human nature – fruitful faith

human sin: an example

The sinfulness of humanity is nothing I am ‘proud’ to believe in. Sin is tragic. But, rather an illustrate this with a list of actions that are easily diagnosed as harmful, it’s more interesting to give an example where sin may not be so obvious. Whether it’s an Olympic opening ceremony, a corporate philosophy or a debate over gun legislation, I am continually reminded of how easy it is to forget how deeply flawed we all are. Human history and nature, business goals, or one’s ability to handle immense power are not as flawless as we may be tempted to imagine.

One simple example is giving a gift. How selfless, generous and wonderful, right? But, speaking honestly about my own experience of giving gifts, our motivations can be very often quite mixed. Giving a gift can be motivated, partly or even mostly, by a desire for the benefit of the other. However, other motivations can settle in among this, including but not limited to: being the best (generous/lavish), being the most (creative), being first, being included (“people like being around people who give gifts”), etc.

Our motivations tend to show up when our gift is refused, disregarded or otherwise received in a way we did not expect. I recently found myself giving something that I’d hoped would be received and recognized in a particular way, and when it wasn’t, I had to check my motivations in giving it.

It can be confronting to face our mixed motivations, especially if/when we take pride in being a ‘good person’. Of course, the point of this reflection is not to deny that we have any goodness, but that the very notion of human sinfulness, particularly in the Christian theological tradition, is that we are not only flawed in obviously ‘bad’ ways, but even our ‘good’ actions and characteristics can be hindered, blunted and shaped by the influence of sin.

And if you don’t know me well, you need to know that my understanding of sin (from Scripture and theology) has less to do with us feeling constantly like a failure for breaking a significant amount of a very long list of specific actions which are ‘wrong’, and more to do with us being beautiful-and-broken all the way down to our motivations and identities. And more importantly the great thing about the Gospel of Jesus is that God has eternally decided to love and work on, in and through us anyway.

May this work of transformation be something that we surrender to and collaborate with.

dust in the wind?

“All we are is dust in the wind”, said Socrates.

In reading about sin and human nature for my mini-thesis, I’ve dipped into the nature/nurture and determinism/free-will discussions. I tend to think that the biblical view of humans takes both sides of these conversations quite seriously. We are limited by our nature/genetics in what we are capable of, and yet we are capable somehow of transcending our current neuro/bio/physio-logical states.

In other words, the biblical view of humans is that we are continually taken from pretty raw material (the dust of the ground) and formed and freed to be human by the Spirit (the breath of life). Perhaps Socrates would agree.

omniscience: terrific & terrifying

I love movies that are realistic. Portraying life like it is – whether it is pleasant or not. “Seven” strikes me as such a movie, though it’s been years since I’ve seen it. One striking example is the ‘sloth’ character. That apartment is pure filth – stuff everywhere and chaos and ruin.

I was thinking about what it must be like for God to know everything. Naturally (pun intended), we cannot imagine what it would be like. The one thing I was considering, however, was that omniscience isn’t mere knowledge of any/all ‘facts’. It’s a more holistic kind of knowledge that qualitatively sees ‘value’ or the lack of it.

It must be amazing, breathtaking, funny, sad and angering to ‘see’ literally everything – every motivation behind every thought or deed. Being able to see past our clever cloaking devices that attempt to fool others and ourselves… Radiant and wretched human nature.