Living Naturally - Not!

Of late in my "Worldviews" class we've been examining the worldview of "Naturalism" - the basic view that all which exists is material - there is no supernatural, no God, no miracles, no soul. It's a view greatly advanced in academia and, consciously or unconsciously, incorporated into much of our cultures modern outlook. But just because it doesn't allow for God doesn't make it not a religious view. Take the following statements from a leading naturalist whose web video before the "Freethinkers Society"

for example:

- "We are citizens of the cosmos."
- “When we postulate the supernatural we rob the cosmos of its glory.”
- “There but for circumstance go I.” (reference to why criminals can't help what they do)

These sound very theological in tone (while leaving out the theos)and they should because they are part of a set of worldview/religious statements.

I can go these more than one better - infinitely better:

-
 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ," (Philippians 3:20)
- "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse…" (Romans 1:20)
- "There but for the grace of God go I" (in reference to anyone else I may desire not to be and the answer to anyone who desires to become what God desires for them).

I left one thing out regarding the naturalist worldview - after death, nothing (without a soul and a supernatural - what option is there?)

Living Naturally (as if all there was was Nature) - I think not!
Living Supernaturally - sign me up!

Delighting in God

Just this week I received a request in my school mailbox from some folks working with our middle school students youth ministry called "Chrysalis" They were looing for submissions to the questions "What does it mean to delight yourself, (or in this case myself), in the Lord?" So here's what came to me on another walk to work:

The first thing it means to me is that I have to expect delight, I have to be ready to recognize it when delight comes my way and that starts with reflections on all that God is, and that starts with worship. Not necessarily praise songs, reflective and heartfelt prayers – these are good things – but, as my pastor back home put it in a recent online sermon (and I quote as best I can recall) worship involves “responding with all that we are to all that He is”. Diving deeply into the character and track record of God and giving over those parts of me I’d hold onto if God wasn’t so good – that’s the start of delight.

One thing I delight in God is His unlikeliness. It’s unlikely that the God of the universe, the God of six and a half billion people (that’s just right now) would love and care for me BUT HE DOES – delightful! It’s unlikely that in this messy fractured world God has a grand scheme for all and a particular and meaningful role for a messy and fractured me BUT HE DOES – delightful! It’s unlikely that God would become man to clean up man’s problems for the glory of Himself BUT HE DID – delightful! It’s unlikely that God would choose me to become a brother (and friend, and servant, and disciple, and delight) of Christ BUT HE DID – delightful! So, delight in God’s unlikeliness, in His total uniqueness and otherness, in I guess what we can view as the delightful aspect of His holiness. And then keep on looking for unlikelinesses great and small – today, walking to work, I passed a rose in full bloom, a rose whose buds were, last week, to the day, encased in the season’s first snowfall. Beauty past the point where it should exist – unlikely, indicative of what God does in our lives, delightful!