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Wonderful! I'm so glad the Door picked this up. I don't know why anyone would be attracted to an understanding of the bible that closed off possibilities rather than expanding territory for exploration and wonder.
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Sarah Dylan Breuer
SarahLaughed.net

"We live as though the world were what it should be, to show it what it can be."
-- Angel, "Deep Down," Angel Season 4

"I have my own opinions about the work I've done at Real Live Preacher, but I've come to understand that what happens when the written word meets the reader is beyond my understanding or control. Sometimes I'm not completely happy with a piece - maybe I never got comfortable with it or maybe I stopped being able to hear it before it was done - but then I find out that it meant something to someone. I'm always humbled and amazed by this."

I strongly recommend Wassily Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art.  He was a turn-of-the-century artist, friends with Arnold Schoenberg (the composer).  In Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky writes about what he calls inner necessity - that need we have to express ourselves, that is borne out in the act of creation.  He says that, if we create art (of any kind) at that moment of inner necessity, then it will truly express what we are attempting to convey.  He also states that it is necessary for an audience of a work to lay aside their own baggage when taking in art, because it is only in doing so that one may experience the truth conveyed in the work as presented.

It's a great read - I read it when I was a third-year music major, studying Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony for one of my senior theory classes.  Then I wrote a paper on it, because I liked it so much and it made so much more sense than Schoenberg's book (which I still haven't read from start to finish).

-Janna (who has always held that it should be impossible to have a static meaning for any work of art, since everyone has different baggage)

Mover, Maker, Changer, unbreak me once again. Beautify me... I want to be fully Yours. - JH 2005
Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all of Your waves and breakers have swept over me. - Psalm 42:7

rlp... good article.. question for you.. i am contemplating going to baylor for seminary.... among several others...how conservative is texas about women in ministry?

"Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. (Mat 13:13)

-Josh Jasper

i like this line you wrote: “Is there a vocabulary that can communicate the soul-jarring collision that occurs when emotion meets intellect and intuition struggles against wisdom?” ..i like it so much that I forgive your mockery of how I used to be…or maybe still am…or maybe I’m somewhere in between….believing what I’ve always thought was true and believing my own truth as I seek God’s wisdom using every ounce of emotion, intellect and intuition…. because life really is too complicated for absolute truths. but anyway, your words are beautiful not only in syntax and rhythm but in the emotions they stir…; perhaps the mocking tone I hear is my own voice reflecting my distaste for my old self…Surely your words are too beautiful to mock, too deep to do anything but fire our imaginations and fill our minds with new possibilities. Surely.

Oh! The sheer envy (I know, it's a sin) I feel at you being published in the Door! But I miss Yaconelli -- I would have loved to be in there during that era.

Preach it, Brother Gordon. :) And sometimes, even if you aren't happy with a piece, it is still exactly what someone else needs to hear...

I liked it the first time I read it over a year ago. I like it even more now. I thought I remembered that you labored over this essay in some way. I looked back through the archives. I was correct. Here's a line from the post that preceded the Mark Twain post. "In writing, sometimes beauty is born from destruction. I need to see this through to the end." You've followed through.

Well, I shared this on my Blog yesterday, and the response has been wonderful...Thank you so much for giving me permission to post your article. As we struggle to dig deeper into the word, it's fascinating to take a step back and say to ourselves..."I will never understand this...ever." And yet dig we must. I sometimes find myself asking, "how in the world will I ever get any of this?" I feel railroaded by the very thing I am trying to comprehend...Mark Twain...yes indeed.

Just wanted to say that this is probably the finest essay on the mystery of God's word that I have read. I am wary (and weary) of anyone who says that they understand the Bible or that they can find answers there. All I find are questions.

I'm afraid I can't manage to understand it all either. I'm happy to come away with a tidbit or two now and then. Even in those cases, it's simply my understanding. I'd never presume to offer that as unversal understanding or belief to someone else.

I don't feel as bad knowing someone else sees it the same way. Well written. And thanks.

I love this essay. It makes me realize how cocky I sound when I say things like that. I really try not to, but I was indoctrinated from my youth and sometimes that stuff just flies out of my mouth. Thanks for taking me down a peg! :)

Also, I hadn't had a chance to completely peruse the latest Door (I think I told you about the whole "stinky ink" thing), so when I saw this posted online I ran and grabbed it off the coffeetable. You are the best ad the Door ever had!

Rock on, preach. Love ya. V

I just wanted you to know that I've read all your essays, from the very beginning of the blog (though I don't think I've ever commented before now), and "Mark Twain" was one of my absolute favorites. So thanks for laboring over it, and I'm glad someone picked it up finally.