John Donne

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto Your enemy
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to You, imprison me, for I
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free;
Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.

Donne used techniques that have been donned (no pun intended) with the name "metaphysical poetry." Typical, that I love his style. /All things metaphysical. Always.

What he does is provide dramatic contrast through frequent and unexpected shifts of viewpoint, to ultimately come to a dramatic synthesis of discordant images. He always includes intriguing paradoxes that link sinfulness with deliverance, conquest with liberation, and imprisonment with freedom. This was a revolutionary development in European literature during the 17th century.

We love you, Donne.

(The Humanistic Tradition, pg 564)

First Love

"I lacked some essential confidence in the world and in myself. She came, as time passed, to suspect this fact about me. I do not know that she had words to describe the fact to herself. Or she only had the easy words people gave her: wanting to have a job, sutdying law, doing something.

We went different ways in the world, as I have said, but I had with me always that image of the little girl on the waters of the bay, all the innocence and trustflness, under the stormy sky"

-All the King's Men (pg 467)

The Church as Exclusive; The Kingdom of God as Inclusive

"The church is not coextensive with the Kingdom of God, and in two respects..." (20 Reappropriating Niebuhr's C&C)

First, the church's inclusion of hypocrites and false prophets shows us that not everyone in the church is submitting to furthering the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus. At the same time, there are people outside of the church who have put God first in their lives and have dedicated their lives in service to Him, although they have not joined a church yet. But their lack of self-consciousness as a Christian does not in any way omit them from belonging to the Christian family.

It's like the quintessential "unofficial" artist. A man who loves to paint with wild colors and finds the most joy in the act of painting, yet does not refer to himself a painter. If that man did call himself a painter it would probably open up more possibilities. He would assume the identity in a new and exciting way, connect with other people who share the same passions, and create a platform to affect people with his art. In sum, the painter man would produce WAY more art with his newfound confidence and resources...all because he decided he would be a painter.

The analogy is incomplete in several ways, but I feel like it's similar to the way people love Christ but have not yet committed to being a part of the institutional church. Although they are undoubtedly living less effectively in the wrong identity, this does not mean their actions and influence is not furthering the Kingdom of God.

If we looked at things through this lens, I feel like we would move past the limited horizons of the "what's godly, what's not godly" discussion into the "lets make lasting stuff happen" decision. This writer's quote on the subject basically says what I just said in a better way times 100, in about a third of the length.

The influence of God's Kingdom has been spreading, bit by bit, wherever individuals, groups, nations, and transnational realities have been influenced for the better. In our day, for example, the increased profile of universal human rights in national and international politics--with particular attention to women, children, and the poor--is an example of the spread of the influence of the Kingdom of God incognito, so to speak. It is obvious that the international order is far from Christian in its identity and conduct. In that crucial sense it is clearly not the Kingdom of God. Nonetheless, the Kingdom of God is partially and mixedly, but also really, present in the extension of these values into spheres previously not deeply shaped by them.

We see the marks of the Kingdom of God, then, wherever light penetrates darkness, wherever good makes its way against evil or inertia, wherever beauty emerges amid ugliness or vapidity, and wherever truth sounds out against error or falsity. ,

We will be gardeners.

"What is most needed in our time are Christians who are deeply serious about cultivating and creating,  but who wear that seriousness lightly--who are not desperately trying to change the world but who also wake up every morning eager to create" (12).

According to Ken Myers, this nebulous undefinable thing we call culture is "our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it's given to us and make something else" (23).

And by making things, we shape the horizons of the possible.

Literally, nothing would be possible for human beings without culture. Everything from language to interstate highways to egg omelets is a product of cultivation and intentionality. Our existence here means we will be culture shapers.

...which is really cool, because embracing the responsibility to create culture is most central element of your human design. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it" (Gen 2:15). Andy Crouch in Culture Making says, "Without the task of gardening--cultivating, tending, ruling and creating using the bountiful raw material of nature--the woman and man would have nothing to do, nothing to be" (35).

We were always made to fulfill this noble, kind of exciting mandate to create, participate, and share. The question is, how will we go about doing it?

What's your "garden?"