Realizing Limitations

What should one do when one comes to a point where one recognizes one's human limitations? That is a profound question! Since we recognize ourselves as human, mortal, finite beings, there is a point (or many points) when we come to realize our limitations. The question then becomes, "What now?"

I came to a moment this week where I recognized my limitations. As a result of having cataract surgery on my left eye, resulting in limited activities, limited eyesight, and limited clarity, I turned to an old project that had been sitting so far back on the back burner that it was almost icy cold: Podcasting.

I have used Podcasting over the past several years as an opportunity to put some resources on the World Wide Web, although usually with a much more limited audience, that would assist my students in their learning ventures. I also began podcasting a series of 10 minute devotional style talks on Ephesians. I had initially completed podcasts on the first three chapters of Ephesians, which every student of my NT Survey class realizes is the end of the "body" of the letter. So it was now time to discuss the Paranesis, the ethical teaching section. Chapter Four was quite simple to address and the first two sections are easily recognized as 1-16 and 17-24, discussing Church Unity and New Humanity. I was progressing through 4.25-5.2 when I ran out of time at 4.32. With a new podcast arranged in GarageBand I began to look at completing the third section. But, it didn't make sense!

Had I been incorrect when I first outlined the passage 40 months hence? Could I have made a mistake???!!! Well, yes. I came to recognize my own limitations. So, the question is "What now?" How do I approach Ephesians with this new enlightenment? How do I reshape my understanding of Paul's method to assist my own exegesis and interpretation? Is it possible to view his Paranesis section in varying ways?

The answer is "of course." There are nearly as many ways to understand the outline of Ephesians as there are commentators who have written on it. In fact, I am still struggling with conflicting accounts for the famous 5.22-6.9 section. So what do I do when faced with human mortality and finiteness?

I go on! I go on trusting God to grant me wisdom, I go on trusting God to give me insight, I go on trusting God to reveal himself through the Sacred Scriptures. I go on trusting God to provide me with meaningful ways to communicate truth.

Isn't that what our life is about after all? Aren't we to trust God?

The Death of the King

With the recent death of a "famous" singer in California and the worldwide outpouring of grief at his passing, need I say anything about the death of a "famous" teacher, or about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of "unknowns" who changed this world and the people in it for the better? When the final analysis is complete, is a person's "music" the defining factor or is it their "character" and "relationships." Does all the good that a person performs outweigh their negative actions?

How does this relate to the Bible? The recent news simply accentuates the difference in values between those who "love the world and the things in the world" and those "have the love of God in them." When entertainment value is the defining factor, our value system is in need of a new compass.

Learning the Bible, Part 2

After discussing the Pendulum effect, I had a variety of thoughts so I'll stick to the most pertinent. Pendulum's are amazing things. They are attached at a "pivot" and consist of a "bob" and a "rod" that suspends from the pivot and is attached to the "bob." In my reflections on the previous post it became apparent that the analogy used implies that the "pivot" would be God, the "bob" us, making the "rod" something that connects us with God, lets call that faith just for fun.

Then I went to this amazing site (actually, not so amazing but it was an early hit on a Google search) that made this statement: "The pendulum must be suspended from a rigid support. During operation, any elasticity in the support will allow tiny imperceptible swaying motions of the support, which disturbs the clock's period, resulting in error." (Wikipedia: Pendulum, 6.22.2009)

So one moral of the story is: "If you're life is going to be lived as a pendulum, be sure your support is solid!" A second goes like this: "The closer the bob is to the rod the shorter the period of oscillation (the time it takes to travel the distance traveled between the extremes)."

Learning the Bible

Today I had the pleasure of a lengthy discussion with a former student at Friends who is now in graduate school. These discussions are a tremendous joy as I am able to see how the time at Friends is now maturing as they become more than they were and begin to take on an understanding of who they are and how they fit in the world.

Today's discussion focused on the Pendulum effect of learning. So much of our learning is like a pendulum, we take one position and later begin to learn another perspective that is dissimilar. We abandon our previous position and swing to the other side. Thus our world goes like the pendulum of a clock. The difficult part is realizing that when we are at either end of the pendulum swing we are still under the influence of the other position as it pulls us back. Only after time do we learn to balance the tension between the two positions.

The main question is really, what keeps us from falling off the pendulum and crashing down? Is there an authority higher than reason? Do we actually have something that can solve the pendulum swing paradigm?

Since this is the 'biblemanblog" you can already predict the answer. The purpose of the Scriptures is to provide a standard that lets a person have distinct positions and evaluate them against something beyond themselves. The Scriptures provides a centering purpose for our lives, if we will let it. Too often we use the Scriptures to support us on the extremes and keep us from falling.

Here's to solving the Pendulum Paradigm.