Dean, what you write is so true. As you will see in my book, the selection by Christoph Blumhardt makes very much the same point. The challenge for us is that we have lost the way when it comes to knowing what it means to be truly human. We are more accustom to living life on the basis of Adam's sin, who thought he could be like God, knowing good and evil. What I mean to say is that we as fallen humans prefer to assert our autonomy in denial of our dependency. This is the main reason why we are so anxious-ridden. Like you express, we don't live in accordance with who we really are or are meant to be: children of the father.
“Therefore [if God is your God] I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye [you all] not much better than they?” (Mt 6:25-26).
God can take care of birds because birds never stop behaving like birds. Human beings, however, have the capacity to stop behaving like human beings. We do so whenever we attempt to play God. And then we make it real difficult for God to provide for us. When we stop trying to play God, and relax into being the human beings God created us to be, we discover that we are not individuals in isolation, but persons in community. And we discover that, in community with other human persons, God provides for our every need.
Dean, what you write is so true. As you will see in my book, the selection by Christoph Blumhardt makes very much the same point. The challenge for us is that we have lost the way when it comes to knowing what it means to be truly human. We are more accustom to living life on the basis of Adam's sin, who thought he could be like God, knowing good and evil. What I mean to say is that we as fallen humans prefer to assert our autonomy in denial of our dependency. This is the main reason why we are so anxious-ridden. Like you express, we don't live in accordance with who we really are or are meant to be: children of the father.
This is so scary I know it is true. Just don’t know how to get myself where I need to be.
“Therefore [if God is your God] I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye [you all] not much better than they?” (Mt 6:25-26).
God can take care of birds because birds never stop behaving like birds. Human beings, however, have the capacity to stop behaving like human beings. We do so whenever we attempt to play God. And then we make it real difficult for God to provide for us. When we stop trying to play God, and relax into being the human beings God created us to be, we discover that we are not individuals in isolation, but persons in community. And we discover that, in community with other human persons, God provides for our every need.