What We're All About...

One of the great things I learned in college was logic. In our Theology 2 course, we had to memorize all of the rules of logic and the various rules that governed what could be logical and what wasn't. One of the best rules I learned about was called the "fallacy of origins" which is also known as the "Genetic Fallacy."

A definition....
Genetic Fallacy (Fallacy of Origins, Fallacy of Virtue):

if an argument or arguer has some particular origin, the argument must be right (or wrong). The idea is that things from that origin, or that social class, have virtue or lack virtue. (Being poor or being rich may be held out as being virtuous.) Therefore, the actual details of the argument can be overlooked, since correctness can be decided without any need to listen or think.

The reason that I bring this up is that my husband has a way of finding good in things that you wouldn't expect. The same way I find treasures in the midst of a junky garage sale, he finds treasures of truth from a controversial musical artist, a movie, or a book. I love this about him. While everyone else is expecting garbage, filth and the like, he is fully expecting to find things that are true and lovely and of good report in the most unexpected places. A good example of this is his post about a song out right now by Eminem. He turned on the radio one day, flipped through the channels (probably because the Christian radio station was all "Yack Yack Yack " and no music, but I digress) and heard this song about the struggle to balance family and work. The theme was something he could relate to. It garnered a really weird conversation on the blog that just left him shaking his head....me too.

This is going to be long post.

Some people who read our blogs don't know us. They don't know that we have devoted our entire married life (and before that) to doing whatever God calls us to do. If that meant teaching in a Christian school, or pastoring a church, or leading a youth group, or moving across the country to start a new church, then we do it. We give up friends, family, comfort, security, whatever it takes, to introduce people to this Jesus that we love with our whole selves. While sinlessness escapes us until eternity, the broad strokes of our lives together are painted in obedience to Christ.

We expect our God to do rightly in the world, and we see his work and his truth everywhere, even in unexpected places. It's hard to always be filtering, always be thinking, always be discerning, but we endeavor to attach ourselves to anything that is good, truthful, beautiful, just, honest, excellent, of good report, and holy. The other stuff, we don't think about. When people say things that are ugly or untrue...we ignore it and leave a little something for the Holy Spirit to do on their conscience and walk with God. When movies lack excellence, we look for something redeeming, cling to that, and abhor the rest. When a song says something true, we say "That's good stuff." We don't have what a dear, gracious Professor and friend calls "The gift of negativity." We don't expect to be attacked for our values by the world at every corner, and we don't lift up as good what is merely lackluster and subpar or worse, nasty. Last we checked, at the end of THE BOOK, God wins, so we feel pretty optimistic about how things are going.

Yes, it takes some energy. But this is the world we live in, and we do not ascribe to the assumption that we can just huddle up with Christian friends, Christian music, Christian books and movies and candy and T-shirts and greeting cards, breath mints and whatever else they want to slap a Jesus-fish on. We're in it, but not of it. That's our understanding of what we're supposed to do and we're trying to live that out. We give other Christians time and room to grow in their own understanding of how to live and respect all decisions based on faith and not fear. I know that this little explanation will not stop the criticism from other Christians who think that we are worldly, immature, lazy, foolish, shocking, etc. etc. But I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to just reiterate for those who read us, what we are about.

Grace and peace to you all.