Dialog
I spend a lot of time thinking about community, and about the importance of communication in creating and maintaining the healthiest community possible. But I admit that, in terms of my blogging, I haven't really followed through on that. There have been times when I've responded here to blog entries that others have posted, without responding directly to the blogger. So, in an effort to create more dialog opportunities, I responded to one such blogger's post this morning. Here's his post. Here's my response.
First off, thanks for your post - for your honesty. I look forward to reading more of what you have written and will write.
I'd like to offer my perspective on this issue - as one who has felt the absence and silence that you and others describe.
Is God really being silent? God has, after all, spoken, has He not? We hold in our hands and iPods and Kindles the Word that God has spoken into human space and time in language that we can understand and hear over and over and over again, any time we open up the Bible. How can we say God is silent - ever - when we have unprecedented access to His Word in more formats than any people in history?
The assumption that God is ever silent seems to bely an underlying assumption that the Word of God spoken in our hearts through the Holy Spirit is somehow superior, or more desirable, than the Word of God that God Himself saw fit to inspire men of faith to record. God worked to ensure that His Word would be maintained and available. We *have* His Word. Is that Word not for us? Is that Word not relevant to us? Not enough for us? Why are we seeking some sort of personalized, emotionalized spiritual Word from God? What more could He possibly say to us? What more could He possibly need to communicate to us?
I know this probably isn't the intent, but to wonder at God's silence seems to me to strike at the value - the supreme value - of the Word of God made flesh, and the Word already spoken and preserved to and through others. It assumes that if God is not directly speaking to me about my specific situation and issues, God is being silent, when in fact God has never quit speaking. It also assumes that whatever God says in the Bible does not directly assist or deal with or speak to whatever I'm suffering at the moment.
But is there anything that I could possibly suffer, that God has not addressed in Scripture? Not in terms of a solution or a how-to style approach that we've become so conditioned to expecting, but in the overarching reminder of God's love, God's provision, God's creation of us for this time and this moment, of God's sacrifice for us? Is there any situation in my life or any other person's life that God has not provided the total and complete response to already in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
We go through times when we don't *feel* the love, so to speak, when we enter the wilderness or God seems to have withdrawn. But Jesus - alone of all living human beings -knows what the complete and total absence of God feels like, as He hung on the cross, dying. That is the penalty we rightfully deserve, to have God completely turn away from our rebellious and disgusting sinfulness. But God has promised never to do that. Jesus promised His followers He would be with them to the ends of the age. Do we take Him at His Word? Do we take Him *in* His Word?
God has never quit speaking. Through the Word in Scripture. Through the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. What more can we possibly expect or want from God? What more is necessary, than to know that He loves us enough to sacrifice His own beloved Son? What more assurance do we need of this than the empty tomb? And if we truly recognize the life changing and life-transforming power of the Word made flesh, how can we ever accuse God of not being there for us because He isn't providing us with the emotional lift that we'd like in dealing with whatever situation(s) we find ourselves in?
Yes we suffer, yes we feel distance, yes we long for that closeness to our Creator Father that is hard-wired into us. These are all good and healthy things. But we need to be careful in assuming that God has not, is not, or will not speak directly to us through His Word in Scripture, which is ultimately a testimony to the Word made flesh.
Hope this is helpful, or at least good in prompting further dialog and discussion.
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