The Reason for God

Several years ago my son Duff would often respond to diatribes with the statement, "One should be able to argue their opponents position as well as their own before they speak about that position."  It is true.  One should grapple with  another's viewpoint, one should be able to see why the 'opposition' holds that position and what are the merits of that position.  I think that is why I like Timothy Keller's book, The Reason for God, so very much.  He begins with the opposition, the merits of the objections to Christian faith, before he displays the love and teachings of Jesus.  As I have been reading this book, one of my son's favorite writers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is quoted.  I was struck by the beauty of these words so I will rewrite them here, in hopes that others will be ennobled by them as well.

  It is not a religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life.  That is metanoia (repentance): not in the first place thinking about one's own needs, problems, sins, and fears, but allowing oneself to be caught up into the way of Jesus Christ....Pain is a holy angel... Through him men have become greater than through all the joys of the world....The pain of longing, which often can be felt physically, must be there, and we shall not and need not talk it away  (I am reminded of Meredith's post, "In Praise of Grief" 

http://wheatie2011.blogspot.com)But it needs to be overcome every time, and thus there is an even holier angel than the one of pain, that is the one of joy in God.