This is making my wife really happy. We officially have a 'family blog'. You'd have thought the Canucks won the Stanley Cup. Ok, now for the real goods:
Over the last several years I have diligently been striking any and all phrases pertaining to luck from my vocabulary. The reason for this is that I just don't believe in luck and random chance... the Bible doesn't let me. In the past I have said things to my friends like, "I don't like theology". My wife almost didn't marry me because I said this to her. The truth of the matter is that I don't like theology that doesn't impact the life of the theologian. You can have the most polished theological classroom perspective but if your life is not changed by who you know God to be then your theology sucks. There I said it, now you have to deal with it. Don't get angry at me, cause so far my theology sucks too, but lets work on it together OK?
So, I'm changing my speech to reflect my theology. God is sovereign over all things. Proverbs 16:33 teaches us that the dice fall according to God's direction. Some people are going to have a hard time with this, but my suggestion is read the Bible cover to cover and observe God with his metaphorical fingers in every part of the story working it according to his plan. Good and evil, disaster and blessing, life and death, the rise and fall of nations, the suffering of righteous men at the hands of the wicked, the affliction of those handicapped by physical disability, the atonement for our sin by the sinless Son of God, it is inescapable.
Now the exciting part is that being here in a French speaking context has given me a wonderful replacement for such phrases as "Good luck!". In keeping with the mandate of Joshua 1:9 and Paul's prayer in Ephesians 6:19 : "Bon courage mes amis!"
ok, just read the script again (is that narcissism?) and that definitely wasn't the most gentle articulation of the theology of God's sovereignty. In fact it was more antagonistic than anything. I won't change it now just so you can see how much I need our God to change me. Holy Spirit change me!
ReplyDelete-Stew