the unlearned voice
Forrest, my brother(in-law) posted this comment on one of my previous posts, but I thought it was so good, I thought I'd put it up here for those who might not venture to the 'comments' section.
Forrest writes:
The issue of how the culture we live in affects how we view God and religion really strikes a chord in me. It's obvious to me that we are light years away from a garden, with simple communion with God, contentment, and simplicity. As adanced as we are tecnologically, and as easy it is to communicate, it's frightening how deficient we have become relationally.
Our three-and-a-half month old son has recently begun to try to talk to us (keyword: try). Granted, he's far away from being able to form words, much less sentences, but lately he has started grunting and vocalizing in such a way that it's obvious he's trying to communicate, or at least imitate. As we've experienced this, I've often wondered if I could make the same noises that he makes. I don't just mean generic grunts and coos and murmurs, I mean truly unlearned, unpracticed, and unpurposed noises. I realized that I know so much about how to speak, what to say, how to say it, and that my tongue has been conditioned so completely with a limited language of appropriate, "English-sounding" sounds that even if I tried, I couldn't make a purely untaught, undisciplined, or unintentional sound.
I bring this up only because it seems the same in the area of spirituality. We have been so thoroughly conditioned by the world we live in, we have lost a great deal of the spontenaity, poverty, and simplicity that is required to really approach God in a meaningful way. But should we really be surprised? This idea is directly consistent with the fall of man and the by-product is the broken world in which we live.
My hope and belief is that we are not beyond recovery. God created us with an inifinite capacity to think and advance and I would wager that He knew exactly what He was doing. It's such a challenge, though, to try and put aside these ingrained habits and inclinations, especially when our culture and world puts so much emphasis on them.
Forrest writes:
The issue of how the culture we live in affects how we view God and religion really strikes a chord in me. It's obvious to me that we are light years away from a garden, with simple communion with God, contentment, and simplicity. As adanced as we are tecnologically, and as easy it is to communicate, it's frightening how deficient we have become relationally.
Our three-and-a-half month old son has recently begun to try to talk to us (keyword: try). Granted, he's far away from being able to form words, much less sentences, but lately he has started grunting and vocalizing in such a way that it's obvious he's trying to communicate, or at least imitate. As we've experienced this, I've often wondered if I could make the same noises that he makes. I don't just mean generic grunts and coos and murmurs, I mean truly unlearned, unpracticed, and unpurposed noises. I realized that I know so much about how to speak, what to say, how to say it, and that my tongue has been conditioned so completely with a limited language of appropriate, "English-sounding" sounds that even if I tried, I couldn't make a purely untaught, undisciplined, or unintentional sound.
I bring this up only because it seems the same in the area of spirituality. We have been so thoroughly conditioned by the world we live in, we have lost a great deal of the spontenaity, poverty, and simplicity that is required to really approach God in a meaningful way. But should we really be surprised? This idea is directly consistent with the fall of man and the by-product is the broken world in which we live.
My hope and belief is that we are not beyond recovery. God created us with an inifinite capacity to think and advance and I would wager that He knew exactly what He was doing. It's such a challenge, though, to try and put aside these ingrained habits and inclinations, especially when our culture and world puts so much emphasis on them.
posted by justin at 9:27 AM
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