Lord won’t you tell us, tell us what does it mean

Lord won’t you tell us, tell us what does it mean April 18, 2013

Scott Paeth shares a quote from the great theologian Karl Barth on listening to the voice of God:

God may speak to us through Russian Communism, through a flute concerto, through a blossoming shrub or through a dead dog. We shall do well to listen to him if he really does so.

And that choice of examples struck me kind of funny, seemed kind of funny sir to me.

It reminded me of what another pretty good theologian once wrote about the silence of God:

God may speak to us, and if God does, we shall do well to listen. But if we stand there long enough, that dog still won’t get up and run.

Paeth’s post also includes theologian Miroslav Volf addressing the duty to find beauty in everything. “Can you find beauty in a rotting dog carcass,” the interviewer asks.

Volf responds: “To see beauty — to see also beauty … you need to attend to the shape of the self, which gives quality to your vision. And then you can see what may be otherwise, or what maybe others do not see.”

Or, in other words, “Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe.”


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