The Normal Human Life

I have already addressed my personal issues with the whole idea that conversations with God occur mostly in the heart of the believer, and I’ve also touched briefly on the idea that man was created expressly for communication with God. Now I would like to investigate one idea further.

On page 18, Willard states that “the normal human life God intended for us” involves “God’s indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship.” This gets into two basic ideas that Willard will investigate more deeply further along in his book. The first is that the example that we are given to follow for our manhood is Christ; and the second is that nothing in creation exists apart from the thought and spoken word of God.

I know these are very intellectual concepts, but I’m hoping that in some small way I can make them a bit more understandable. Let’s take the first idea – Christ is the perfect example of what it means to be a man. On the surface, this seems like a truth that all believers recognize and apply in their daily living. After all, isn’t that the goal of every true believer – to do what Jesus would do? But look at the idea a bit more deeply, and I think we will sense a bit of a defensiveness against the concept. The point could be made that Christ was 100% divine as well, fully God and fully man indwelling a single human form. I think that the point that Willard is making here is that Christ, God and man indwelling a single human body, is exactly what God would have EACH of us to be. When we say that Christ acts within us, that we have Jesus in our hearts, that we belong to God even, we become vessels prepared for God’s indwelling. And this is perfection – what Willard refers to as “the normal human life God intended for us.”

The second idea that this gets at is that nothing exists apart from the thought and spoken word of God. Willard will go more in depth on this idea later – referring to creation and the fact that God called into being (with spoken word) each object in existence. This idea of nothing existing apart from the mind of God is one I think we will not fully be able to grasp in our finite minds, because it is about God’s infinitude. It is a concept that confused me as a teen, because logic would move us towards the ever popular “I think therefore I am” – so do we exist only in the mind of God? This calls into question the very reality of our existence (we are a figment of God’s imagination). However, I think the only proper thing to realize when we get to this point in our musings is that the mind of God is infinitely greater than the finite mind of man. While what I imagine has no substance or structure, in fact, ceases to exist the moment it slips from my mind, what God imagines IS.

Anyway, that’s a lot of heady stuff for this morning. I am hoping it might instigate a bit of conversation or thought…