Your daily goal:

Philippians 3:14  “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”   

(Monday-Friday, from my morning quiet time, I will write a short thought for that day which I pray God will use to motivate you to ‘GO’ for that day.  Your objective is simple…to GO…to GO OUT and share the love of Christ with someone in that day….to GO and bear fruit …to be light to the world.)

Today’s Daily Light

Biblical, Philosophical, and Emotional Reflections on a Perpetual Question

By:  Joe Rigney, Professor, Bethlehem College and Seminary

Confronting the Problem(s) with Evil          Part VI

The Philosophical Problem: God’s Will and Ours, and The Greater Good

Before exploring the analogy philosophically, it’s necessary to anticipate one of the chief objections to its use. Put simply, some might argue that the analogy breaks down because we human beings are more ‘real’ than fictional characters in a story. We have more existence than Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy (or Katniss, Peeta, and President Snow). The point is granted; in terms of being and reality, we have more substance than these fictitious persons.

But the triune God is more real than C. S. Lewis or Suzanne Collins. In fact, I’d suggest that the distance between real humans and the Pevensies is far less than the distance between Lewis and God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And this distance between human authors and the Divine author is what makes the distance between real persons and fictional characters largely irrelevant.

For therein lies the uniqueness and might of God’s creative power: when he invents a world other than himself, he makes it real and actual. Our fictional creations are phantasms, existing only in minds (or on pages or movie screens). But God’s creations have substance, really living and moving and having their being in him. As N. D. Wilson has written:

“[We are made of] words. Magic words. Words spoken by the Infinite, words so potent, spoken by One so potent that they have weight and mass and flavor. They are real. They have taken on flesh and dwelt among us. They are us.” (Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, 23–24)

It is because of God’s infinite, reality-causing power that the author-story analogy retains its potency, despite the vast distance between God’s creations and our own. It’s also this infinite power that forms one of the crucial steps in the philosophical problem of evil.

(3 more parts to go 😊)    work at it !

Father…I pray that in this 3rd week of a new year…that we see that we are making progress in spending more time with YOU in prayer and in Your word ‘so that’ we will be more inspired and motivated to be ‘light and love’ to the lost, dazed, and confused around us.  And if we are not making progress….then help us to ask ourself ..”what are we waiting for?”   Help us to see the wonderful opportunity that each of us has each new day to be light and love for your glory.   Amen

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