I do not know who will see this, or if anyone will ever see it. I am doing it to simply have a place to put thoughts that I can refer people to if ever need be. I do not think people will find anything here one hundred percent original, or even interesting. Perhaps I will use it merely to refer to when talking to someone and they ask me my thoughts on a particular issue.
I titled the Blog Hypocrisy vs. Consistency because I believe that is all of what life is. We have beliefs, and we are either living opposed to them or in accordance with them. If we lead hypocritical lives, then what we are saying is that our beliefs aren’t worth believing. If I write a thought that I do not live out myself, then it should not be taken seriously. Well, maybe it can be taken on its own, but I do not add to the credibility of it.
I also believe Life is about innovation. In his lecture about the urgency of reading the Bible as one story in the 21st century, Michael W. Goheen talks about our lives being like Shakespearean actors using innovation the last act of a grand play. He says God has written the script for the first four acts, and has told us the end, and we are supposed to innovate to bring about that ending the best we can.
Innovation and consistency: this captures what it means to live in act five. Consistency means that our lives will be shaped by the substance and trajectory of the story of Israel, Jesus, and the early church. We pore over and immerse ourselves in those earlier acts to understand them well so we may live in consistency with its essential narrative impetus. Yet with innovation: faithfulness means living creatively and imaginatively in a new redemptive-historical era and in new cultural and historical situations into which God leads us.
Goheen goes on to later note that our lives are like a movie preview for our life hereafter:
A movie trailer gives actual footage of the movie that is coming in the future so that people will want to watch it. The people of God are a kingdom preview. We embody the salvation of the kingdom which is coming in the future so that people will see it and want it. That is what the witness is all about. Our lives, deeds, and words witness to the kingdom’s presence and its future consummation. A biblical witness is a witness to God’s rule over all of human life.
Is Goheen correct?
2 comments:
Count me in as one of your faithful readers! Challenging thoughts for the day...
I've done a lot of believing, and writing about what I believe but living what I believe is a whole new dance. One that I'm learning. The concept of consistency vs. hypocrisy is brilliant... Goheen is epic.
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