Grace and Necessity - Part Four

Oh man, you know why I love to talk about Grace and Necessity, because I LOVE talking about God. Truly, I mean that. You can ask my friends, they probably get sick of it (which is silly because you should never get sick of God, haha, guilt trip). I’m just joking but seriously, it’s amazing how easy it is for us to forget that He is the reason we even exist. Each and every single breath He allows us to take is a gift. Yet, we look at others and envy their lives and ask why they’re so “blessed”. Seriously? We’re all beyond blessed. We are living in an insanely beautiful world and get to share in the glory of a limitless God. That’s INCREDIBLE. 

This is Charles Mugisha. The sermon I listened to should be up on this link soon: https://willamette.cc/sermons/

Today at church…

Sorry, but before we get into Rowan Williams, I have to talk a bit more about how good our God is (which Williams talks about too so it’s okay to go on this tangent). Today at church, I had the pleasure of listening to a guest speaker from Rwanda. This guy went from not even owning shoes to creating and leading Africa New Life, a child sponsorship program. His name is Charles Mugisha. Charles wanted to gain an education and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed that the Lord would open up some doors for him. Charles, who didn’t even have the funds to buy shoes, ended up attending college at Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon. What, how? Well in his words today, because “OUR GOD IS NOT LIMITED”. After receiving his education, Charles and his wife started up a preschool of 29 kids. They paid one teacher $40 a month. That’s all they could afford. That preschool is now a high school that is sponsoring over 9,000 children. Soon to be 10,000. How? OUR GOD IS NOT LIMITED. This is the extremely short version of Charles’ story. In all reality, his story isn’t even his story…it’s God’s. 

The same goes for us…our story is God’s story

Why do we create works of art? What is the source of our creativity. Well, I would argue, and so would Rowan Williams, it could be no one other than God. He is in all, through all, and above all. He is outside our comprehension. Why did I tell you the story of my church experience today? Because there was a moment in church that Charles said exactly what Rowan Williams said earlier in the text. Charles said, and even pinned it as a key point worthy of showing on a slide, “stop limiting God to your own understanding”. Is this not what William’s also said about artist’s work? “Explanation is reduction, it is trying to contain another in our own identity” (122). It would be a disservice to limit another’s artwork to our own understanding. Our goal should be to serve our work and give the rest to God. He is the one who reveals the goodness, the beauty, the truth to the viewer. The viewer should also not try to to understand because this would limit our limitless God. We should trust that He will reveal what is necessary for us in the moment. 

You ask us to include our own artwork. If you click this button above, it will direct you to another part of my website of a day trip I took with my friends to Canada. I would say read the rest of my post first and then click the button. This is a version of a way I poured out my love to my friends and God’s creation. You will see both a video I made and photos I took during the day trip.

Overflow of love

Okay, on to a different point because this is so cool to me and I just can’t wait to talk about it. There is a devotion that has been ingrained into my brain for over a year now because of how much I loved it. The best part is that it fully relates to Rowan William’s thoughts. In Grace and Necessity, on pages 158-159, Williams talks about how God created the world out of His “radical, self-dispossessing character of love that this God displays” (158).  That quote didn’t make perfect sense in that sentence but these two pages talk about how God created us out of love. I encourage you to read them over again. So here is the devotion that fully relates (yes I’m going to type it all out because it’s that good): 

Why did God make us? Do you ever wonder about that? I know I do. I mean, God did not have to make us, right? In fact, things appeared to being going along just fine. For before there was anything else there was God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— in wonderfully intimate, loving unuuin; three, yet one, dancing the great round dance of love from eternity to eternity. Sounds pretty incredible doesn’t it?

But God was so full of love that he simply could not contain himself. He had to create. Maybe not had to in the way we normally understand it, but had to in the very best sense of the word. He could not not do it. His heart was so full of love that creation just spilled out. It was the overflow of his great affection. Out of love he created the world and a people, in order to invite us into this amazing diner circle of joy, intimacy, and infinite delight. 

I guess that’s why Meister Eckhart once said that we were created out of the laughter of the Trinity. I love that image. I love the image of a God so overcome with joy and delight that he cannot keep the smile from his lips as he dreams us into being. And I think the reason I love that image so much is because it’s true. It is true in my head and rings true to the depths of my soul, because I was made in His image. I was made to be in intimate union with God. I was made to love and to be loved. That is his great desire for me. That is his great desire for us. Therefore, may we always strive to be exactly who and what he made us to be. 

This is Jim Branch. He actually led on Young Life staff for over 20 years. This is special to me as I am also a Young Life leader.

WOW. Right? Is this not just an easier to understand version of William’s thoughts? Jim Branch even mentioned that God didn’t do this out of necessity which is what Williams also says on page 158. This just goes to show that William’s thoughts are not original (which is encouraging because that means God’s truth is truly being revealed). There is no coincidence that two brilliant authors would have the same ideas. This excerpt came from The Blue Book written by Jim Branch. It is one of the best devotionals I have ever read. There are many excerpts from many great theologians like Rowan Williams. I encourage you to buy it now. In fact, here’s the amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Book-Devotional-Guide-Season/dp/1530693144/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540187512&sr=8-3&keywords=the+blue+book

I looked up who Meister Eckhart was because I was curious and he’s got a lot of amazing quotes. I had to share a few. He’s a German theologian born during the Holy Roman Empire.

In conclusion

This was a long post because I get carried away when I talk about God. Man, He is just so good that I can’t even contain it. I am very thankful for Grace and Necessity because it reiterated many of my favorite truths about our God. I am excited to continue in my search for Him and as a result pour out His love into my work. It is incredible that He allows us to share in His creativity. I couldn’t be more thankful.

SOURCES

http://www.africanewlife.org/about-us/the-founder/

The Blue Book - Jim Branch

https://thesoulcareproject.org/directory/jim-branch/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meister-Eckhart

Sorry all of my pictures are blurry. It would only let me screenshot the photos. My computer is having issues.