Thank you so much for this Dan. Honestly- thank you. It really resonated and challenged me. I've definitely felt that conviction that we need to lean in to Jesus on this... to stick close to Him and what He is says, all He is. And to pursue what it means to speak out for justice in ways that commend Christ. There is no wisdom that will do that isn't the wisdom of God, Christ himself. How we need to know Him! Sorry for the splurge but I appreciated your articulation of these things (And am aware that I am the kind of person who needs to hear them most. Jesus, help me!)
I'm glad if it was a little helpful! I don't really expect many people to watch it, but I was finding it hard to write in a way that got across what seemed important to me effectively. So I, er, recorded a lecture. That should do it.
But seriously, yes: Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God.
Just as a side point I find it much easier to see other people's posts as partisan than my own. This is not surprising to Jesus who called out plank-eyes explicitly. But I often see my things as biblical and other people's things as political... when what I really need is Jesus to sanctify me in every single dang part of me!
Yes. I also find it easy to imagine that others are simply swept along by their ideologies whilst I see clearly and in an unbiased way. I don't think that's easy to avoid, but I think perhaps saturating ourselves with the Word of God is a big part of it.
Also, of course, sometimes we have to be partisan, because one 'party' represents something so much closer to the truth as it is in Christ. But we want to avoid completely hitching ourselves to an alien agenda.
I wasn't speaking theoretically, but neither did I mean institutional political parties, per se. The example particularly in my mind right now is that one ought to side with anti-racists against racists - even if the anti-racists are wrong about lots of things from a Christian perspective. It would be wrong to try to be non-partisan in that instance. But we must never forget that we are anti-racists in a gospel way, which may not coincide at every point with what, say, The Guardian thinks is anti-racist. Does that make sense?
Thank you so much for this Dan. Honestly- thank you. It really resonated and challenged me. I've definitely felt that conviction that we need to lean in to Jesus on this... to stick close to Him and what He is says, all He is. And to pursue what it means to speak out for justice in ways that commend Christ. There is no wisdom that will do that isn't the wisdom of God, Christ himself. How we need to know Him! Sorry for the splurge but I appreciated your articulation of these things (And am aware that I am the kind of person who needs to hear them most. Jesus, help me!)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad if it was a little helpful! I don't really expect many people to watch it, but I was finding it hard to write in a way that got across what seemed important to me effectively. So I, er, recorded a lecture. That should do it.
DeleteBut seriously, yes: Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God.
Just as a side point I find it much easier to see other people's posts as partisan than my own. This is not surprising to Jesus who called out plank-eyes explicitly. But I often see my things as biblical and other people's things as political... when what I really need is Jesus to sanctify me in every single dang part of me!
ReplyDeleteYes. I also find it easy to imagine that others are simply swept along by their ideologies whilst I see clearly and in an unbiased way. I don't think that's easy to avoid, but I think perhaps saturating ourselves with the Word of God is a big part of it.
DeleteAlso, of course, sometimes we have to be partisan, because one 'party' represents something so much closer to the truth as it is in Christ. But we want to avoid completely hitching ourselves to an alien agenda.
I'm not sure if you're speaking theoretically here. But I'm pretty sure in reality you and I take different views on which that party is.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't speaking theoretically, but neither did I mean institutional political parties, per se. The example particularly in my mind right now is that one ought to side with anti-racists against racists - even if the anti-racists are wrong about lots of things from a Christian perspective. It would be wrong to try to be non-partisan in that instance. But we must never forget that we are anti-racists in a gospel way, which may not coincide at every point with what, say, The Guardian thinks is anti-racist. Does that make sense?
DeleteAside from the fact that I don't know what the Guardian says anti-racism looks like (my dad reads it so I'll have to ask him), I take your point.
ReplyDelete'Twas but an example. Any newspaper could be substituted to the and effect.
Delete