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Recent CommentsRickey Ashley said "Thanks Justin!" about A Hole in Our Example by Justin Thomas on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 @ 2:50 PM Rickey Ashley said "Thanks Jordan!" about I ♥ Home Groups by Jordan Taylor on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 @ 2:45 PM Paul said "That was awesome Justin! I had never realized just how deeply the doctrine of "karma" has sunken into our culture. Praise the Lord we have a personal God who cares and not an impersonal system! I pray you and your family are doing well!" about Karma and Christianity by Justin Thomas on Saturday, May 5, 2012 @ 1:27 PM Doug Dixon said "Justin, Judging from Rick Gifford's response, you really struck a chord. Thank you both. Talk about encouragement on the way! There is a fine line between "examining yourself" or "keeping short reckonings with God" and taking yourself too seriously. May we continue to have the honesty and insight to do the first, all the while avoiding the pitfall of the second. Be continually blessed and a blessing, my dear brother. " about Christian Maturity and the Uncanny Valley on Saturday, April 28, 2012 @ 3:27 PM Rick Gifford said "This is an excellent teaching. I often have noted as I "age" (like wine?) that the more I am exposed to the incarnate Word, the more teaching I receive, the more inspiration the Spirit delivers, the "less I know". I think it's a function of the magnitude of the Almighty. The learning of Him is progress and great gain, but it's at the same time it's exposure to the height, depth, and breadth and that greater exposure reveals still more vastness. It's the inverse of the expert art historian Justin used in his example--who notices so much more, who perceives more, because of countless hours, years even, of exposure and training. Like the expert, we learn and can know more about Christ, but the learning isn't really so much about attaining knowledge or even perspective, it's about growing closer to him, and more like him. The truest measure of one's maturation in the Christian faith has to be an increasing resemblance to Jesus. And, paralleling what I said above, the more I resemble him ("You look just like your Dad") the more I am aware of the distinctions and the need to draw closer still, abide more, surrender more. The more I know, the more I realize I don't know much and there is infinitely more to know about God. That used to bug me a little. Now I enjoy that realization, even revel in it. It doesn't frustrate me to play the bumbling Watson to the ever more brilliant Holmes . . . so long as I continue growing ever more like Him. We probably should be uncomfortable dwelling in the Uncanny Valley, but the antidote is to keep moving. We need to be itinerant, not satisfied or surrendered Valley dwellers. We don't want to settle down and make a permanent camp. We need to stay on the move, always checking the map, and aspiring to the ascent, which one day will carry us out of the Uncanny Valley into the frontal presence of the one who formed it and led us through it. In Phillipians 3, the Least Apostle/Least Saint/Chief Sinner Paul, spoke to this, I think. What had seemed profit, and attainable, to him, now seemed loss in comparison with knowing Jesus and growing in that knowledge through experience in the Uncanny Valley, even to the point, literally, of sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings and, ultimately, "becoming like Him in his death", leaving the Valley. So, yes, the more I "know", the more I don't know and realize I can't know yet. And every day, with new mercies being revealed, more grace imparted, Jesus comes to me with our lunches packed, and invites me to walk with Him through the Uncanny Valley. Sometimes it's a real trudge, wearying and confusing. But many times, as we round corners on that trail, vistas are revealed that are stunningly beautiful. He might say, "That's where we're headed; stick with me." And I do. " about Christian Maturity and the Uncanny Valley on Friday, April 20, 2012 @ 9:05 AM |