dare I say) sacred texts up against our 21st century standards of morality. And I'm not always sure if that's the best thing to do.
What I would do is grab two commentaries (preferably the Word Biblical or New Interpreter's Bible Commentary) and read them alongside your class discussions. These will give you a lot of historical background as well as a broader sense of how this specific texts has been used in the Jew-Christian traditions. I'm all for liberalism and asking tough questions of the Bible, but I've been learning that a balance is needed between that and conservatism. Remember, for most of Christianity the authority for interpreting scripture was in the Church; the body of Christ that professes faith in God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not the academia.
That does sound like a great idea, Gudy, but a lot of these questions are questions I'm coming up with. Our class discussion of Job has really stayed in the realm of comparison to other evils (eg. Slavery, Holocaust, etc.)
I don't think any part of Job is disheartening per se, but when it gets all put together, it doesn't really make sense to me. The beginning with Job being pious and the premise with the satan I can accept, and then Job blashphemes God because of all his suffering, which I understand, we're all human, and the God forgives him...great, I love a forgiving God. But God never gives the friends a chance to repent, they are just automatically guilty. And, in my view, both sides got pretty heated and said things to the other that they didn't mean, yet Job is the only one who is given the chance to repent, and then he offers sacrifices for the others. Seems pretty jacked up to me.
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