More on the "gut" and the greasemonkey...

Now, before you think: great - Alan's goes off to England for a few months and comes back believing in the paranormal, let me explain myself.  I know all this talk about visions and demons and the like is uncomfortable.  Especially for people tend toward the intellectual side of Christianity instead of the emotional/experiential side.  But it shouldn't be any more uncomfortable than anything you'd find in the book of Acts - demon possessions, visions, miraculous healings - it's all there.

If all goes as planned, I'll be able to explound to you my thoughts from the past week in an organized, understandable fashion.  Of course, the last time I posted, things did *not* go as planned.  In fact, just after I finished posting, my internet failed and I migrated outside my house where I sometimes get better reception (...I shamelessly steal the signal from my brother's house next door...).  As soon as I got outside, I realized the door behind me was locked, and my Ma was already long asleep.  FAIL.  I still didn't have internet access either, so all I could do was talk to myself while the wireless amoebas decided to start doing their job again.  (...they did...)

Anyways, I've been doing a good deal of thinking and dialoguing with a friend of mine on the whole unseen/spiritual/gut thing, or whatever you want to call it.  Twas a grand expedition (*almost* as good as Pooh's Expotition to the North Pole), and in the end we came to some satisfying conclusions.  Of course, the best part was the application dance....which looks like this: 

Some conclusions and speculations:

1. All sorts of people do have these experiences.  you can attribute it to some undigested bit of corn if you wish, but plenty of people who would have no reason to make up these sorts of stories just to feel like "special christians" - have these experiences, dreams, "gut knowings" as one of my friends puts it.  Choose to dismiss them all as coincidence, wishful thinking, or lies if you wish - I'm of the camp that believes they really happen (not that ALL the stories are true, of course).  And I wasn't in that camp until I sat down and actually thought about it.

2. They don't happen to everyone.  I know this because they don't happen to me, and never have.  If they are real though, should I want them to happen to me?  Three days ago, I would have said yes:  it's the whole "faith like a child bit" - I should open my mind more to the idea of unseen signs and direction and then God may use that method to reach me.  Now I've changed my mind, though (thanks, trusty dialogue partner).  more on this in a bit...

3. As I mentioned last time, these things seem to happen more often in places like Africa and the Amazon.  It makes sense to me that this is largely because our culture has almost entirely wiped out the concept of the spiritual world.  The influence of the Enlightenment philosophers and the scandal of the Salem Witch Trials didn't help the situation too much.  But this is not the case in Africa or the Amazon - the spiritual world is very much a part of daily reality - and they know it.  Are there more demons in Africa than in America?  I have no idea, but if demons are at all shrewd (which we have every reason to believe [Gen. 3]), they will probably want to go as unnoticed in our materialistic world as they want to go noticed in say, Africa.  In his preface to Screwtape, Lewis says this: "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

4.  But enough about demons.  Why should I not want to tap into this whole vision / revelation bit, if I believe it really happens?  Why should I not want to have "gut knowings"? In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells the folks he's writing to to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy..."  Now we figured this had something to do with the visions and gut knowings and such we've been talking about.  I can't give you the whole conversation, or you'd be reading this post for a few days more than you've already read if for...but here's a snippet -

thetalkingmouse:

So what you're suggesting is that if you aren't the vision type, it might not have anything to do with christian maturity or levels of belief...

but rather there are certain types that God uses visions and such for and others he doesn't.  Just like there are some people God uses to care for the children and others to care for the elderly...

neither is better or worse -but we should be willing at least, even if we aren't the vision types, to accept that certain people ARE.  

Believe them, but not go around looking for visions ourselves.

Oytak:

Yes.  That's what I mean.

I mean, Paul asks himself, "Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?" etc.  And what he really emphasizes are the three Christian cardinal virtures.  Which are vital to Christian maturity.

...Anyway, I suppose the conclusion I'm coming to is that God gives certain gifts to certain people, and it's probably not a good idea to "try harder" to "open our minds" in order to attain a gift that might not be designed for us?

...And I suppose the real test of a gift is whether or not it glorifies Christ; otherwise, there's major reason to doubt its validity.

So we all ought to be striving toward Faith, Hope, and Love, and cultivate the gifts God *does* give us.

And perhaps He just gives more emotional-based people gifts that speak more plainly to them? (aka more abstract gifts?) and to more reasoning-based people gifts that correpsond more to their midns (aka more instructive/expository gifts?)

...And perhaps some "visions" are just one time things.

5. The leg bone's connected to the...knee bone (!)

A good friend of mine is like me, in that she revels in the intellectual power of Christianity - in the nuances of the text, the brilliance of the imagery, the literary and historical genius of God's plan.  Her roommate two years ago, though was one of the types that's always stressing the experiential part of Christianity instead of the intellectual...in the end, she says, it was good for them both.  Strange at times, but good.  

Which means it's time for....

The truth is, we need both sides.  Not just individually, but as a group.  Right now, the "vision" type people mostly flock through charismatic church doors, and the intellects stay seated in their non-handclapping pews.  We need to do something about that - and it starts with people like you (that's right, you) and me either opening up more toward the intellectual side of faith or the emotional one, depending on which side of the spectrum you occupy.

And that can be exciting, really.  It's the thrill that we "intellectual Christians" get when we read a book like Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz.  Something that reminds us, even if only briefly, that spirituality isn't just about theology and whether or not suffering is a by-product of choice or what Bonhoeffer should have done if he was given a direct shot at Hitler.  It's about love, grief, hope, despair - raw emotion.

And I haven't even mentioned what this all has to do with greasemonkeys...