Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Grace, Faith, Deeds continued.


In this post a good conversation was started, and I want to continue that with some more thoughts I had to some great thoughts from the youth of EUMC.

I'm going to try and explain my thoughts in a quasi-lame analogy, as I often do.

Grace- will be defined as unconditional love.
Faith- (which some might call belief) is the "being sure of what we do not see", a response to grace which you have experienced. what you think about things.
Works- what you do about it.

So, here we go...

It's no secret that I am overweight. One problem is that it doesn't bother me too much, but that's another story altogether. My lovely girlfriend Sarah, loves me in spite of my phsyical shortcomings, or more accurately largegoings if you will.

In my state of chubbyness, let's say hypathetically that I subscribe to all the running magazines, own a nordic-track, wear those cool Nike shoes that connect to an iPod, sport the tight windsuit outfit, and always am telling people how much of a runner I am.

But people will see that I obviously am not THAT much of a runner because of my perpetual roundness. They'll think "How much does this dude really run? He's got all the gear, knows all the scientific health benefits, but still doesn't look in shape!"

So, i've experienced grace through my loving girlfriend. I'm professing faith by aquiring knowledge and the proper tools, but neither grace or faith is fully realized until I actually get out and run! Furthermore, grace and faith are more fully revealed when I bear witness to them by actually running, and my body's phsyical shape will reflect what I know and what i've done.

How's that?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That, "Mr. Mustoe" is a perfect analogy. And it makes a lot more real sense than most of the ones Christian authors come up with.

St. Peter's UCC said...

Adam - I replied to your comment at http://stpetersuccblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/vision-young-in-years.html

I'm only at church for sure on Sun/Mon, so sometimes I'm slow on responding to stuff on the internets.

----

Grace & works; this quote has been a true Godsend for me - it's certainly not mine, but I'm not going to source it at the moment.

"You don't have to do anything; now what are you going to do?!"

Grace, to me, is the first half of that sentence. Works are the second. Maybe I'll flesh this out tomorrow on my own post. -howie