The View from the West Mesa

The question was posed on another site, "why do people seem to be seeking spirituality; why are they searching for fulfillment and satisfaction?" Asked by someone who had a non-believing friend, who had asked the original question. The answer to this question is rather simple it seems to me. Here's what I posted in response: "We are made in the image, the character of God. Somewhere inside us is some God-stuff that tells us the world, the way it is, isn't the way it's supposed to be; that we, chasing after stuff that ultimately doesn't satisfy, aren't the way we're supposed to be. As a result, we look to match that God-stuff with meaning and life. And so we seek, without knowing sometimes that it is the God-stuff that needs to be met. Humans are all made in the image of God; and we all seek to live in that image (even if we don't know what that image is)." If this is a correct answer to the question, it could help form the focus of our te...

Most Christians know of Paul’s admonition to be perfect, even as God is perfect, and most Christians have at one time or another, vacillated between security in faith and wondering if they’ve been perfect enough. It dawned on me this past Wednesday that all our attention on being perfect may by miss-placed. What if we were meant to be imperfect? Really. It has been demonstrated that most of us find it hard to be really compassionate, really caring, really empathetic unless and until we have undergone some sort of disappointment, loss, or failure. In the psychology world, and in a few Christian books, the idea of the wounded healer posits that only those who have suffered and worked through it can most adequately “be with” those who are now receiving the blows of life’s realities. If we are called by God to live in His image, to live in His and with His worldview, His other-centered drives, His compassionate care for the world, how can we really mature into that image if we have never l...