Process Theology
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5 NASB
You shall love – “To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the great and first commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness—especially in the wilderness—you shall love him.”[1]
Buechner is right, of course. To be commanded to love God seems at times impossible. We’re not sure what we are supposed to do to meet this requirement, as much as we would like to. “ . . . it is God you shall love first before you love anything else, and you shall love him with all that you are and all that you have it in you to become—whatever that means, whatever that involves. The words don’t explain. They just proclaim and command.”[2]
But perhaps we are looking in the wrong direction. Oswald Chambers often provides clarity in his simplicity. In his entry for July 28, he remarks, “What we call the process, God calls the end. . . His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working toward a particular finish; His end is the process . . . for this minute, not for something in the future.”[3]
Can we love God in the process of trusting Him? Is simply trusting Him in all the wilderness that we walk through loving Him with all that we have? What if the objective isn’t some perfect state of being where we no longer entertain any diversion, any temptation, any doubt in our relationship with God? That perfect state is, frankly, unattainable. We are here, in the midst of it all, wandering our way through the wadi of discontent, crossing the sands of disappointment, experiencing the blistering of spiritual inquisition—and yet He is there, if we have eyes to see. Maybe that’s what’s really at stake in loving Him. To see He is there, perhaps a bit distant at times, but nevertheless, there, just at the horizon of our concern. And to walk with Him in mind.
No, I’m afraid I cannot be commanded to run when my legs are broken, but I can look for Him even on shattered bones. And since that is all I can do, it is all of me doing it.
Topical Index: love, Deuteronomy 6:5
[1]Frederick Buechner Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons(HarperOne, 2006), p. 101.
Perhaps Oswald Chambers is theologically and devotionally correct when he states, “What we call the process, God calls the end,” but both the Apostle Paul and I disagree with him when he states that, “God is not working toward a particular finish; His end is the process . . . for this minute, not for something in the future.” In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul argues that, “If it is only for this life (end) that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone.” Paul further insists that all of our labors, trials and tears here have both a purpose and a future reward, and “everything” will be revealed by the resurrection from the dead and in the formation of the Kingdom of God. He later adds, “If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone. If my fighting with “wild beasts” in Ephesus was done merely on a human basis, what do I gain by it? If dead people are not raised, we might as well live by the saying, “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
You are correct in affirming that “some perfect state of being where we no longer entertain any diversion, any temptation, any doubt in our relationship with God,” is unattainable, (in this life) but we do have a promise of it in the next life through His resurrection, and I for one, hang onto that more than my own ability to manufacture some philosophical or transcendental experience of seeing God in my suffering here and now.
Perhaps our goal should be to neither “to run when my legs are broken”, nor “look for Him even on shattered bones”, but to “mount up with wings as eagles” as Isaiah prophesied and soar upon this Promise toward Our King and His Kingdom.
Good morning, Michael.
What constitutes a love story (on this planet, anyway)? All those stories – that ring true in any sense of the word (for us, anyway) – have an element of tragedy woven in. So much so, that the orient thinks tragedy is an indispensable component of happiness (yin/yang), and the west thinks you can’t laugh without crying (Greek comedy/tragedy). Why? Is it because the East is right: you can’t just have the good stuff without the bad stuff? Or is it because we now have only the ability to recognize love against a backdrop of darkness and horror (paradigm)? I do think it is because without the dark, we can’t recognize the light: not because that is the ‘truth’, but because that is the only (flesh) eyes we have to see it with. I think the truth of love – for us, anyway – can only be grasped from within our paradigm now because the Tree consigned us to this limitation, and our paradigm is tragic.
I, with you, hope for a resurrected, transformed body, mind and soul at the Second Coming because I believe that is when we get the missing Piece of our current paradigm returned to us: that palpable, immediate experience in our flesh, current attention and spiritual alignment with God: the God that is currently HIDING from us so that we can live ‘without’ Him and not die. I think we chose the ‘hide’ part for both of us: He is just complying: and what we are hiding behind is our flesh(ly situation). As a consequence, our current paradigm is missing His presence and our current situation is tragic because of that missing Piece. The truly sad part? Because of its (self-limiting) paradigm, the entire planet missed His presence – when He was present! – last time (because it insisted on staying in that flesh). Now, THAT’S a real tragedy!
When we quit hiding, His presence can be revealed and all tragedy can be transformed: all the mountains leveled and the potholes filled that constitutes the impediments in our way. What creates our current tragedy? I think we are hiding ourselves: turned and looking the wrong ‘way’: at ourselves. We are missing the Peace behind us: missing the whisper in our ear; “turn around”. When we do, everything in our lives turns too: when we turn, it turns all that is in our lives. At that point, all that is in our lives becomes subject to His will, too, and His will is “peace; be still”. When we look at Him, we turn our eyes away from looking at the tragedy: we just don’t see it any more; and what we are not looking at has no power over us any more. Love transforms the worst tragedy, but only when we start doing our part: “look, and live”. What we focus on: what we SEE: is what has power over us.
Do you know what it is like to live in full free fall? Do I? This is our chance to try it! What do we have to lose? A whole bunch of nothing! I have found that we have to close our eyes to the tragedy that the self is without Him, and move forward in faith in a future we cannot see, instead. I suspect our paradigm is an illusion built by the three monkeys of evil: see no God: hear no God, speak no God. What if we chose the opposite instead? What if we really are holding the power cord to all the tragedy of our lives in our hand (paradigm)?
If His love is “made perfect in our weakness” than perfection is not about us at all, is it? Isn’t it about Him? Isn’t evil where we tried to think perfection is something we could ‘have’ in the first place (now THERE’S a heretical thought! My best one of the day!) So isn’t it time we turned in that weakness of thinking that perfection is ‘all up to us’ – turned away from looking at that thought at all so as to look at Him – so as to let Him be able to have a crack at it instead? What if there’s only been a paradigm – a self-limiting lens – a focus – between us and the good stuff all along?
As usual, I am talking to myself by means of your ears. Thanks for listening in!
God’s message for us is for now.
God’s love for us is for now.
Our love for Him is for now.
And since now is eternal, what works
now works forever.
“And I know that His command leads to
eternal life.” Jn 12:50
“Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which He will accomplish for you today.” Ex 14:13
Skip, the days are getting short for comments and I want to sincerely thank you for all the influence from God that you have transmitted to my life. I continue to be amazed that you write some of your articles 30 days ahead, but on the day it is published it is an answer to my prayers. My life has been changed over the last 10-15 years on this site in ways I can’t articulate properly. I really hate to see the comments go since many of my answers to life’s problems have come from them also. I have signed up on the MeWe site, and I hope it goes well. I am a bit of a lurker on the site, but I will miss all the contributors also.
Good luck and may God think of you continually and bless you every way you turn.
I guess I missed something in my season of focus on other things. Am I to understand that the open forum for interacting is being closed?
Yes, sir. On September 1. There is an independent group forming. See Gayle’s invite under “30 day window”
“What we call the process, God calls the end. . . His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working toward a particular finish; His end is the process . . . for this minute, not for something in the future.”
This is a wonderful insight on two of my favourite passages in Scripture:
Daniel 3:16-18
16Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. 17“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and ***He will deliver us*** out of your hand, O king. 18“But ***even if He does not,*** let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Mark 12:42-44
42And a poor widow came and threw in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.
43And calling near His taught ones He said to them, “Truly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those putting into the treasury,
44for they all put in out of their excess, but she ***out of her poverty put in all that she had,*** her entire livelihood.”
Thank you, Skip, for reminding me that with Abba, it’s always a heart matter. He judges us on the heart level, not on the finished product. The finished product is our blessing.
“Well done, good and trustworthy servant. ”
HalleluYah!
“The finished product is our blessing.” Kay, I am completely convinced that goodness (and blessing is goodness, too) is a result, not a ’cause’ of God’s favor towards us. We have to be free (from sin) to be good (in that place), but the flesh has to believe that we have to be good to be free. That’s so backwards!
I think this is the secret reason people try so hard to ‘look good’ in front of others, because to look like you have it all together means that you are free from sin (as well as it’s diabolical consequences) in that place. By contrast, people who are staggering under the obvious heavy weights of disfunction, disease, disaster APPEAR to be not-so-good people: toxic people, in fact: people to be avoided, because we all know that you hang out with ‘winners’. This is because we all also know from experience that if you sleep with the losers, you are bound to get up with fleas.
So, in the flesh, anyway, Ii think we go to any lengths to rob Peter to pay Paul: to cheat and to steal, and to do whatever it takes to appear as if we are functioning. Rich or powerful people who have money or power are tempted to use such means to do this: they can (and do) buy their way out of the consequences of unloving choices. However, I think those without money or power are tempted to revert to making others ‘pay’ in other ways for their poor choices,; either through intimidating and threatening them, or by manipulating them into bearing the consequences for them – into ‘looking bad’ FOR them. Why? Because none of us can bear the weight of the lack of love that fractured relationship is!
I think we reason that if we look ‘good’, others will want to be close to us, so that we can pretend we are functioning in that place, or at least so that we can fool others into thinking that. Why is that so important? Because we all hate death: that’s why! We want to feel alive, which is the feeling that others want to be with us, but we know that people don’t want to be with those who have a big A hung on their chests, because those folks are walking disaster time bombs.
I think the flesh still wants what it cannot have, which is the freedom from sin to be able to love and be loved, which is what function is. We know perfectly well that the safety function represents only happens in places where good choices of love have been made, but ‘looking good’ is as close as we can get to sending out the signal that we are safe to be around – that good choices have already been made.
I think that all the good stuff (which are what blessings are) – including love and acceptance (which is what safety is) – are simply by-products of the freedom from sin and its consequences. Being good (as opposed to just ‘looking good’) is also just a byproduct of that freedom (of choice, of course) that forgiveness returns us to. Forgiven folks are safe to be around: we all know that, because the axe is not about to fall on them (as well as on those around them, of course), but function – health – an ordered life – fantastic relationships – God’s favor – these are all side effects of the freedom from sin that repentance returns us to. Function, too, I believe is a side effect of forgiveness: not a ‘way’ (works) to forgiveness.
I think the world has it backwards (not surprising): it tries to ‘look good’ (like it has no problems) so as to ‘earn’ (works) ‘forgiveness’, but in reality, forgiveness (because we faced the problems first) hands us goodness – the “finished product” – on a platter. With forgiveness, I think we get God back on the throne, doing all the goodness for us, as a side effect of His reign in our lives, as He intended from the beginning (but that we forgot). Big forgetting!