Making Sense of God
Day 11– September 1, 2018
By John Crosland
I finished reading a book by Tim Keller last month titled Making Sense of God. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Keller he is a retired Presbyterian minister who founded Redeemer Church in New York City in 1989 with his wife, Cathy. Today Redeemer has more than five thousand regular Sunday attendees. Dr. Keller also founded City to City which has trained leaders to start more than three hundred new churches in nearly fifty cities around the world. Furthermore, he is a prolific author of Christian literature, and much of his writings are directly aimed at the urban intellectual atheist. This book meets that criteria in that he addresses the skeptic of any religion from the philosophical point of view. He expounds on the bankruptcy of modern and postmodern thinking and compares this to the truth of Christianity. His conclusion following many chapters of detailed arguments is that the skeptic/atheist needs to understand that his choice to be an atheist actually requires more faith than that of a Christian. It is an interesting read, and I would highly recommend it.
That being said, there was one section that struck home with me in particular. It had to do with the happiness of man. Keller says that Augustine taught that we are most fundamentally shaped not as much by what we believe, or think, or even do, but by what we love. “You are what you love.” And, you are not only what you love but in the order of priority of what you love. We actually harm ourselves and sometimes others if we love anything more than God. Also, we were designed by God to love God first and foremost but also to enjoy His love. Keller quotes C.S. Lewis, “If I find in myself a desire (for a divine love – my words) which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” We can only approach that “other world” through our love of God.
For me personally the most profound finding from a day to day point of view is that this approach puts everything into the correct perspective. No matter what has happened to me on any given day– a slight from a loved one, a periodontal case doesn’t go as planned, a dear friend dies, etc. – I can love God and understand the hierarchy of importance of each of those occurrences. It is taking some practice on my part to come to terms with this, but I have come to realize that if I let something truly bother or upset me, then I probably have made it an idol and put my love for that thing, person, action, emotion, desire, etc. above my love for God. This does not mean that I am to love these earthly things less; it just means that I need to love God more. And when I am putting this into practice, I am finding more peace and thus, a genuine happiness.
One might ask, “How do I go about loving God more?” Keller suggests that we remember what God gave us in His son, Jesus Christ, and the undeserved sacrifice He made for us as a starting point. When I remember His grace and love, it makes it easy to love Him back.
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your should and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5