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By Andy, June 13, 2009 12:03 am

For as long as I can remember, I was a San Francisco Giants fan. More so than any other Bay Area sports team, including the 49ers, the black and orange of the Giants has taken root deep in my soul.  From the bright orange road jerseys of the 1978 team with manager Joe Altobelli, to the 1981 and 1982 Frank Robinson teams (especially the 1982 team that gave the NL West to the Braves), the 1985 team that lost 100 games, the resurgence in the late 80s with Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell and Jeffrey “One Flap Down” Leonard, the near-move to Tampa in 1992, the signing of Barry Bonds in 1993, and the ill-fated 2002 World Series, the black and orange have been a large part of my life from childhood to adulthood. The Giants have been the team by which I choose to enjoy the game of baseball.

If baseball is a house complete with a large hallway with many rooms, I found myself in the hallway knocking on the door that led to the Giants.  Some of you found doors that led to the Cardinals, or the Athletics, or the Pirates, or the Cubs.  And others of you who I would deem to be a bit misguided knocked on the doors of the Yankees or (gasp) the Dodgers.

Each door, however, leads to a variation on the same theme…baseball.  We’ve merely chosen to enjoy the game from a slightly different perspective - with different “laundry” as Jerry Seinfeld would say.

Our Christian lives are no different.

It  (mere Christianity) is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meal. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at.  I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.  When you do get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise….

…When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall.  If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them.  That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

C.S. Lewis, from the Preface to Mere Christianity

Hmmm.

I guess Dodger fans need my prayers all the more.  ;-)

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By Andy, January 26, 2007 6:11 am

The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me ’till I’m sane
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There’s someone in my head but it’s not me.

Pink Floyd, “Brain Damage”

My brain hurts right now. I am in the second chapter of the compilation edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor titled Suffering and the Sovereignty of God - messages originally given at the 2005 Desiring God conference - and I feel like I’ve got Roger Waters’ lunatic in my head - because the theological discussions about the nature of God and His role in suffering are making my head spin.

It wasn’t that long ago that I first heard of the term “open theism“. As described in the book according to Mark Talbot, open theism addresses…

…how our free wills and our responsibility are related to God’s will and the evils we suffer and see. Open theists want to take God off the hook for the kinds of evil that we do. They explain these evils by claiming that God can’t prevent them without restricting or destroying our freedom. But, they claim, God doesn’t do that because he takes our freedom to be so valuable. He takes our freedom to be so valuable that he is willing to pay the price of there being all sorts of human suffering that is caused by our misuse of it.

The linked Wikipedia entry states that

Open Theism makes the case for a personal God who is able to be influenced through prayer, decisions, and actions of people. Although unknowing of the future, God has predictive (anticipatory) foreknowledge of the future through his intimate knowledge of each individual. As such, he is able to anticipate the future, yet remains fluid to respond and react to prayer and decisions made either contrary or advantageous to His plan or presuppositions.

I must admit this makes sense from a human perspective, and would likely make explaining human suffering much easier to a non-believer. Yet does this not then also presuppose that God is not all-knowing and therefore not the omniscient God we know Him to be? Does this mean that God does not know the future, and doesn’t have a plan for us?

Taken another step further, then why does He allow for suffering? I certainly don’t anticipate that we will come up with the answer here, as we’re all amateur theologians at best and hacks at worst (or maybe I should simply describe myself that way without speaking about the rest of you). And that question has led me to read these sorts of books, whether this one, or Lewis’ The Problem of Pain (which, admittedly, I need to re-read), or even the Book of Job - perhaps the best book on suffering - which I finished late last week.

How do we marry our free will with God’s will? How do you know that what your doing is ordained by God? I think I’m getting somewhat better at it, but I know I miss the signs all the time, not unlike being a teen, standing on 1st base, and completely missing the sign to steal 2nd.

If a non-believer asked you the question about suffering…how would you explain it? I’m not sure where I could begin.

The lunatic, surely, is in my head.