A Little Statement of Purpose

I have been thinking about resuming this blog for quite some time.

"Resuming?" you ask. "But there's nothing beyond this - you've never posted before!"

Ah, but I have. Three times in the spring and summer of 2004. Then I let it die, as this just might. (I gave you a fair warning!) I deleted those posts, not because they were terrible or anything (and yet, they were not as I remembered them - those of you who write probably understand that), but just because they would be too disconnected with what I want to focus on.

"And just what is that, Amanda?" you continue to prod. "You're beginning to ramble."

Well, you'd best get used to that right away - rambling, that is. I do it when I talk, certainly, and I'm afraid I do it when I write, something I defenitely need to work on. So, with that said...

Everlasting Splendors refers to one of my favorite CS Lewis quotes (and there are many) from his published lecture on The Weight of Glory, which you can find in a book by the same name. Towards the end, CS Lewis writes, "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."

There is more, and it is excellent. He mentions a similar thought in Mere Christianity when he talks about men becoming more hellish or heavenly with each twist and turn of their choices. Towards the end of the book is a chapter titled "Nice People or New Men" in which he discusses the question, "If Christianity is true why are not all Christians obviously nicer than all non-Christians?" The point of it is this: Niceness was not all God was concerned about when He sent Christ into the world. Niceness is not the measuring stick. Or, to put a more contemporary label on it, political correctness and tolerance are not the measuring sticks. Those of us who recognize Christ as Savior are not concerned with becoming unoffensive, pleasant people. What is critical is that we become new people, with the eventual side-effect of true compassion and kindness. (More on this another time.)

So here I am, writing about my journey on becoming a "new man." Or, if you prefer, a "new A-man-da." (Go ahead and groan.) And the same fact both complicates this process and liberates me: God is not Who I thought He was. As I search for Him, I discover more and more each day He beyond my ability to define.

Join me if you'd like. I suppose I might enter some deep waters and find myself drowning, but if it is in God, so be it. At lease I will not be in the shallow end any longer.