Christian spirituality is not a life-project for becoming a better person. It is not about developing a so-called deeper life. We are in on it, to be sure, but we are not the subject. Nor are we the action. We get included by means of a few prepositions: God with us (Matt. 1:23), Christ in me (Gal. 2:20), God for us (Rom. 8:31). With, in, for: They are powerful, connecting, relation-forming words, but none of them makes us either the subject or the predicate. We are the tag-end of a prepositional phrase.
Sooner or later in this life we get invited or commanded to do something. But in that doing, we never become the subject of the Christian life nor do we perform the action of the Christian life. We are invited or commanded into what I call prepositional participation. The prepositions that join us to God and God's action in us within the world—the with, the in, the for—are very important, but they are essentially a matter of the ways and means of being in on and participating in what God is doing.
From: Transparent lives by Eugene Peterson
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Broken We Kneel
One day [my daughter] Emma saw a woman
Walking toward us covered in a veil and asked the
Inevitable, “What’s that, mommy?”
“Emma,” I answered, “that lady is a Muslim from
a far away place. And she dresses like that – and
covers her head with a veil – because she loves
God. That is how her people show they love God.”
My daughter considered these words. She stared
at the woman who passed us. She pointed at the
woman, then pointed at my hair, and further
quizzed, “Mommy, do you love God?”
“Yes, honey.” I laughed. “I do. You and I are
Christians. Christian ladies show love for God
by going to church, eating the bread and wine,
serving the poor, and giving to those in need. We
don’t wear veils, but we do love God.”
After this, Emma took every opportunity to point
to Muslim women during our shopping trips and
tell me, “Mommy, look, she loves God.” One day,
we were getting out of our car at our driveway at
the same time as our Pakistani neighbors. Emma
saw the mother, beautifully veiled, and, pointing at
her shouted, “Look, mommy, she loves God!”
My neighbor was surprised. I told her what I had
taught Emma about Muslim ladies loving God.
While she held back tears, this near stranger
hugged me, saying, “I wish all Americans
would teach their children so. The world would be
better. The world would be better.
Taken from Broken We Kneel
By Diana Butler Bass
(Quoted from McLaren, B. A Generous Orthodoxy. Pgs 298-299)
Walking toward us covered in a veil and asked the
Inevitable, “What’s that, mommy?”
“Emma,” I answered, “that lady is a Muslim from
a far away place. And she dresses like that – and
covers her head with a veil – because she loves
God. That is how her people show they love God.”
My daughter considered these words. She stared
at the woman who passed us. She pointed at the
woman, then pointed at my hair, and further
quizzed, “Mommy, do you love God?”
“Yes, honey.” I laughed. “I do. You and I are
Christians. Christian ladies show love for God
by going to church, eating the bread and wine,
serving the poor, and giving to those in need. We
don’t wear veils, but we do love God.”
After this, Emma took every opportunity to point
to Muslim women during our shopping trips and
tell me, “Mommy, look, she loves God.” One day,
we were getting out of our car at our driveway at
the same time as our Pakistani neighbors. Emma
saw the mother, beautifully veiled, and, pointing at
her shouted, “Look, mommy, she loves God!”
My neighbor was surprised. I told her what I had
taught Emma about Muslim ladies loving God.
While she held back tears, this near stranger
hugged me, saying, “I wish all Americans
would teach their children so. The world would be
better. The world would be better.
Taken from Broken We Kneel
By Diana Butler Bass
(Quoted from McLaren, B. A Generous Orthodoxy. Pgs 298-299)
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