a learning moment
January 8, 2010
On Wednesday night, a group of our teens and I were having a profoundly spirited discussion on predestination and at one point, one of the older students spoke up. She was trying to put herself in God’s shoes as she worked to understand the unknowableness of who chooses to love God and who will ultimately reject him (excepting if you are actually God, which I have on good authority, she is not). It’s important for us to understand, I think, that predestination as a doctrine is retroactive, meaning the only person it does any good is you, and you only know that once you have responded to God’s immeasurably loving invitation.
So she says:
OK, say you’re a doctor and you have a patient on the table who you can save. They have insurance and seem like an important person in the community. You also have a drug addict on the next table who has overdosed…you can save that person but you don’t really want to. I mean, they chose to overdose and they are of much less value in the community. Does God see them the way I see them?
It was a beautiful moment where the fog of doctrine was eclipsed by the warmth of grace. How does God view the least of these?
Wherever you are, God is with you. Whoever you are, God loves you. Whatever you have done, God’s got your back.
Posted in teachable moments
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January 8th, 2010 at 10:57 am
So…does the Presby church do predestination? How does free will work into things?
I also have to throw in to the mix, what if G!d’s plan for someone is for that person to “reject” G!d? How do we know that that isn’t what they are here to do? Maybe there is a profound lesson that we’ll learn from that person that can inspire thousands. Also, of course, I have to throw in — who’s definition of G!d are we using?
I love that you have students who are this engaged. It really gives you hope. Be sure to tell them that very few people “choose” to overdose. People with drug addictions are either severely chemically addicted or acting out other deeply scaring events through “self-medication”