Prepare ye the way...

So, to recall what I left on my own mind when I posted earlier this week, we were looking at three questions. Here goes...

Road Construction Ahead...

Is life more like a highway, or an urban grid, or a winding country road, or something else?

I don't know what that first question was driving at (it is going to be a pun-filled weekend, I fear), but I will subjectively interpret it and try to give an answer.

To see life as a highway would give the idea that the traveler is going in one direction. His choices would be off-ramps, where he can stay faithful to that direction or get off-course and exit the highway. I suppose other, lesser choices might be called lane-changes, where the driver keeps going forward, just in a slightly different track or at a different speed. Some of these may not be optional, as when a driver avoids a hazard in the road.
The urban grid seems to see life more more on a 2-dimensional field in which our choices take us here or there, running errands, meeting people, acting in many different activities, and not really getting anywhere in particular. The only progress would be made inside the vehicle- all the choices on where to go or what to do would be merely for the purpose of increasing the driver's own quality of life. this is beginning to sound kind of like what I once read about a certain Christian philosopher. He supposedly taught that the great choices swirling about us have no great meaning in themselves: rather, choice was exercised in the realm of absurdity, and the only true benefit was to be found in the chooser. As far as I got in understanding it, his was an interesting approach to whole perception/substance tree-in-the-forest discussion.
The country roads (take me home!) would, in my mind, represent the view that the way we travel upon is not always a clear matter. On the highway, we have signs warning us the choices we will have to make, and we know that, whatever happens, we need only stay on the highway and we are going in the right direction. The country road (take me... oh. sorry) may wind around hills and through forests to unmarked intersections and lonely wastes. Rather than marked out with signs and mile markers, the road is marked by ambiguity. There is not much information as to which way a driver should go, though some people seem to have a knack at traveling, they tend to pick the right path where others get lost for hours.

Soapbox, Anyone?
To answer the question, "How should we see life?" we should examine the next two questions.

What is the place of God's sovereignty in our choice-making?

I am becoming increasingly convinced that the biggest deficiency in much of the preaching and teaching that American Christians have heard is in the doctrine of God's sovereignty in all aspects of life. When approaching Scripture and how it hits practical life, why do we so often forget about what God is doing? Why do we approach decisions as free agents, entities with perfect ability to exercise their free choice? Why oh why are we so infatuated with "free will"?
Anyway, it seems like our paths may need to be understood in the light of the great God who controls all things according to the counsel of his will. The choices that are given us are directed by him. The end that we progress toward is determined by him. The rightness or wrongness of any decision is measured according to its proximity to his Person. God -the personal God who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ and the Bible- is the great and ultimate reality. He alone allows for anything we are or do to have a purpose.
Now, when I am driving on this path, I find that the idea of a totally free cruise around the city grids seems not to jive with the fact that God is working all things together for good to those who love him. When I think about those mysterious country roads, I find that hard to set next to the fact that God has chosen to reveal himself to mankind. God has indwelt the believer, and provided him with a new heart. The Holy Spirit is seen actively guiding the believer into the good works which were foreordained for him. Therefore, the way is not a mysterious road without road signs, it is clearly marked out in the Bible.
I begin to wonder, though, if we really can exit the highway. Can a man choose to defy God Almighty and leave the path laid out for him? Or, was he locked into his life in its every detail from before time began? Is life like a car on a highway, or a train on its tracks? This is the difficulty of understanding how God's sovereign control of all things can be reconciled with man's responsibility for his actions. I will say that, as far as I can tell, the two will not be reconciled. However, that may not be a very important problem. It is true that God is sovereign, and evidently that extends over our choices. It is true that we are responsible for our actions, for how we use our choices. These two are not meant to be resolved, but rather trusted and acted upon, like any other truth taught in Scripture.

So... Logically... If she weighs the same as a duck...
So, when addressing the final question,

If we are not supposed to balance these competing values, how then are we to decide how to spend our time? Does it matter?

We find that our use of time does matter, because we are held responsible for it, but we may trust that, rather than balancing a good value against another good value, we are to trust God and follow him in whatever good thing he lays before us to do. As we follow, he evidently will continue to lead us from one thing to another, giving signs indicating where we are going. Inside the car, we will grow, outside the car, we will progress toward our destination. The burden of our choices is not ours alone. If God gives me two good options (say, study the word this afternoon or spend time with friends), I can trust him to guide me and just pick, so long as I use my choice to serve him in accordance to his Word. I can trust that I won't be getting off-track with him or getting myself lost in the wastes of life as long as I stay on the path he has lit by his Word.

Pencils Down.
So, we live. There are times in the LA fast lane, times in rush hour traffic, times alone on the Bonneville flats, and so on. God's taking us each on a trip. The scenery is worth seeing, but the destination is what is important. Now to him who is able to keep us from stumbling from here to the end...

So, I just spent 20 minutes responding to a very simple question from my sister. I am beginning to wonder if it really is always necessary to trace the historical development of every theological discussion...

''You were ever present to me, mercifully angry.'' - Augustine

Life is a Highway...

And your ear will hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30.21

Talkin bout my generation...over coffee
There are certain tendencies in my thinking about God and his Word of late which I find less-than godly. The foremost of these is the tendency to talk incessantly about the theological, methodological, philosophical problems of the Church today, particularly the church in North America. I was rebuked on this account at Starbucks this weekend.
We were talking, Mike, James, Justin, Joe, Susan, Josh, Matt, Allison, Marcy, Ben, and I (these people came and went over the course of a few hours, mind you), about the various needs the church was facing. I was distracted several times by James. The young fiend was never satisfied to just sit and kvetch with me- he kept walking around, sitting with strangers, talking about life and Jesus and all that. When we talked about the problems of the church, people constantly brought up the Bible and God's sovereignty and the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
After about 5 hours of this abuse, my arrogance began to be worn down.

You see, I don't always talk about problems in American Christendom because I care about the purity of Jesus' Bride. Maybe God has given me this time at Bible College to look into those things, but I doubt he wants me to put blinders on to block out all the dying and hurting souls along the way. As I sat in that corporate café, I found two values competing for my time, and was convicted that I had not been spending that time better. So, I began thinking about my need to find balance.

Balancing the Scales of Life
In addressing the issue of balance in the Christian life, I have to answer several questions:

1. What are the ideas that should be on the two sides? Balance is usually found when we set some value or idea on a scale against some other, opposite value or idea. Should this scale weigh Theology vs. Evangelism? Relationships vs. Study? New ideas and criticism in the church vs. Submissive service?
   
2. When I have found the opposites to be compared, what means of measurement should be used to weigh them? Snippets of Scripture that support one side or the other? Lengthy logical debate? My own tastes?
3. When one side is preferred, what happens to the idea or value on the other side? Could I safely toss aside the lesser value?

Now, to when I address the first question, I find if I must choose theology or evangelism, this indicates that one is correct and the other is incorrect. However, we find in Scripture not only ample reason for delving into its rich stores of truth, but also the need to proclaim the gospel without fanciness of speech or great demonstration of knowledge.
The means of determining the correct choice requires thought about the authority of Scripture when set alongside other authorities. If texts of Scripture say that challenging old forms ministry is good, and others say that respectful silence toward more mature believers is good, what ability or right have I to decide which texts are God's Word and which are not?
In the end, if both values are good, then neither ought to be tossed outright. Therefore, neither study of the Word nor developing relationships could go. But how then do I make a decision about how to spend my time?
The answer I find is that the Christian life is not a life of balance, at least, not in the tipping scale sense of the word.

The highway of life
The picture God uses for spiritual decision-making is of a road which we travel. This image is used constantly throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms and Proverbs and the Gospels. In fact, the image of a spiritual life as a road is the basis for works of literature like The Canterbury Tales and Pilgrim's Progress, and is the basis for centuries of mystical writing.
When I think about this picture, I often think about choices in my life as forks in the road, where I can pick one path or another. Some choices, I often think, are like 5-Points in Modesto, with many options, all confusedly jumbled together with a lot of angry drivers and such (did I ever tell you about the time I drove up the one way street and cut off a guy when I pulled right onto McHenry? It was like 12.30am and there were about 6 policemen all around Denny's watching me with quizzical expressions...).
However, when I read Isaiah 30.21, it seems like the picture might be better thought of as a highway, with on-ramps and off-ramps. Rather than trying to make countless choices and constantly being presented with options and balancing acts, I am told simply not to turn right or left, not to exit, and to get back on when I get off for whatever reason.

So, that is most of where I am at in this balancing spiel. What do you think? If anyone reads this, then please study up on the way in Scripture and on how we are to make a choice. Then touch that there 'comments' button at the bottom of the post and give the fruit of that study some expression. In particular, try addressing these questions in your study:

• Is life more like a highway, or an urban grid, or a winding country road, or something else?
  
• What is the place of God's sovereignty in our choice-making?
• If we are not supposed to balance these competing values, how then are we to decide how to spend our time? Does it matter?

I'll give some time for some interaction here. What say on Thursday I bring my ideas on those questions, and everyone can shoot them down on Friday or whatever?