I love this, Lisa. I wrote along similar lines about that same passage a few weeks ago. I love all the conclusions that you drew out of what the practical implications would be for living this out. And yes! As exiles we need the hope of a better future to empower our living in the here and now. I referenced a C.S. Lewis quote from his essay “Living in the Atomic Age” which says, “Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven must have served Earth best. Those who love Man less than God do most for Man.”
I think it applies here - the paradox of our faithfulness making us MORE likely to invest instead of less. Then you can get into how eschatology impacts this and that’s a whole other can of worms 😆
I can't think of many discussions more relevant than this. Our well-being is wrapped up in the flourishing of our place–its people, environment, economy, etc. And the people of a place generally know the needs and benefits of a place best, so it makes sense that we would become "the people of a place"! Chesterton writes in Orthodoxy that you must truly love something before you can be a critic of it. Wendell Berry says something similar. Too often we bypass Lover and jump straight to Critic, thinking this is the Christian thing to do.
I love getting your deeper look at this from your time in seminary and I look forward to learning from this discussion.
I love this, Lisa. I wrote along similar lines about that same passage a few weeks ago. I love all the conclusions that you drew out of what the practical implications would be for living this out. And yes! As exiles we need the hope of a better future to empower our living in the here and now. I referenced a C.S. Lewis quote from his essay “Living in the Atomic Age” which says, “Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven must have served Earth best. Those who love Man less than God do most for Man.”
I think it applies here - the paradox of our faithfulness making us MORE likely to invest instead of less. Then you can get into how eschatology impacts this and that’s a whole other can of worms 😆
I can't think of many discussions more relevant than this. Our well-being is wrapped up in the flourishing of our place–its people, environment, economy, etc. And the people of a place generally know the needs and benefits of a place best, so it makes sense that we would become "the people of a place"! Chesterton writes in Orthodoxy that you must truly love something before you can be a critic of it. Wendell Berry says something similar. Too often we bypass Lover and jump straight to Critic, thinking this is the Christian thing to do.
I love getting your deeper look at this from your time in seminary and I look forward to learning from this discussion.
This was so great. My husband and I are going to do this together, to engage with the Word in a way we don't usually!