Tue 1 Aug 2006
Suburban Spirituality
Posted by tom cottar under theology
Seriously. I'm trying to repress Billie Joe Armstrong's voice in my head, but it won't stop.
Stefanie (long time friend-turned-intern) and I have been talking about how we have to rewrite our life now. Now that we realize that God's will may not be for us to be popular, new SUV-driving, straight-toothed, acne-free skinned Christians. Dang it.
I've been holding on to this article for some time, and today, in the words of Tool, 'the pieces fit'.
A couple of quotes to tease you into reading the whole article:
'In good environments like mine, many spend their lives paying mortgages for homes in subdivisions with names such as "Klein Creek," "Mill Creek," "Highlands Ranch," and "Pinehurst"-euphemisms for rows of uniform houses of pressboard siding, regardless of square footage, in which stressed- out, tired, weary souls reside.'
And:
Disillusionment with one's church, then, is not a reason to leave but a reason to stay and see what God will create in one's life and in the local church. What I perceive to be my needs—"I need a church with a more biblical preacher who uses specific examples from real life"—may not correspond to my true spiritual needs. Often I am not attuned to my true spiritual needs. Thinking that I know my true needs is arrogant and narcissistic. Staying put as a life practice allows God's grace to work on the unsanded surfaces of my inner life. Seventeenth-century French Catholic mystic François Fénelon wrote, "Slowly you will learn that all the troubles in your life—your job, your health, your inward failings—are really cures to the poison of your old nature."
I have to struggle with the realization that "God loves me and has a difficult plan for my life". (whoever sent me that quote–thanks!)
One Response to “ Suburban Spirituality ”
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August 2nd, 2006 at 9:51 pm
I’ve certainly been working to better understand this strange suburban world I’ve ended up in. And I certainly tend to cock an eyebrow when I hear people discuss their material “blessings” and blame God for them.
The Jesus of Suburbia is, indeed, often a lie.
I caused something of a commotion in an adult Sunday School class I was teaching once during a discussion about the blessings of God. The conversation meandered in the direction of the ways God has richly ‘blessed’ America because of its ‘Christian’ orientation and history. (As an aside, since I actually do have an interest in history, that mostly strikes me as a repackaged version of “Manifest Destiny” and we all know the sorts of things justified under that rubric.) I mentioned that, of course, the fact that we have something like a fifth of the world’s resources and 5% of the world’s population couldn’t possibly have anything to do with it. I think some people found that blasphemous…
I do somewhat grasp the quote, “God loves me and has a difficult plan for my life.” It strikes me as a reaction against the white American health & wealth ‘gospel’. However, this is something about it which … nags at me. I have this sense that it would most often be interpreted as God setting up trials and tribulations and temptations for you to withstand. That may seem odd, but how often do you encounter people grappling with questions about why God does or does not ‘bring death’ to certain people — as if death were a creation of God?
I would probably phrase it more like, God loves me and invites me to follow him in a difficult vocation through dark valleys and down dangerous paths. As Jesus said, “As the Father sent me, so I send you. Receive the Spirit.” Since we continue to receive the Spirit, I would imagine Jesus continues to say the same. As Wright puts it, “As Jesus to Israel, so the Church to the world.” When you get down to brass tacks, isn’t that what it means to function as Christ’s body?
Does God desire my life to be filled with pain, difficulty, and evil? Of course not! Yet, if we truly follow Jesus, it means we will inevitably find the powers and principalities of the world, visible and invisible, arrayed against us as he did. And when we fail to follow him, we’ll create our own difficulties of a different sort, even if they have the appearance of wealth and success.