1. Galadriel says:

    The one part of this  post that leapt out at me was the reference to emotions. I have a really hard time keeping my emotions in check, just because they like to go all over the place with no restraint…but there is a time and place for that too.

  2. You could say “anti”. Sometimes I like to say, a different perspective/approach/angle ect. We really need a new expression for ‘think outside the box’.

    Because so many Christians fear so many things, they make themselves boundaries to protect themselves and their young from the boogie man, whether the boogie man is Santa Claus or Evolution or anything between. And these Christians shut themselves in and make themselves small.

    But we do not need to make ourselves small. Nor in our expanding beyond silly, ‘safe’ limitations do we need to draw attention to that expansion or look upon it as a fight or act of ‘anti’. It’s exploration and discovery. Those who want to join us can. Those who won’t, well, let them stay behind.

    But in our exploring and pushing beyond ‘safe’ aren’t we pressing out into deep waters of finding God or finding other fish?   

    Guess what I’m saying is that I look upon it as both, a push away from ‘safe’ (as defined by mere men) and a push toward ‘not a tame Lion’. 

    [Did any of this make sense?] 

    • Maria Tatham says:

      Kaye,

      Yes, you make sense! Like these words of yours especially:

      “But in our exploring and pushing beyond ‘safe’ aren’t we pressing out into deep waters of finding God or finding other fish?
      Guess what I’m saying is that I look upon it as both, a push away from ‘safe’ (as defined by mere men) and a push toward ’not a tame Lion’.”
       

  3. Andrea says:

    Loved this!  From the beginning, about how we’re not defined by “anti-“s, to the whole part about fiction reflecting joy.  I have thought the same thing on many occasions.  Always encouraging to know I’m not the only one!  We need to emphasis what we are, what God is, what being a Christian does mean: all the positive things.  For one thing, it’s encouraging.
    Painting truth the way it deserves to be painted is never safe, but it sure is beautiful.

  4. Definitely not anti, but also not really looking ahead as Lewis did in The Last Battle. I think I’m going more for how God has already revealed Himself. We sometimes need to think anew to understand what’s right in front of our faces. That’s what I’m aiming at.

     

    Becky

  5. Maria Tatham says:

    Stephen, I like this post. Also, I sense that I’m finally getting what you’ve been driving at: That we should be authentic in our reactions, and this means godly too of course, not just either shadow-boxing nervous Nells, or conceited about how much we ‘get’ things. We must stay close to him to walk this way.  

  6. Henrietta Frankensee says:

    God sees every event (story) from every angle.  The more intimately we abide in Him the greater our capacity to see, wide or specific. Think of people in a circle staring at a bean in the middle.   We see that everyone has an ‘anti’ ( polar opposite) and everything is related to the gradations, variations in a similarity ( neighbours in the circle).   The distinctions become both less overbearing AND more intriguing, imaginative, joyful. 
    I also believe that every event perspective elicits an emotion in God.  (Mind blowing capacity for emotion).  Unlike Galadriel I struggle toallow an emotional response.  If I do, identifying it is time consuming. I would cultivate the ‘Otherness’ you describe  above all emotions and I wish there were another word, another spectrum of words to pass on the delight.  
    Today, in our Remembrance Ceremony our ancient, bent veteran stood beside our 12 year old piper (Scottish Church) as the Last post rang over our heads.  What word describes the passing on of the torch?  The joy, the pride, the sense of future touching past? The sense of the desperate need for the Prince of Peace?

  7. A wave of new comments and discussions on the site is a good “problem” to have, yet that — along with the upgrades you’ve noticed — also means I have less time to interact!

    Here I hope to correct for that oversight, yet it also means this will be somewhat random.

    From Galadriel:

    The one part of this  post that leapt out at me was the reference to emotions. I have a really hard time keeping my emotions in check.

    From Henrietta:

    Unlike Galadriel I struggle to allow an emotional response.

    And I fall somewhere in between.

    Take worship-by-singing as an example (and by that hyphenated phrase, I mean to allow for the Biblical definition of true “worship” encompassing all the good and God-glorifying things a Christian does). During songs in church, I struggle to “work up” naturally occurring emotion at how amazing God and His Story, the Gospel, truly are.

    Why is that? I love those songs, their words, their messages. Maybe the words are more like theology set to music, and the “poetry” doesn’t “get” to me. Or maybe I’m simply more emotional about other kinds of music done with excellence, or other worship forms. For example, reading, or writing, on my “best” days (through Christ!) results in more naturally occurring emotion, which I hope is a response to God’s grace in my life.

    The subject of emotion, and how books prompt that response in us, would make an excellent series. What kinds of emotion — Edwards’ “religious affections” — honor God? Which are cheap counterfeits of true Godward emotion? How can we balance heard and head so as to “get more” of Him? But maybe that’s one someone else can take on.

     

    A few thoughts about Kaye‘s comment …

    Because so many Christians fear so many things, they make themselves boundaries to protect themselves and their young from the boogie man, whether the boogie man is Santa Claus or Evolution or anything between. And these Christians shut themselves in and make themselves small.

    Very true. Yet I’d suggest the true problem here is not just making ourselves small, but making God small. We should think of ourselves as small, because we are; we were this way even before man’s freely chosen sin corrupted the world. Only in making much of God do we find ourselves, for the far greater end of “getting more” of Him.

    Those who want to join us can. Those who won’t, well, let them stay behind.

    Mm-hmm, though I’m not content simply to leave them behind. Especially if these are our Christian brothers and sisters, who would want to give up on them so easily? Sure, everyone has different callings and levels of temptations to mock/give in to, say, legalistic folks. But love would call us to keep calling them to join our journey into that revealed Mystery of our transcendent God, seen particularly in His Word, secondarily in the stories and pleasures we share even partly in a fallen universe.

    I’d also give the reminder (though it’s likely mainly for myself!) that the reason to push outward — or rather, into Who God is and what He does — is not simply a desire to avoid the sad lives of stunted Christians, but to get more of God. In some ways, we can simply forget about the anti basis of rejecting the stunted folks. Yes, if they don’t want to go along, that’s their issue. Yet His love would keep us coming back to them, also.

     

    From Becky:

    Definitely not anti, but also not really looking ahead as Lewis did in The Last Battle. I think I’m going more for how God has already revealed Himself. We sometimes need to think anew to understand what’s right in front of our faces. That’s what I’m aiming at.

    Amen. And whenever we talk about exploring, going beyond, pushing the boundaries, etc., this is — or should be — based on the freedom God has already given us in His revealed Word. To go outside that isn’t just some kind of freedom we’re not supposed to have. It’s a false “freedom.” A non-freedom. An impossible-universe “freedom.” And it does seem that, as Becky wrote on Monday, some defenses of even speculative Christian stories seem to overdo the whole “hey we’re free” rhetoric. Yes, Christ gives us freedom, but freedom for a purpose: to be a “slave” to Him, in perfect joy and truth.

    Any Christian story, or music, or art, should reflect that. It’s only this that gives that naturally occurring emotional response, both in head and heart, and keeps us joyful in Him in the present, yet also yearning — “groaning,” as Paul said in Rom. 8 — for the glorious future, the redeemed universe of the New Heavens and New Earth.

  8. Martin LaBar says:

    As always, thanks for your words, not just the ones on why we might read “unsafe” stories, but on how they can point us to God.

  9. […] sobre cómo las historias de fantasía pueden enriquecer nuestra fe. En particular, consulta este artículo para obtener más información sobre cómo las historias pueden indicarnos el Cielo y la Nueva […]

What do you think?