For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been His counselor?
Or who has given a gift to Him
that He might be repaid?”
or who has been His counselor?
Or who has given a gift to Him
that He might be repaid?”
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 10:32-36
When Ali first came to live with us, his writing drove me crazy and it did not make any sense at all to my poor linear logic mind. While Americans assume that sequential thinking process which builds straight to the point is correct, Far-Easterners prefer spiral or non-linear logic that encompasses a holistic perspective and results in an analysis that is more systemic, circular and interactive.
This is something I care about, the linear bit. I got up at 3:30 this morning so that I could walk dozens of stumbling literary analysis through the thesis•support•detail•support•detail•conclusion structure. I can remember my blank stare as Ali swirled his pen over the paper explaining his thinking.
And quite honestly, Romans thus far seems to swirl around and around with contradictory phrases that smash up against one another incomprehensibly. And irrationally. And how can I base my life on this?
But I do remember the Big Idea (yes, I have written The Big Idea over and over already this morning). Where does it end up? What is the point, the grand summation of all of that systemic spirals?
And here it is: God will have mercy on all. And yep, His ways are unsearchable and inscrutable and there is a lot of hardening of hearts and partial hardening of hearts to open the pathway for others to enter and chopping and grafting and regrafting. And it is a mystery. But the punchline is For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
All things. Especially glory. Forever. Amen.
When Ali first came to live with us, his writing drove me crazy and it did not make any sense at all to my poor linear logic mind. While Americans assume that sequential thinking process which builds straight to the point is correct, Far-Easterners prefer spiral or non-linear logic that encompasses a holistic perspective and results in an analysis that is more systemic, circular and interactive.
This is something I care about, the linear bit. I got up at 3:30 this morning so that I could walk dozens of stumbling literary analysis through the thesis•support•detail•support•detail•conclusion structure. I can remember my blank stare as Ali swirled his pen over the paper explaining his thinking.
And quite honestly, Romans thus far seems to swirl around and around with contradictory phrases that smash up against one another incomprehensibly. And irrationally. And how can I base my life on this?
But I do remember the Big Idea (yes, I have written The Big Idea over and over already this morning). Where does it end up? What is the point, the grand summation of all of that systemic spirals?
And here it is: God will have mercy on all. And yep, His ways are unsearchable and inscrutable and there is a lot of hardening of hearts and partial hardening of hearts to open the pathway for others to enter and chopping and grafting and regrafting. And it is a mystery. But the punchline is For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
All things. Especially glory. Forever. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment