it's something Vincent Donovan wrote. he wrote them long ago but his words are resonating with me now. he spent a long time in Tanzania as a missionary. i've read some of the accounts of his work with the Masai tribe and it's pretty amazing. i'm intrigued so much by this guy from an obscure religious order that i'd like to add his book, Christianity Rediscovered to my reading list one day.
anyway, here is what he that's kind of been swimming around in my soul.
"Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to ask questions about the work we have inherited or the work we are doing.
There is no question that should not be asked or that is outlawed.
The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all."- Vincent J. Donovan
the greatest mistake of all.
because we would be dead wrong.
we would be saying stop. it's done. all finished. no more. this is it.
here is the painting to end all paintings. how absurd.
just like Rob Bell suggested in his 1st book which seems like AGES ago, Velvet Elvis. i just looked back at the chapter or "movement" called Jump because i was in a creative meeting for something called "Jump", searched it on my computer and my notes from the book popped up. (that's just how my brain works.)
i'll leave you with this thought that i hope i never forget:
“The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody we made up.”
and that is simply no good. at all.
