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journal | 2.5 identity and vocation

Today's thoughts contain part five of issues related to "being and doing".

To start a series of in-depth thoughts concerning some personal values/convictions, go here.

To start at the beginning of a chain of thoughts on "being and doing", go >here.

From there, you'll find links at the end of each post leading you to the next in line.

I hope this is helpful.

--Troy

Identity and Vocation

I’m reading through (once again) a one-volume work entitled Selected One-Act Plays of Horton Foote. As I thought about this topic of identity and vocation I found myself reflecting on the example Horton Foote sets us.

To give you an idea just who Horton Foote is, consider these words from the introduction of the book I’m reading. The plays contained in this volume were selected by Gerald C. Wood. In the introduction, Mr. Wood explains his fascination for and admiration of Horton Foote. First, he fills the reader in on the nature and scope of Horton Foote’s work:

“Since the early 1940’s the plays of Horton Foote have been praised for the truthfulness of their language and characterization, for their realistic portrait of the Coastal Southeast Texas he knows so well. They have been favorably compared with the dramas of Strindberg, Ibsen and Chekhov, and with the fiction of Flannery O’Connor, Katherine Anne Porter and William Faulkner. Now, as the deeply personal and universal qualities of the plays are being discovered, Foote’s work is taking its rightful place ‘near the center of our largest American dramatic achievements.’ He has been claimed as ‘America’s greatest playwright’ and ‘a national treasure.’ Although he is well known for his two Academy Awards for screenwriting…, the theater has been Foote’s abiding love.”

That last phrase is a statement of “vocation”: “the theater has been Foote’s abiding love.”

There are no fewer than 17 one-act plays contained in this volume. All of them are set in a fictional town Horton Foote created called Harrison, Texas. There are many other full-length and one-act plays (believe me: many others) that are not contained in this volume that Horton Foote has written which explore in greater detail the conflicts and inter-relationships of Harrison, Texas.

For example, Foote has written a series of 9 plays called The Orphans’ Home Cycle. This cycle deals entirely with the joys and sorrows of Harrison’s residents. The beauty of The Orphans’ Home Cycle lies in its adaptability. Consider:

1. Each play could be performed on its own. For example, the play 1918 makes a beautiful piece on its own. Alone, it treats on the interplay between suffering and courage.

or

2. One could group three of the plays together to form a trilogy. In this instance, the play 1918 would serve as a capstone, telling the final part of the story of Elizabeth Vaughn and Horace Robedaux. The first part relates their courtship and tells how Mr. Vaughn (Elizabeth’s father) resists his daughter’s interest in Horace. It is appropriately titled Courtship. The second part of the trilogy relates events surrounding Elizabeth’s and Horace’s first year of marriage. It deals in part with issues of reconciliation and is titled Valentine’s Day (to remind us that Elizabeth and Horace eloped one year before on that holiday). 1918, the third play in this “center” trilogy, relates a series of events touching on disease, war, death and control. It tells how Elizabeth and Horace lose their first baby to a terrible flu epidemic—and how they come close to death themselves.

or, believe it or not,

3. one could group three sets of three plays together to form a cycle of nine plays touching on the same town and the same characters, but from different vantage points.

Yes, a trilogy of trilogies. Now, this alone would be quite an achievement, but Horton Foote has many other plays (and even another series of plays called The Roads to Home) about this town and its people. What’s more, Mr. Foote does not allow sentiment to overburden his writing. In the words of Gerald Wood, Horton Foote “writes to discover, not to preach.” He says of Mr. Foote: “Rather than lecture his readers, he investigates with them the ‘great mystery’ about the sources of courage and personhood.”

And this too reflects the notion of vocation nicely, for Mr. Foote possesses not only a love for theater but a love for place and people.

But, among all that, there is still something more basic, more eternal, more foundational in Horton Foote’s writing and life that tells us he’s driven by true vocation. I’ll explain:

journal | 2.4 and more on being and doing

Today's thoughts contain part four of issues related to "being and doing".

To start a series of in-depth thoughts concerning some personal values/convictions, go here.

To start at the beginning of a chain of thoughts on "being and doing", go here.

From there, you'll find links at the end of each post leading you to the next in line.

I hope this is helpful.

--Troy

And more thoughts on being and doing

Part 3 ended with some thoughts concerning what one may do should one discover things in one’s soul that, left untended, will produce fruit in keeping with death. Remember: Jesus wants to do a new work in us, he wants to change us from the inside out. That’s what matters most.

But, that is not to say that the Christian experience of “conversion” changes one completely from the inside out. It is true that the newborn Christian often finds himself in possession of a new desire to walk in God’s ways. The new Christian suddenly realizes how it is possible to want to obey God (whereas before they could not fathom how one would choose freely to live that way). So, yes, it is true, the experience of “born again” Christians really does correlate to reality. There have been too many people throughout history who have experienced this phenomenon to just dismiss it as mere constructions of the psyche.

So, let us grant the fact that, at conversion, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in one's spirit, transforming them, yes, miraculously.

But, even with that admission, experience still tells us that the work of regeneration continues after conversion. We have noted: it is a continuous process.

And, we have been talking a lot about “integrity”: that God longs for the Christian to change from the inside for the better so that we can act in accordance with that internal transformation.

But this begs the question: what is one to do should one see things in one’s heart that have yet to be transformed? The principle of “immediate correspondence” seems to tell us that, if we are going to have “integrity” (that is, avoid becoming a hypocrite--by hiding who we really are) then we should just let out the darkness within.

But, let us remember: it is one thing to lead a life of integrity (where what you do corresponds accurately to who you are), but it is another to lead a life of holiness. And, I’m afraid, it’s holiness that God is after, not mere integrity.

Still, this is where holiness and integrity meet. If we are going to become more holy over time, we need to admit to others that we have things inside that need to be dealt with. In that light, we need to practice integrity. And, in doing that, we disarm the grip sin has on us. And, in doing that, we are able to become more holy. Remember: darkness cannot abide in the light. So, whenever we push into the light what we would keep hidden in the darkness, the object of our secrecy loses its power.

This is how integrity helps us become more holy. And this is one way, one road to healing those fatal wounds seated deep in our souls.

But, there is something else to consider too. There are other paths that lead to transformation as well. So, yesterday I concluded by stating, “It seems strange to say this now but the mystery is: sometimes doing shapes being.”

I’d like to explain a little more now what I mean by that and the limits of such a notion. To get at this other idea, however, I need to use a concept borrowed from the theatrical world. So…here’s a brief explanation that can serve as an analogy.

journal | 2.3 still more thoughts on being and doing

Today's thoughts contain part three of issues related to "being and doing".

To start a series of in-depth thoughts concerning some personal values/convictions, go here.

To start at the beginning of a chain of thoughts on "being and doing", go here.

From there, you'll find links at the end of each post leading you to the next in line.

I hope this is helpful.

--Troy

Still more thoughts on being and doing

Thus far we’ve noted that the matter of “being and doing” is an issue of correspondence between who we are and what we do, as individuals. We’ve stated the significance of this issue by looking at it in light of what Jesus wants to do in us, through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Specifically, Jesus doesn’t just want us to do good things; he wants us to be good, from the inside out.

Further, we’ve drawn distinctions with the issue of correspondence by stating that there are two sides concerned. One: there is a side that is more immediate, concerned with the here and now. Two: there is a side that concerns ultimate ends, what will come out over the long term or at the end of our lives.

We also hinted at the idea that the truly integrated person--the kind of person that lives a lifetime with integrity--does so through a long chain of immediate correspondences. That is, day in and day out their actions accord accurately with their internal state.

Thus, it is possible to:

1. Live with a sense of immediate correspondence and ultimate correspondence.
or
2. Live with delayed immediate correspondence but, eventually, ultimate correspondence.

Notice that, in any case, it is not possible to simply do away with the idea of ultimate correspondence. That is, though one may become expert at hiding one’s internal state, eventually the truth will come out.

We refer to the person in the first instance as possessing integrity and the person in the second instance as hiding temporarily. We noted that the longer one hides, the harder it is on everyone, themselves included.

We also gave a couple of examples to help us get a firmer hold on what this looks like.

But there are still more items to consider here. Specifically, this deals with the issue of transformation and its process. Remember: this whole business of “being and doing” concerns who we really are on the inside. And remember: Jesus is in the business of recreating us on the inside so that the good deeds we perform really do stem from pure motives, good hearts.

Behind all this, however, is an assumption. Behind all this, we are assuming that we need to change from the inside out, that our hearts need to be transformed.

Fair enough. Most people, upon taking even a cursory look at the state of their own soul, will tell you they’re not perfect, that from time to time they do bad things and from time to time they even do good things with bad motives.

Thus, we need a change of heart.

And, so far, I’ve only provided examples of two types of people:

1. The Mother Teresa’s of the world. These are the kind of people that are…well, shall we say?...so rare that we feel as though we cannot live like that. We think of them as “exceptions”, so we call them “exceptional”. We use them as examples of persons who have been transformed and who seem to continue living in a state of consistent, ongoing transformation, but we feel as though we cannot imitate them. And, we may be right.

But there was a second type of example:

2. The Fatalist. These are the kind of people that just throw up their hands and say, “Well, if I can’t be a Mother Teresa, I may as well just give in now and let evil desire have its way.”

So, we feel as though there are only two extremes open to us: the Stoic or the Epicurean. Either…

A. Strengthen your resolve like some sort of “superhuman” and just deal with the pain
or
B. “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.”

This begs the question: in light of the fact that God desires to transform us “with ever-increasing glory”, what is one to do when one becomes aware of this need to be transformed?

To answer this, let me relate a story told by Henri Nouwen in his book In the Name of Jesus. Bear in mind that in this story Henri Nouwen refers back to a time when he was a professor at Harvard. He writes:

journal | 2.2 more thoughts on being and doing

Some time ago, for a class assignment, I put some thought into the convictions that drive my life and ministry. I boiled it down to six statements and posted those on t(r)oymarbles. To read those, go here.

Some people expressed interest in knowing more what those statements were about, so I've taken the chance to unpack my convictions in a series of posts.

Today's thoughts contain part two of my second conviction dealing with being and doing.

To start the whole series from the beginning, go here.

To start at the beginning of my second conviction, go here.

From there, you'll find links at the end of each post leading you to the next in line.

I hope this is helpful.

--Troy

photos | communion and the sovereignty of God

On Saturday, we had communion at our Oasis Madrid service. I prepared the following short "video" to help folks prepare their hearts. Specifically, we used this as an aid to help people think about Christ's sacrifice in the context of God's sovereignty through the use of short pieces of Scripture. I hope you enjoy it.

--Troy

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