Perfectly Imperfect
by David Busic
Chapter 1
"In the very moment we affirm that 'everybody gos a heavenly Father,' we also affirms something else: biological or not, 'everybody also gos a brother.'"
"Every brother and sister shares something in common from our Father. It's an image."
"The image of God is relationality, which is to say, all love is relational."
" God is love. That truth is affirmed by all faith traditions, but it is foundational for Wesleyan-Holiness folks. The love of God is the lens through which we see all other attributes of the three-in-one God. The Trinity reminds us that before there was anything else, there was a holy fellowship of perfect love."
"So here's the logic: God places 'othere' in our lives, because we need them to help us to know him more personally."
"Love perfecting us from the image of God, back to the likeness of God."
"...no personal holiness without social holiness. ... no social holiness without personal holiness."
Thoughts: What happens when so many relationships are toxic? Others' actions are not responsible for our spiritual faith or growth, but we also, as relational creatures and dependent upon each other and God, can get burnt out and critical without a way to deal with and still be a testimony through toxic/destructive relationships. I would like to know how we do this ? How do we maintain holiness when it feels we are the end of our wick? What are the practical strategies and God-like testimonies on action in such situations? I don't want to be self-sacrificing nor seeking glory through martyrdom or do things to appear holy. But the Christian story is also not based on self-preservation. Where is that place where I find peace in Christ, stability
Chapter 2
Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see. -- C.S. Lewis
God - Gave a promise, overcame the problems
Abraham and Sarah - Created another problem
"Whenever we try and force God's will to happen in the way we think it should happen, we always create more problems!"
"God hears [Hagar's] unarticulated prayer!... Hagar doesn't even know what to pray, God comes to her anyway. God knows what's in her heart and loves her enough to come to her, even when she doesn't know how to come to him."
1-- "I know about your situation."
- Ishmael= God hears
- Of all sibling rivalries of Bible, this is not really one of them, yet the church today plays it up quite a bit.
"If you bail out your kids every time they have a need, then they're going to put their faith in you instead of me. And how can their faith in me ever deepen if they never have to depend on me for their help?"
Do you see the divine-human partnership? God is going to do something for Hagar's son, but Hagar has to be active in her son's life for God's work to be accomplished.
2-- "God answers her prayer by opening her eyes."
"God simply helped Hagar to look up from her grief long enough to see the provision that God had already created for her."
"God is perfectly capable of re-creating something to be what it used to be. But our God is also perfectly adept at creating something brand new that has never been!"
The answer is not a new life, a new wife, or a new set of circumstances. What we need is the grace to see that God has not given us a way around the problem but the strength to go through the problem.
"Lord, open my eyes to see what you've already provided but I just can't see yet."
"The prayer of Hagar serves as a reminder not to look for the spectacular deliverance of God until we have first looked for the common provision of God."
Spiritual discipline vs. Spiritual ecstasy
- "Don't wait around expecting God to do the extraordinary when God is perfectly willing to bless you in the ordinary."
- "Don't waste any time wishing for the exceptional and completely miss God's handiwork in the typical."
"It was my job to love him; it was God's job to change him."
Chapter 3
"The whole state of affairs was so knee-slapping hilarious and totally improbable that when it came time to name him, they decided to name him Laughter-- that is, Isaac. Or as my friend Jeff says, 'They called him Punch Line.'"
"If before God was asking him to give up his comfort and security, this time God was asking him to give up his dearest love and greatest joy."
"Hinneni-- 'Here I am'."
"Abraham believed that God would do what God had never done before, if that's what God to do to keep his promise."
"Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead' (Heb. 11:19)."
"When it comes to obeying God, no one can take your place."
"Many Bible scholars believe Isaac was actually a teenager..."
- typically weaned around 5 y/o
- "Some time later..."
- Josephus--> around 25 based on when Sarah died and her age at death could have been in early 30s
"Our Isaac is what has been one of God's good gifts to us. ...That that brings us the most joy and satisfaction and that we couldn't imagine living without."
- "We know what our Isaac is, because whenever it is threatened, or we are in danger of losing it, we either become very afraid or very angry."
- "It's what we try and control more than any other thing, even to the point of withholding it from God."
- "The greatest test of our faith is not letting go of our sin, our guilt, and our pain. ... The greatest test of our faith is whether I can trust God with what is most dear to me."
"That day God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit looked down on Abraham and Isaac and said, 'We can never ask them to sacrifice what we are not willing to give first. We will see to it."