A God-centered life:
There is a joke which occasionally circulates among my friends that if anyone needs information or assistance on a practical, day-to-day issue, then do not go to Josh. This includes knowledge of sports teams, the proper technique for better golf, or anything related to the automotive world. I am told I tend to operate in la-la land when in a group of people—certainly accounted for but noticeable absent from the group mentally. Once, while trying to secure insurance for my vehicle, a friend was much amused that I couldn’t tell the insurance agent the make and model of my car. Being skeptical, the agent then asked, ‘sir, you need to tell me what kind of car you have’. I replied, “a gray one”. For most of my married life I couldn’t even tell you were we banked and on occasion my wife must remind me on which wrist I wear my watch.
I recognize the important of these trifling issues, but admittedly have little patience for them. It is not that I am somehow extraordinarily intelligent. Certainly Einstein had difficulty with these issues, but so does every village idiot (and I suspect I have more in common with the latter than the former). However, insofar as I can, I am attempting to concentrate my mind chiefly on the things of God. Scripture, theology, personal holiness, and a life of prayer are becoming more and more central to my life—because it is in these that I have found life through Christ. Thomas Aquinas’s maxim (in which he follows Aristotle) is powerful: “The slenderest acquaintance we can form with heavenly things is more desirable than a thorough grasp of mundane matters.” It is not that familiarity with common, everyday matters is somehow ‘beneath’ the Christian. Nor do I think Aquinas is implying that having a solid grasp of earthy matters is antithetical to mature Christian spirituality. He is, however, stressing a very important truth. Namely, the knowledge of God is to be prized above all things.
In reality, even a Mary must eventually perform the duties of a Martha. Jesus firmly commands us to be in the world (but not of it) and (as the Dutch Reformed movement correctly stressed) the Christian church has the privilege and obligation of being the agent of cultural redemption. “World-flight”, all to common in Baptist spirituality, is not an option for the faithful believer. Yet I cannot help feel drawn to a more Narnian approach to faith in which I feel increasingly called to go further up and further in the mysteries of God. There is an indescribable beauty to God, and I simply yearn to see it.
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