The Vitality of Irrational Thought

Last week I was reading a book by Freeman, discussing the psychology of adult learning.  Given the history of adult learning throughout the Western world, one will find that the church was once the hub. It was pushing and leading a systematic approach, viewed as "just as necessary for development of human reason as revelation and grace were necessary for salvation and maturity." 

These assumptions and discoveries have informed adult learning paradigms which are still in practice today.  What I kept seeing as the focus however, was rational thinking.  It has become the teacher's role in helping students to "think rationally."  This however seems to add major hurdles to pursuing a biblical faith.

Let me elaborate...

True grace is not rational. It makes no sense. But yet, God's economy doesn't work like ours. Rational thought and understanding seeks judgement and punishment for offenders, yet God seems to work in other ways. The way of the world seeks redemptive violence, yet God works through restoration and reconciliation. Both of these are difficult and contrary to rational thought and practice. Even stories of miracles and virgin births become suspect when we pursue rational thought. Because God is increasingly mystical, works beyond the limits of understood physics and biology, rational thought becomes a hurdle in faith formation.


Even today, many across the country are celebrating the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death.  People are simply acting rational - good overcame evil.  But looking at God's economy and being irrational enough to suppose that my wishes, hopes, and desires are not greater than, or even equal to, God's, gives room to grace, restoration, and love.

So what now? 

As we're increasingly a post-modern culture, certain rational thoughts of the past are suspect. There's room for irrational thought in understanding and learning. And I believe, as teachers to adult learners, we must create environments that accept and produce irrational thinkers, to create new realities, and to move closer to the image we were created, and to tell better stories that include grace, reconciliation, virgin birth, miracles, seas parting, burning bushes, the Holy Spirit, death, and resurrection.

Peace,
Ross

Love Wins - a response to the death of OBL

Last night as I hovered over my iPhone, receiving tweet after tweet in anticipation of Obama's speech, it became apparent that the military had killed Osama Bin Laden. The responses were varied, but the majority were overly celebratory. After Obama's speech the floodgates opened. Apparently fireworks went off as groups gathered across the country to celebrate the death.

The tweets were joyous. You'd think everyone's home team had just won the World Series. Rather, we were a nation celebrating death. And though the death was of a vile man, an evil man, a man that brought about death and destruction, he was still a man - made in God's image; and a man worth Christ dying on a tree.

I understand everyone will not agree with me. And my intent isn't to persuade you of your reaction(s) or stance(s), rather its just to voice where I am at in all of this.

In my opinion, a Christ follower's response on death is initial sadness, because I believe that God is the giver of life. And life is good.

The notion that America brought about God's will and justice seems a bit presumptuous to me as well. Assuming God did want OBL dead, couldn't God have willed OBL to catch pneumonia or fall into a crevasse and die? Why involve the Navy SEALS? Are we assuming that God's will and America's will are the same? Is God's justice and America's justice the same?

I surely hope not.

I seem to remember scripture warning us of placing our hopes and futures in the hands of governments, militaries, and men.

And if I'm correct, just after that warning, crowds gathered to celebrate the killing of men. (Good Friday was not even 2 weeks ago - I haven't forgotten the story just yet)

So how do we respond?

That's for you to wrestle with.

I will continue to wrestle with you.

My wants and desires are much like the populace. I will surely sleep better knowing a bad guy is gone. Then again, I can tend to be a bad guy from time to time. I'm glad my will is not God's and that my judgement isn't His either.

I'm glad that judgement doesn't define me and my life (today and into the future), but that the grace bought through the cross does. And I believe that the grace of the cross is mystically rooted in a type of unconditional love that we'll never quite understand. Its a type of grace that bought the sins of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, Atheists and Polytheists. This type of grace seeks out all and destroys the trappings of sin!

So in the end, does justice win?

Does love win?

Or perhaps, in God's infinite wisdom and "being love" do the 2 intermingle in a way that we cannot fathom?

Discuss...


Peace,
Ross