The Music of Trinity

* Precursor: I know nothing of music theory or taken any classes for this. I am, by no means, an expert in this area.

It is my understanding that a chord is made up of three notes. Chords are based off of scale of 1-7. So a major chord is when 1,3,and 5 are played at the same time. For instance: a G Chord is made of the notes G(1),B(3), and D(5) being played at the same time.

Have I lost you? Hopefully not; you do not have to really understand what I just said, stick with me.

Have you ever had a difficult time understanding or explaining realities of the trinity? One God, three persons Father, Son, Holy Spirit; each distinct yet not a part of the whole, but each a whole

If I sat at a piano and played the note, G The sound would fill the room we sat in. The note alone could fill the entire space with its sound. That note never changes. That G is always G. Same with a B and D.

But if I play these three distinct notes at the exact same time they make one whole Chord that is beautiful and it also fills the entire space we are in with its sound while each of these three notes also fills the entire space with their sound

You can sit and think about this all day. I have...several days.

Question God

I came across an old friend from the homeland (Muncie,IN) through Facebook. It was great to hear from this guy, how he's been doing lately, his daughter...all that stuff. It was also great to hear that, he too, had "found Jesus", but he still had a lot of questions. He mentioned that he is always looking for proof and asking questions of this whole faith thing. Questions are a part of faith. They have to be. The moment you think you have all all the answers, you have sorely mistaken yourself. Truth of the matter is that questions are essential to faith. If you do not have questions you would then make the assumption that you know it all. If you knew it all, there would be no reason for faith. There would be no reason for there to be an "all-knowing" God.

Questions are a strong driving force behind faith. Questions absolutely need to be accepted in the Christian faith. I think, further, that questions need to be celebrated in the Christian faith. For its the questions that allow us to realize something very important to Christianity: we do not know it all.

God and his ways will never make sense to me. I still cannot get past the whole concept that God can know me inside and out and love me tenderly and unconditionally. Never mind all the other dimensions of God, theology and Christianity; I still cannot figure this one out.

But that is the point! God will always be crazy to me. He will never make sense, but for that reason, I GET TO ask questions and pursue Him for the rest of my life.

The Guilt Idol

Bonhoeffer said, "Guilt is an idol." I have been thinking today about the role of guilt in our faith...or at least the role we have given guilt in our faith. I find myself essentially worshipping and lifting up guilt in my life quite a bit. Bonhoeffer has a fantastic grasp on the role we often give to guilt and shame. Self-rejection and hatred are far too present in the Christian faith. It was never intended to be this way. We too often take our own self-hatred and project it onto God, and that does not match up. We too often assume that God feels the same way about us that we fee about ourselves. This is impossible, of course, unless we are able to love ourselves with relentlessly tender and accepting love.

We have to destroy the idol of guilt and begin to accept ourselves as we really are. We are all wounded people, and need to learn to accept that. We, instead, either lacerate ourselves with guilt and shame, or we hide our wounds with pretty faces and admirable manufactured presentations of ourselves. We hide behind those masks and never allow ourselves to be known as we are. Sadly, I often hide for so long behind some masks that I believe they are real; I forget my real self.

Guilt remains an idol because my unwillingness to reveal myself as I am, wounds and all, is an unwillingness to accept myself. That unwillingness to accept myself is my unwillingness to accept that God truly is a loving God. I may accept it in my head while there remains a great chasm between my head and my heart.

How willing am I to be wounded; to accept that I am wounded? Without being immobilized by guilt?

How long will I worship the idol of guilt?