Monday, August 01, 2011

Theological Comfort

"My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." - Anon

Well, whether or not affliction is ever involved, I think there is the trap of becoming theologically comfortable.  This theological comfort is like other comforts.  We are at peace with our knowledge of God.  We understand him.  He becomes predictable.  My favorite show is on channel 40 at 7pm every night.  Sometimes it comes on at 4pm, but the schedule tells me so in advance.  His ways are routine.  I sit with a cold beverage in my easy chair and watch every night.  God comes home for dinner at the same time every night, takes His shoes off and relaxes.  We sit on the sofa across the room from Him.

When God becomes predictable to us, when He becomes comfortable to us, those who are not so comfortable can become predictably wrong.  Always.  Or at least as long as we ourselves are comfortable.  Those people are in the other room worrying about cooking and cleaning or maybe where their next meal will come from.  Why can't they relax like me?  Can't they see God in my living room?

Something I've come to realize in my own life is that each time I think I've got God - or the study of God - figured out, he changes it.  He throws a monkey wrench into my system.  Sometimes that wrench really messes things up.  Biblical theology messes with systematic theology.  There's that verse again.  Can I really get away with forcing an interpretation again?  Oh, well, I'm comfortable with doing so, so I'll do it again.  And tell you all about it.

1 comment:

  1. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. I'd think that becoming comfortable with God can be a good thing. So many Christians are paranoid about life, refusing to take any action at all because they have been told by an angel that it's "God's will" for them to do such-and-such.

    ReplyDelete