I want just to throw down a few words of explanation here about these 3 blogs of mine – Education / Inspiration / common Life
The terms may speak well enough for themselves, but dividing life up into categories like this presents us with some challenges. For starters there’s the seemingly infinite number of topics to think or write about. So suggesting they can all fit in 3 categories could seem presumptuous, or naïve perhaps.
And then with all this diversity, there is this awe inspiring complexity, this amazing interconnectivity as all the different parts of life interrelate, each part to every other part! So the crossover affect is always going to be a thing. You know. Like when you get an education on something and get inspired in the process! Or consider how even the most mundane aspects of our lives can become moments of inspiration, how the common can become sacred even. And so it goes. There is observably a wholeness or oneness to life, a centre even in the midst of the mind-staggering complexity and diversity of it all.
At the same time it should be said, while life in this world includes more details than there are stars or grains of sand, and not one of them is unrelated to all the others, they are not all of equal value or significance. And understanding HOW the different parts of life are related is essential to gaining an understanding of what the most important parts are. This is what enables us to live integrated lives (wholeness) rather than fractured or compartmentalized lives; not just recognizing the connection between all the parts but identifying the things that matter most.
It’s kind of like that story about the instructor putting the big stones into the jar first before the pebbles because that’s the only way everything can fit. Recognizing how the different aspects of life relate to the others (i.e. the proverbial cart and horse scenario) is a key part of what we understand wisdom to be about. And it’s all predicated on the incredible design work so abundantly evident in this thing we call life.
The natural world (what theologians call ‘General Revelation’) is abounding with metaphors that help us understand God’s design for life. I’ll just mention one here as it relates to the point – colour. How many are there? If you go to the hardware store with a paint chip there could be several hundred! Or better yet, look at a mountain meadow as the sun rises on it. But here’s the thing, there are 3 primary colours. AND as it turns out, the thing we refer to as colour is actually all one thing – light. And life is like that. It’s about a lot of things, but then it is really about a few super important things, one thing even. This is where the concept of wholeness originates. It goes back to God as the Creator and Source of all life. What is the single integrating factor, that to which all things ultimately relate? He is. What makes sense of this crazy complicated life? He does. How can we really understand the truth about life? We need Him for that.
Understanding the parts requires an understanding of the whole. Because you can’t understand what a bicycle pedal is if you have no idea what a bicycle is. The ability to relate this to that sends us in search of the answer to the question of ultimate reality. And that search inevitably leads us to God. Our stories only make sense when we come to understand them in light of His grand story – the story of creation and corruption, of redemption and restoration.
So, if you read some of my blog posts you could potentially read about anything from gardening to guitars to getting old to getting to know Christ. I hope you will find it reflective of a well-balanced life, but more than that, I hope it will lift your eyes to the One who made it all and sustains it all by His grace.
“I was brought up in a Christian environment where because God had to be given pre-eminence, nothing else was allowed to be important. I have broken through to the position that because God exists, everything has significance.” Evangeline Paterson