Surprise Me: Day 4

I finished out the week. Still shuddering from the experiences of the day before. I had a horrible day at work, with just everything going wrong. But then I had coffee afterwards with a co-worker. We're reading "Profiles in Courage" by JFK. We spent fifteen minutes discussing Henry Thomas Benton and his attitude towards slavery in Pre-Civil War Missouri before switching topics.

My question was "What is your perception of God?" Now I am not an evangelical, though I was raised in the chruch by evangelicals. What I mean is, I am not out to save the "lost" from "eternal damnation". My goal is not to steer my conversations to "Christ", mainly because I would have no clue how to do that, being that I barely understand Christ myself. All that is said to explain how my question was "safe". And my co-worker knows this. This question led to an hour long conversation about God. Why bad things happen to good people. How there is a balance between good and bad things happening to people. It was a Chinese proverb that she explained, about how a bad thing can bring about a good outcome, which then leads to another bad thing and on and on. The problem is that people tend to go to extremes. Praising God in times of blessing; cursing God when tragedy strikes. And we are called to somehow find the middle ground. I found all of that very interesting.

Then we talked creationism and evolution. She is of the same school of thought as I am, that evolution, if not used to invalidate God, is actually an amazing example of Intelligent Design. That perhaps Gods creation of the world was just to complex to easily explain to Moses, so a simpler story was adapted (7 day). Belief in this 7 day story is fine. And when Christian-Evolutionists belittle these 7 day thinkers, they are doing themselves and God a diservice. But the shoe seems to remain the same regardless of whose foot it's on, so 7 day creationists might find themselves doing the same to Intelligent Design Evolutionists. These are some "hot" issues here. Perhaps you're getting a little hot under the collar. "Challenging 7 Day Creation! What kind of christian are you?!"

I am the kind that believes it is more important to know where you are, than how you got there. To believe in chaos is one thing. But to believe in an intelligently designed evolution? I just don't see the harm. Though people shaking Genesis in my face now, certainly would. We're so comfortable with metaphor in the last book of the Bible, why are we so afraid of it in the first. Especially when both of these writers were attempting to explain things they were not experiencing first hand.

Back to the point, where we are is what matters. How we interact is what matters. Theology is good, and there is a place for it, but I believe it always comes second to our call to be known by our Love. Not kissy-mushy love. Love that stays constant no matter the storm. I say it so often, even I tire of it from time to time. But I know it's True. And though it is not missing in the Church, it is in short supply. Is it because the Church that is People has become an Institution of Similar Beliefs? Is it because when a "Christian Evolutionist" comes along, our first reaction is to tell them why their wrong, not try to understand what they think? Maybe it's because people like me, think that books have no power to change us. But that's just a lack of faith. And, for me, the tides are changing. Thus ends day 4.