Cosmic Bully
Philip Yancey's book "What Good is God?" is a compilation. Yancey publishes the polished text of speeches that he has delivered in various settings, but he serves up the speech only after he has primed the pump -- that is, set the speech in context. So, for example, he records a speech he delivered at Virginia Tech only after he sets the stage for the speech by reliving certain (sometime little known) aspects of the massacre that predated his speech.
I've had this book for a long time; and I kept putting off reading it. But now that I finally started it, I've looked forward to reading each new chapter. Most recently, I read his "stage-setting" chapter on a talk he gave regarding C.S. Lewis. I loved the following paragraph from Yancey about Lewis and, more importantly, about God.
"Though in person a powerful apologist who intimidated his students and relished public debate, in his writings Lewis romanced rather than browbeat readers. He did not impose faith on a line of reasoning as a preacher might, but drew it out as a natural by-product. He had engaged in a gallant tug of war with God, only to find at the end of the rope a God entirely different from what he had imagined as a young boy in strict Protestant Belfast. Likewise, I fought hard against a cosmic bully only to confront a God of grace and mercy."
I think I sometimes want the journey of life to be a flat road with firm shoulders, a divided and limited access highway with a safe median strip and expansive emergency lanes. I want to put on the cruise control and awake safe and sound at my destination with little excitement in between origin and destination. And if I want that for myself, I suppose you could say I probably want that even more for my family. I'd just like to have instant clarity: this is your God; this is what he wants; and, careful now, follow this formula and it'll be alright.
A part of me doesn't really want an Adventurous God -- keep it simple, keep it safe. But like Lewis and like Yancey, at age 50, I've been surprised by God at every step, in every decade, at every turn. He is not safe (Lewis said this best); but He is good. I'll take it one step further -- He is not boring; He is amazing and complex beyond my reckoning.
He leads me on a journey I would never have chosen for myself or my family; and yet he urges me to "fear not," "don't worry about anything," "trust," and "love." In a weird way, maybe he is telling me that he wants life to be like the baseball practices I like to lead -- when I tell the kids "we're only going to practice plays that you can't make; so don't worry; you can't fail." But what I'm doing is preparing them to make those very plays that they actually can't make now. And when they do, their mouths drop open and their eyes get wide and they love the game more than ever.
He's not a Cosmic Bully alright. He is an Amazing Adventurer. The Consummate Coach.
Check out this Yancey book on the iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/what-good-is-god/id362263447?mt=11
I've had this book for a long time; and I kept putting off reading it. But now that I finally started it, I've looked forward to reading each new chapter. Most recently, I read his "stage-setting" chapter on a talk he gave regarding C.S. Lewis. I loved the following paragraph from Yancey about Lewis and, more importantly, about God.
"Though in person a powerful apologist who intimidated his students and relished public debate, in his writings Lewis romanced rather than browbeat readers. He did not impose faith on a line of reasoning as a preacher might, but drew it out as a natural by-product. He had engaged in a gallant tug of war with God, only to find at the end of the rope a God entirely different from what he had imagined as a young boy in strict Protestant Belfast. Likewise, I fought hard against a cosmic bully only to confront a God of grace and mercy."
I think I sometimes want the journey of life to be a flat road with firm shoulders, a divided and limited access highway with a safe median strip and expansive emergency lanes. I want to put on the cruise control and awake safe and sound at my destination with little excitement in between origin and destination. And if I want that for myself, I suppose you could say I probably want that even more for my family. I'd just like to have instant clarity: this is your God; this is what he wants; and, careful now, follow this formula and it'll be alright.
A part of me doesn't really want an Adventurous God -- keep it simple, keep it safe. But like Lewis and like Yancey, at age 50, I've been surprised by God at every step, in every decade, at every turn. He is not safe (Lewis said this best); but He is good. I'll take it one step further -- He is not boring; He is amazing and complex beyond my reckoning.
He leads me on a journey I would never have chosen for myself or my family; and yet he urges me to "fear not," "don't worry about anything," "trust," and "love." In a weird way, maybe he is telling me that he wants life to be like the baseball practices I like to lead -- when I tell the kids "we're only going to practice plays that you can't make; so don't worry; you can't fail." But what I'm doing is preparing them to make those very plays that they actually can't make now. And when they do, their mouths drop open and their eyes get wide and they love the game more than ever.
He's not a Cosmic Bully alright. He is an Amazing Adventurer. The Consummate Coach.
Check out this Yancey book on the iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/what-good-is-god/id362263447?mt=11