Blessed are the cracked

Blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light
(Groucho Marx)

It's amazing how the cracked can give rise to illumination. 

It's grace that is the light shining through our cracks to illuminate life *despite* our failings.



I'm cracked, I know that.  So how do I know if the my thoughts are merely products of the cracks?

You see, reason and logic are about the only foundations we have to build anything that has strength.  Opinion and feelings come and go as readily as I eat, drink, and go to the toilet.  Reason, on the other hand, is testable in so far as we are true to the logic frameworks that are independent of our mood.

What is theology but a coat rack to hang your understanding on?

It has form and function, and we try hanging our ideas on it.  Some fall off, some barely stay on, and others hook on well.  The ones that hang securely do not necessarily mean we have the right coat rack in all respects -- we need to have a frame where everything can find a hook of consistent understanding.

The God of the old testament and the God of the new testament, judgment and mercy, grace and justice, these should all be able to hang comfortably on our theological coat rack.  Likewise, issues of homosexuality, the death penalty, abortion, poverty, suffering, ambition, success, war, and so on and so on, should all have a place in our theology where they are rationally at ease with everything else.

The danger is when we arbitrarily change our theology because it offends our sensibilities.  The moment we do so, we find something else falls off our frame.  But when the theology is right, all hangs secure and any remaining discomfort we have with is our problem ... not reason to change the theology.  Rather, we need to examine ourselves in honesty and ask why we don't like it.

Examine your theology.  Is it consistent with God's Word?
Be true to that which is eternal, not that which is transitory.

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