Someone said . . .
Thursday, March 15, 2007
In our discussion last night, someone’s comment (I don’t even remember who) hit me later after I got home. I don’t know if this is what they actually said, or meant, or if this thought is simply a way I continued on from what was said.
But either way, part of the discussion was about “losing one’s salvation” and the reoccurring discussion of “falling from grace.” I was saying that I think it is rather hard to do that, and the language of “rejecting” God’s salvation came up too. Someone raised that point . . . and maybe it just took me a while to catch the significance of what was being said.
But anyway, the thought that occurred to me is that there is great significance in the language. When I lose something it is always not intentional. If I lose my keys, it is while I was trying not to lose them. I lose things through stupidity, lack of vigilance, or simple unfortunate circumstances (like my keys slipping out of my pocket). I never lose anything deliberately.
To talk about “losing one’s salvation” raises the fearful specter of our relatedness to God slipping away while one has all the intention of holding on to it. Is that an accurate way to describe what could happen? I don’t think so. There is no peace of God in the daily fear that at any moment, while trying to hold onto God’s gift, I might lose it unexpectedly. This is perhaps where the language of ‘rejection’ is more accurate. Certainly, I face many moments when the issue is will I reject God’s ways, but that is completely different.
I still believe that it is hard to be lost in the sense that it is not what happens while we are seeking God, and suddenly we find that God excludes us. I’m not sure that God really ever excludes us, but that rather we exclude ourselves and God doesn’t over-rule our rejection by forcing us to accept.
