The Studied Life...The Storied Life
As I've read through this discipline of study I'm seeing a reoccurring theme. Those who have invested large amounts of time and ambition to be and to become a student of culture and Scripture are the ones who have influenced the world for the greatest good. They are the ones who are quoted in nearly every book, they are the ones who have started revolutions, reformations and great awakenings. They lived outside the box of narrow-minded dogmatisim, and took on the posture of a student, teachable and discerning. This life is not one of careless tolerance and thoughtless relativism.
On the contrary, it is highly analytical and passionate for the truth. It isn't just a life of liberal acceptance at all costs, it is a movement toward intentional thinking, reasoning through issues and beliefs and cultural shifts and occupations that screens and filters and sifts through life. It cares so deeply about the truth that it can't help but explore information and understanding and wisdom to get to the bottom of things. It doesn't accept the surface answers, it wants to examine life wondering if conclusions are, in fact, true or false. I think it matters that we care about such things.
And the consistent thread I see with a studied life is that it becomes a storied life. A life with all the elements of an epic story...full of suspence, adventure, risk, danger, romance, heroism, friendship, rescue, battle, creativity, and ultimately love. People who live with their head in the perverbial sand don't live life worthy of being talked about or emulated. They simply exist to perpetuate self-preservation and personal safety. Instead of Jesus model of integration, we have a life of isolation. A life of isolation doesn't make for a good story. I'm glad Jesus cared about culture and people and entering the world in which he lived. I'm glad that he stood for truth without seperating himself from a society with errors. He lived inside an erroneous environment and brought the truth to bear in culturally creative ways. He used the stories of his day to convey timeless truth. He drew from the metephors of his culture to convey parables about the kingdom. He had his eyes open all the time watching the world in which he lived with intrigue and curiosity. He was constantly using culture as a bridge to the kingdom...not using kingdom language to bridge to the culture. That takes a scholar of society, a student of modern day language, a teachable heart that engages the pop culture of his/her day.
We certainly have to balance out our time in Scripture and our time in culture. Many are well-versed in culture and are illiterate when it comes to Scripture. This is dangerous and in need of a counter-balance. But there are some that are packed with Scripture that live clueless as to the heartbeat of culture...they are equally as dangerous in my opinion...they create just as much devistation.
As we stretch our minds to study culture and Scripture always trying to build bridges back and forth between the two, we begin to live lives that speak of something bigger and more hopeful, teeming with relevence and reality. The studied seems to lead to the storied life.
On the contrary, it is highly analytical and passionate for the truth. It isn't just a life of liberal acceptance at all costs, it is a movement toward intentional thinking, reasoning through issues and beliefs and cultural shifts and occupations that screens and filters and sifts through life. It cares so deeply about the truth that it can't help but explore information and understanding and wisdom to get to the bottom of things. It doesn't accept the surface answers, it wants to examine life wondering if conclusions are, in fact, true or false. I think it matters that we care about such things.
And the consistent thread I see with a studied life is that it becomes a storied life. A life with all the elements of an epic story...full of suspence, adventure, risk, danger, romance, heroism, friendship, rescue, battle, creativity, and ultimately love. People who live with their head in the perverbial sand don't live life worthy of being talked about or emulated. They simply exist to perpetuate self-preservation and personal safety. Instead of Jesus model of integration, we have a life of isolation. A life of isolation doesn't make for a good story. I'm glad Jesus cared about culture and people and entering the world in which he lived. I'm glad that he stood for truth without seperating himself from a society with errors. He lived inside an erroneous environment and brought the truth to bear in culturally creative ways. He used the stories of his day to convey timeless truth. He drew from the metephors of his culture to convey parables about the kingdom. He had his eyes open all the time watching the world in which he lived with intrigue and curiosity. He was constantly using culture as a bridge to the kingdom...not using kingdom language to bridge to the culture. That takes a scholar of society, a student of modern day language, a teachable heart that engages the pop culture of his/her day.
We certainly have to balance out our time in Scripture and our time in culture. Many are well-versed in culture and are illiterate when it comes to Scripture. This is dangerous and in need of a counter-balance. But there are some that are packed with Scripture that live clueless as to the heartbeat of culture...they are equally as dangerous in my opinion...they create just as much devistation.
As we stretch our minds to study culture and Scripture always trying to build bridges back and forth between the two, we begin to live lives that speak of something bigger and more hopeful, teeming with relevence and reality. The studied seems to lead to the storied life.
Comments
i want to apologize for that email i sent you a while back. i have been processing so much in the past year and have flipped the lid on a few people who were Absolutely Undeserving; you one of them. it was absolutely Superfluous psychic material that was projected out on you when it was actually pointing in towards me. i hope you can forgive me.
i think i've spent the past two years Changing so much (from evangelical to where i am now...something of a Taoist who is governed by a lot of christian-kantian worldview and yet embraces postmodernism like it's his left arm) that i projected out on others that they didn't accept me when it was actually my self who did not accept that changes that Life (some call it God) were bringing me through. my parents and close friends have been the targets of my projections, and i'm humiliated by my lack of awareness of what i was doing. i am now trying to embrace myself, so that i can let others embrace me. again man, i'm entirely sorry. i'm quite Grateful for the friendship that once existed; i wouldn't be who i am now without its existence.
i know you're a busy and popular man. i'd love to stay in touch, if possible. i hope those around you are as impacted and touched by you, and you them, as our times together.
i love you jason, and have Always admired your passion (even though we'd disagree a lot ideologically, those things really don't matter to me anymore. it's more about that old word called 'love').
i start grad/phd studies in september. i'm scared shitless and excited as fat kid who hasn't had cake in years and now gets a piece. we'll see where Life throws me after this section of the Journey.
do tell your wife i said hello.
christopher green
mr.christopher.r.green@gmail.com