Breathing
Last week was huge in many respects. I wrapped up my last class of the spring semester, with the requisite procrastination and last-minute scramble, not to mention a misread of the syllabus on my part that left me scrambling to finish a project so that it would only be a few days late. As of Thursday night, I now have two weeks off before diving into the summer term, and at least 3 or 4 books to try to finish in that time. On the work front, lots of stress and tension about a project that I'm leading that culminated in a not-at-all fun meeting where I don't know if anything was accomplished, but at least I said everything that needed to be said and didn't cave like a dieting Homer Simpson in a donut factory. Moral victory for me, even if nobody else noticed. Yesterday we celebrated my son's fourth birthday. That was a blast - it was great for him to be the center of attention. He's a fantastic kid but somewhat rebellious so he doesn't always get the best kind of attention, if you know what I mean. Great week all in all but very tiring and no time for blogging.
With a light week ahead, that should change - lots of stuff on my mind. I just finished McLaren's The Last Word and the Word After That. I went into this one kind of nervous about where he was going to head, but it was actually a really good read. Lots of stuff to think about, but I wish I had the time to dig into primary sources on this one. He does seem to borrow a lot from C.S. Lewis' thoughts, if that gives you any indication of where he's headed. One of the most thought-provoking lines said that Christians should be universalist-sympathetic, meaning that no matter one's ideas of eternal destiny, as Christians we should hold out the desire that all would be saved. It's interesting to put this thought up against the way I was raised and how I thought about God as a result. I haven't had time to develop this properly, but I will no doubt be writing more about this in the next few days.
More to come on this and other threads of conversation - nice (and necessary) break but I'm glad to be back.
I think that "universalist-sympathetic" thread evolved from an email Brian responded to and posted on his web site a while back. Someone tried to "corner" him into an answer on whether or not he was a universalist. In classic style Brian dodged giving an answer in order to foster conversation, and I loved what he said - something like "I'm not sure if it's true or not, but don't you wish it was true? God does."
Man, that one knocked me off my feet. You're right, Scott. The way a lot of us were raised we've ended up secretly hoping people were going to hell. We need them to go to hell in order to confirm our rationale of the world.
Posted by Mike on April 25, 2005 10:45 AMHave you ever had an argument with someone about whether God loves everyone, or just the elect? It's a surreal experience. (If you're reading, you know who you are.) I just can't get my brain around it.
Your thoughts make me think of the perspective that Brian presented about those in heaven rejoicing that God's justice was being carried out on those in hell. That's one that I've never experienced, and frankly scares me. I don't understand it. You're exactly right about "secretly hoping" - I'm ashamed to admit it, but I can point to times in my life where it wasn't even so secret. Thankfully God is God and I'm just someone trying to follow along, otherwise this would be a scary, scary place.
Posted by ScottB on April 26, 2005 12:09 AM