Don Miller wrote a post this week that explores what I think is the only question.
One of the central ideas I explore in Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole New Christianity is the idea that life is essentially about exploring a single question. Are we good or evil? This question is found in the Tree of Knowledge. We didn’t have to explore it, but we chose to. Don shares the tension in the question. We rarely explore whether or not we are evil. But we do wonder if we are good. And that leaves us with the option of “bad.” To live in the space in between is doubt. I like how Don frames this, seeing it in the framework of movies. We look to determine if someone is the good guy or the bad guy.
“The other problem with real life is it’s hard to tell whether or not you are the bad guy. We all believe we are the good guy or that our words and actions are justified. The other day I lost my temper at a stranger. I really let them have it. I still feel like they deserved it. It was a bully situation in which somebody was being threatened. But I went too far, honestly. I pretty much said things that person will be thinking about for years. I went for the jugular and put him in his place. Or perhaps it went in one ear and out the other, I don’t know. But regardless, I was thinking about that today, and realized that the things I said could be placed word for word into a film in which the character that said it got “what they deserved” at the end and nobody would really care. Stink. Can’t believe I said those things.”
The problem is that we all have those moments in our lives that present just the right evidence that compels us to question our dignity. We wonder how in the world can someone who is good do something like “that”?
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Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole New Christianity explores a profound possibility. What if we’ve misunderstood the Gospel? What if our historical approaches to Christianity have been distorted by the very same problem they are attempting to solve? Available today from CreateSpace and Amazon. Order from CreateSpace and use code 5GFARGT9 to receive a 15% discount.
