from Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
“The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening,“Do it again” to the moon. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, our Father is younger than we.”
This is a great song from John Mark McMillan.
Thoughts on the Gospel
I was just reading a little blog post on Charlie’s (Hall) myspace page. I’ve known Charlie and his band-mates for a while now and they are just so refreshing. Anyway, here’s a little re-telling of the gospel through the mind of Charlie. I don’t know, I just found it very rich this morning.
As I talk with my kids about God and listen to their questions about what I am saying, I realize we believe in a really bizarre scenario. Here it is: God existed and was not created. God created a beautiful world with human beings to live and learn to love the One that made them. We jack that up, but He still reaches to us in love. We didn’t respond, so He came to us as a human via a virgin teenager. This human was Jesus, but also God and lived a perfect, sinless life. He healed and performed countless miracles in people’s lives, yet they still crucified him. We believe He was dead for 3 days, but rose again. He then appeared to many and headed back to make His home in heaven, next to God. Eventually He will return to collect those who have chosen and followed Him.
My mind cannot comprehend these ideas as simple because they are deeply mysterious and outlandish. But my heart, and countless other hearts through the ages, have received this truth deeply into their lives to the point that it has people living this message and the message living His life through these people. Yes, the idea of Jesus is a mystery, but somehow our hearts still crave and want to know this Savior and renovator. The answer to the troubled human heart still rumbles mysteriously through the earth anxiously awaiting any who will receive the mystery of Jesus. We have found the hope of life is in these truths; Christ has died, is risen (present tense), and is coming back again. This can make a crazy person sane and an unclear mind clear. These truths wash us and change us. They are our sustenance. Christ is our life in an insane day. So I can’t explain it all the time, but I know its actuality.
