"Right living is a way of right thinking."
"Our way of living must be compatible with our essence as created in the likeness of God."
- Abraham Heschel, "God in Search of Man"
Lately I've been reflecting on my own incredible ability to deceive myself. What has struck me about Heschel's quotes above is their focus on what I would call "righteousness" (i.e. right living) versus "correctness" (i.e. right and wrong). What I'm finding is that if I am to truly live in the glow of glory's light in this temporal place I must give up the objectivity of correctness and hold on the the absoluteness of righteousness. The trick...discerning the difference.
5 comments:
Hey. Great "rule". It reminds me of a book I'm almost done reading, Peter Rollins' How (Not) to Speak of God. He points out that "ortho-doxy" is not really about correctness.
"We must break down the word 'orthodoxy' into it's Greek roots, ortho (right) and doxa (belief), and read them as if one were reading Hebrew - that is, from right to left. Thus 'right belief' becomes 'believing in the right way.'"
He goes on to say that the question "what do you believe" must always be followed up or paired with "HOW do you believe."
It has been a fun beginning to think on HOW I believe what I believe... interesting.
peace.
-s.o
Great insight S.O. One of the interesting paradoxes of our faith is we can have the right motives and do the wrong things as well as do the right things with the wrong motives! That's pretty stinking confusing for me. What matters most? Are they of equal value?
The combining of the two questions "What do you believe and how do you believe?" seems to me to open a whole new level of conversation. How would YOU answer?
well, the "how" question seems to be called to be answered by life. It is not a verbal answer only .. in fact, it's mostly a visual/experiential answer.
thus, "incarnational" ministry. :)
-s.o
S.O.
Totally with you bro. I think what I've been wrestling over personally is the inseparable nature of the two concepts...the "what" and "how". I think I falsely separated them in the past, unknowingly. There seems to be a divine dance of temporal and eternity that I've lacked being conscious of in the past. What worries me in Christian circles today is the extreme swings of “what” and “how”, each denying the other’s validity. It’s not either or!
I think if I’m answering the question…I would say this “What do I believe? – life is ultimately meaningless and vanity without Jesus, both temporally and eternally (John 10:10). How do I believe? – by seeking the joy of making Him supreme in all of lives pursuits (Phil 3:7-11)”
The question I've been faced with recently is not the what or how but just do I. Do I believe God is, or do I just believe I believe. The fears that seem to make themselves known tend to uncover the reality that I only believe that I believe. In Gods perfect love, all fear disappears making the what and how irrelevant.
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