Our Webs of Dysfunction

                I’ve been seeing my counselor a bit more lately.  The addition of a second child combined with the pressures of life has really thrown me for a loop.  One way this imbalance rears its ugly head is in my anger.  Not making excuses, but I come from a long line of bad tempers on both sides of my family.  Because of this, anger is usually one of the first signs that my life is off kilter.  On a side note, when I say anger I don’t mean the emotion per say, rather I’m speaking of the almost unquenchable desire to hit inanimate objects (usually a wall).  So needless to say a trip to the counselor was needed.

                One of the surprising things that came from a session was that people who have anxiety disorders (the reason I see a counselor in the first place) tend to have trouble with anger as well.  The two are interrelated.  I left that appointment oddly encouraged by the fact that so many of my problems are interrelated.  In opening up my web of dysfunction I at least could understand myself a bit better.  Along with this I was given a personal understanding of Luther’s breakthrough insight to the human condition: Simul Iustus et Peccator (Simultaneously just and a sinner at the same time).  In other words, as a result of my extensive web of dysfunction, it’s only because of God’s declaration of Christ’s righteousness upon me that I have any chance in life.

shawn-thoughts relaunch

I am excited to say that things have finally cleared up enough in my life that I may be able to start blogging again.  I say "may be able" because the reality of parenting a 3 month old and 3 year old can be quite daunting and energy draining.  This said, I want to restart the bloggery by re-posting my original first post from September 2008.  In it I discuss my hopes and purpose for this blogger.  Enjoy...

Karl Barth: The Power of the Word of God

Commenting on Romans 1:16 & 1 Cor. 1:18 Barth writes:

"If a man knew nothing of this power that both sustains and stimulates, both protects and punishes, both pacifies and disturbs, if he merely heard about it without knowing it as a power, he would only give evidence that he knew nothing of the Word of God.  We are acquainted with the Word of God to the degree that we are acquainted with this power.  We speak of God's Word when we speak in recollection and expectation of this power, and when we do so in such a way that we realise that this power of the Word of God is not one power among others, not even among other divine powers, but the one unique divine power which comes home to us, to which we are referred, in face of which we stand in decision between the obedience we owe it and the unfathomable inconceivability of disobedience, and consequently in the decision between bliss and perdition." (I.1 150)

Saturday Night Live on the Folly of Positive Thinking

2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." -Jesus

"It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ." -Martin Luther

"So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.  They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of the self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so.  Above everything, we alcoholics must rid of this selfishness.  We must, or it will kill us!  God makes that possible.  And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid.  Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to.  Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power.  We had to have God's help.

This is the how and why of it.  First of all, we had to quit playing God.  It didn't work.  Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director.  He is the Principal; we are His agents.  He is the Father, and we are his children.  Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom." -Alcoholics Anonymous the Big Book

Karl Barth on the Importance of Theology.

I'm currently trudging my way through Karl Barth's massive Church Dogmatics.  My goal is to get through the whole 14 vol. set over the next several years.  Needless to say, I'll be sharing some of his gems as I come across them.  Here's Barth on the importance of theological work:

"How disastrously the Church must misunderstand itself if it can imagine that theology is the business of a few theoreticians who are specially appointed for the purpose, to whom the rest, as hearty practical men, may sometimes listen with half an ear, though for their own part they boast of living 'quite untheologically' for the demands of the day ('love').  As though these practical men were not continually preaching and speaking and writing, and were not genuinely questioned as to the rightness of their activity in this regard!  As though there were anything more practical than giving this question its head, which means doing the work of theology..."

"As though there could be any more urgent task for a Church under assault from without than that of consolidating itself within, which means doing theological work!"

"The whole Church must seriously want a serious theology if it is to have a serious theology."

"The freedom claimed when men think they can and should theologise 'quite untheologically' is the freedom to prattle heretically or in a way that makes for heresy.  There is no room in the Church for this freedom."

Church Dogmatics I1 76-77

Horton Quote

"The Gospel changes lives precisely because it is not about us-even our changed lives-but about Christ.  The life of every Christian is filled with enough inconsistencies to disprove the Christian faith every day if it were based on our changed lives.  The history of the church is littered not only with heresies and schisms but with crusades, inquisitions, and the justification of atrocities in the name of Christ.  Yet in all of this we can point away from ourselves, individually and collectively, to "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).  In fact, it is only by repenting of our spiritual pride and casting ourselves anew on God's mercy in his Son that we can ever become servants rather than masters of our neighbors."
-"The Gospel Driven Life" Micheal Horton

An Interesting Quote about Worship

Sorry I'm having no original ideas of late.  So here's some interesting thoughts about worship from an excellent book:

"Is worship, then, essentially an experience or feeling?  Is it to be identified with a special sense of the presence of God, or with some kind of religious ecstasy or with expressions of deep humiliation before God?  Are there truly special moments in a Christian meeting when we are truly 'worshiping' God?  Are church services to be measured by the extent to which they enable the participants to enter into such experiences?  Such a subjective approach is often reflected in the comments people make about Christian gatherings, but it has little to do with biblical teaching on the matter.  Furthermore, it creates significant problems for relationships amongst Christians, since not all will share in the same experience and some will inevitably be made to feel that their worship is inferior.  Worship must involve certain identifiable attitudes, but something is seriously wrong when people equate spiritual self-gratification with worship!" (17 Emphasis Mine)

This is a great quote from an awesome book called "Engaging With God: a Biblical Theology of Worship."  In it author David Peterson looks at the topic of Worship from Genesis to Revelation helping us to see beyond style preferences to what the Bible actually says concerning the subject.