The Marker

The picture I chose for my new blogger title banner for a purpose. If you saw Rob Bell on tour last summer or have watched the "Everything is Spiritual" DVD, you probably already know where I'm going. Bell has a unique way of looking at things that really fits the way I think about things and often makes me wonder why his approach is so revolutionary.

As part of his long talks last summer, Bell used the illustration of the marker he held in his hand to show the difference between how people see things in three dimensions. He explained that if you look at a marker from the side, it appears to be a rectangle - a square with two long sides and two short sides. However, if you look at it from the front or the back, you see it as a circle. Any cylinder would have the same effect - a pop can or anything else similarly shaped. He asked how you would respond if someone asked you if it that marker was a rectangle or a circle - all you could say would be "Yup." He then made a simple theological example: predestination versus free-will. Is it possible that God looks down on all our bickering about black-and-white theological concepts and just says, "Yup."

Now, I have to be careful since I'm in candidacy limbo in a particular denomination that really likes the "black" of the "black-and-white" distinctions, but I have to say - is he that off base here? How small must our view of God be to say that his dealings with our world happen according to our pithy human philosophical and theological categories? And yet Bell comes away from this looking like a revolutionary....or a heretic.

What kind of micro-structured theological bio-dome have we created for our almighty God to live in? I think God makes sense - I think He's logical. I think we can trust the revelation of God in His word. I also think that you can still say you think that a Reformed or Wesleyan or Catholic way of looking at things is most consistent with God's revelation. But I don't think its out of line to say that, within the wideness of God's nature, there is at least the possibility of fuzzy categories - of individual discernment - of logic that surpasses our own. I think that's a good thing, not a heresy.