I read somewhere recently (and I’m paraphrasing here), that “almost all of theology is spent trying to get around the Beatitudes.” The idea being that the whole of our faith can be summed up in Jesus’ simple to understand—yet immensely difficult to follow—preachings in the Sermon on the Mount, but that almost all of our theological efforts are spent trying to drum up “higher” or more complex ways of loving and worshipping God. There is a lot to here, but I’m going to do my level best to unpack it in a brief and concise manner.
The relationship to God changes the framework that you're setting up, here, Ben. Thought about this before responding. The theology, the study, and the active life of the Beatitudes follow the relationship, most of the time. That is, we can do those activity and contemplative things first, but eventually we need an in-the-moment, right now conversation with God within the study, acivity, and pondering.
It's my experience that many of us fall off the practice wagon if we don't fall in love, as you say, but in the next phase of love. Figuring out who God blows our minds. We rely upon a puppy love kind of thing that happens in retreats, but that passes quickly. We can just keep doing things that get that falling in love thing to happen. We need an actual love relationship that has us cooperating with God as brother, father, and Spirit.
It's the most difficult thing to explain, but experienciing the presence of God in both a personal and community way is the "thing." I'm not just talking about feelings, but an actual intervening, conversational, and even argumentative relationship.
Not criticising, here, just chatting about what I think you're reaching for.
The relationship to God changes the framework that you're setting up, here, Ben. Thought about this before responding. The theology, the study, and the active life of the Beatitudes follow the relationship, most of the time. That is, we can do those activity and contemplative things first, but eventually we need an in-the-moment, right now conversation with God within the study, acivity, and pondering.
It's my experience that many of us fall off the practice wagon if we don't fall in love, as you say, but in the next phase of love. Figuring out who God blows our minds. We rely upon a puppy love kind of thing that happens in retreats, but that passes quickly. We can just keep doing things that get that falling in love thing to happen. We need an actual love relationship that has us cooperating with God as brother, father, and Spirit.
It's the most difficult thing to explain, but experienciing the presence of God in both a personal and community way is the "thing." I'm not just talking about feelings, but an actual intervening, conversational, and even argumentative relationship.
Not criticising, here, just chatting about what I think you're reaching for.
I like your topics.