Discussion on Echoes of the Voices of God

I am currently reading a great little book called Simply Christian, by N.T. Wright. The book has been split into three sections. the first is an exploration of  “Echoes of a Voice”. The voice, or rather the echo, of God.

He goes onto split this section into four distinct echoes. They are Justice, Spirituality, Relation(ships), and Beauty (creation).  I will go on and tell of my views and or feelings of these different echoes.

As I read on the first echo of justice I felt my soul stir somewhat. How many times have we ever felt that the world is an unjust place? Where does that feeling come from? Are we taught this or is it more? I feel that we are programmed by God into this realisation so that we tend want to live in peace with those around us. It’s not like we are going to go to jail if we talk bad about another person, or if we talk down to people trying to make ourselves feel more important or “better-than-you” ish. I feel that as we do that, and we all have at sometime, we still feel in our inmost being that something isn’t right about it. This is of course a justice issue on a very small scale. How about the larger ones. A large corporation forces smaller “mom and pop” business to close their doors. A government takes advantage of it’s populace. The rich getting richer while the poor get poorer sometimes to the point of death. We feel in our core beings the same things heard on school ground round the world, “That’s not fair.” This is how God’s voice echoes out Justice in our hearts and minds.  

On the echo of spirituality. For many generations there has been a stifling of spirituality. Many people are longing for something but they don’t know what. And as more people look for it they start to find it. I’m not talking just about Christianity here. There has been an upswing in the number of “spiritual” things, from form of religion to store bought products. And all too often, since people are longing for this, someone will figure out how to make money from it. Just think of the ads on TV. How many products do they sell claim to be good for your “body and soul”? I think that only true spirituality will ease the hunger that wrongly draws our wallets to the god of consumerism.

For the echo of Beauty, I found it harder to read as it didn’t really pull on me too much. Yes, I too can easily feel closer to God when out on a hike, or looking at the stars, or hearing the birds, smelling the spring rain.  But it doesn’t give me a notion of what God wants me to do or that God is actually talking to me through his creation. For me it’s more of a presencing effect, like God is just there in His creation. Sort of like when my wife and I just hang out in a room, I might be reading a book and she might be knitting, we aren’t doing the same thing, and might not even be talking, but we are still enjoying each others company.

The echo of relation for me seams to be a hinge point for all the others. I feel as though being in relation with God or others also bring with it all the other echos. We are a people who hate to be alone. We may pull away into solitude evreyonce in awhile but we still long to have company with friends or family. I feel like this is the one thing that can really change the world if done right. This is where justice is affected by relations. If we want true justice then we have to treat our relationships with respect. Not just our freinds and family, but our employers/employees. Our country, other countries. Our environment. Think of how the world would change if we took relationships with everything  seriously. Not making ourselves bigger than the next guy but rather helping them out.

Any way…these are my thoughts and feelings on the first part of this book.  I will post other thoughts and feelings on the other parts as I delve into it some more.