{"id":425,"date":"2007-06-02T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-02T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2007\/06\/fuzzy-theology\/"},"modified":"2007-06-02T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-02T22:40:00","slug":"fuzzy-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2007\/06\/fuzzy-theology.html","title":{"rendered":"Fuzzy Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Once while I was traveling in a van full of mendicants through North Carolina I had what can only be described as a once in a lifetime experience. We were on the interstate somewhere between Winston-Salem and Greensboro looking for a turn-off to find some little camp in the High-Point area. It was the middle of the night, had to be two or three in the morning. We were hoping to get close enough to our destination that we could find a motel room and crash until mid-morning then make the show and do our thing. It\u2019s the sort of itinerary that musicians take great pride in and normal people have the good common sense to never attempt. But there we were anyway.<\/p>\n

We used to travel with a little TV\/VCR combo in our van. We used to call it the time sucker because it could make a fifteen hour drive seem like eight. I had made a little wooden shelf that had two front legs and in place of the two back legs there were these two little finishing nails which stuck down a few inches. They would fit down into a little storage space about knee-high in the center of the dash and the whole thing was remarkably stable. The TV set sat on that shelf. That way, I\u2019m ashamed to say, the driver could watch the movie along with the rest of the passengers. I must have watched 200 movies from that driver\u2019s seat over the course of 7 years. This shelf was somewhat of a conversation piece when we would meet up with friends new and old on the road. It was a fine piece of jimmy-riggin\u2019 if I do say so myself \u2013 the perfect invention \u2013 the right tool for the job.<\/p>\n

We were in the middle of some movie, the title escapes me, when our road manager David switched off the power to the radio, (we piped the sound through the radio so everyone could hear). We could all hear the tell-tale sound of a tire going down on the right rear of the van. We pulled over and hopped out to survey the damage. This was nothing new to us. We had changed at least a half-dozen tires over the years of traveling. But we soon realized that we only had only one flashlight in the van and it didn\u2019t have batteries. It was overcast so there was no moon to help us out. The strobing headlights of the oncoming cars had this blinding effect on us, closing our pupils when we needed them wide open. It wasn\u2019t looking good.<\/p>\n

Holding our assembly of cell phones together we tried to illumine the tire to no avail. The blue glow was a bit mesmerizing but was no real help. \u201cWhat about the T.V.,\u201d somebody suggested. The next thing you know, four grown men are standing alongside a major interstate highway in the middle of the night trying to change a tire by the light of a T.V. \u201cPut it on the white-fuzzy stuff, that\u2019s about the brightest thing there is,\u201d certainly this was the next nugget of wisdom from the Einstein whose idea it was to pull the T.V. off it\u2019s notorious perch, stretch the cords as far as they would reach and point them toward the right flank of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

I remember thinking that if we didn\u2019t die from getting hit by some rubber-necking passerby trying to figure out what show we were watching, we were going to get arrested for being stupid. But we got the tire changed and finally found a place to crash. As it turns out, TV fuzz saved the day.<\/p>\n

Two things I learned that night. First, don\u2019t buy your tires at Wal-Mart. This lesson was further confirmed a few weeks later while our drummer was backing out of a parking space in some crappy Taco Bell somewhere in Southern Arkansas. I was riding shotgun and saw the impending issue coming. \u201cHey watch out for that th\u2026\u201d the rest of that sentence went unnoticed because of the loud whooshing sound coming from the general direction of our right front tire. I\u2019ve never heard air escape from a tire so fast in my life. It wasn\u2019t like a popping sound or a little hiss, it was all of the air in the tire releasing in about two seconds and the van literally dropped 4 inches on that corner. Backing over a four inch piece of angle iron will do that. Cheap tires will contribute. We bought four new \u201creal\u201d tires later that week.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the two things I learned. The other thing was this. If you are doing to do things like change a tire by T.V. light in the middle of the night in North Carolina, you better do it with your brothers. If I would have tried that by myself I would have been terrified and frustrated and who knows how many commandments I would have broken. As it stood, my main problem was trying not to let fizz from my Diet Coke come out through my nose as I was laughing so hard at the whole spectacle. It\u2019s the stuff of life, a community like that. It was a total disaster and a great joy all at once.<\/p>\n

I heard Miroslav Volf say once that boundaries are important because they make a \u201cthing.\u201d One needs to recognize the boundaries to tell that this is this thing, and that is that thing, and this thing is not that thing, and if there are no boundaries then there is no-thing \u2013 chaos. I do not advocate having no boundaries. Boundaries are important. I think the brass ring would be proper boundaries and if that means \u201cno boundaries\u201d for awhile in certain areas while on our way to proper bounded-ness then I\u2019m OK with that. When you are doing theological discourse, sometimes boundaries need to be stretched or erased for a time in order to see things from a different perspective. But this requires some grace and some loving latitude during the project.<\/p>\n

For such a long time I only knew this little group of guys and a wife that way. But I\u2019m beginning to see that there are so many more. My church is like that. My marriage continues to be that as well \u2013 many of you who read this blog, you are like that brother and sisterhood for me now.<\/p>\n

I cannot help but admit that my mind is rather like TV fuzz sometimes. My IQ doesn\u2019t break the bank but this is what I want to do so I work hard at it. I try my best and I spend an inordinate amount of time reading books. I also cannot escape the feeling that what I\u2019m trying to work out and describe and do and be in this theological quest of mine is rather like changing a tire by the light of the TV fuzz. I\u2019m out of my depth and beyond my pay-scale for sure. I\u2019m so glad to do it with you guys. I\u2019m glad to be in the van together, even if I\u2019m not really sure how to get where I\u2019m going.<\/p>\n

I cannot help but think that God likes it when we do crazy stuff like what happened in the middle of the night in North Carolina. It must appeal to God\u2019s sense of humor and at least in some creative way I think our ingenuity gives God glory, if not at least a laugh. I think our theological discussion might do that as well.<\/p>\n

Some people don\u2019t like the exhibition. Some like to drive by and honk, or even fly the finger on their way by \u2013 but they are not my brothers and sisters, though it\u2019s not by my choice, I wish they were. I wish everyone were in on the joke. But alas, folks like me don\u2019t get to make those sorts of decisions. All I can do is pray that they are released from the bondage of their rotten boundaries. So I\u2019m going to keep plugging away and some small part of what I\u2019m thinking will keep appearing on this blog. To my friends who enter in to the conversation, I will keep on posting your comments and I\u2019ll be forever grateful to share the ride with you guys. To those who just want to argue for argument\u2019s sake and take pot shots at me and say mean things or write letters to my boss and try to get me fired. I\u2019m not going to post your stuff, sorry.<\/p>\n

Peace of Christ.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once while I was traveling in a van full of mendicants through North Carolina I had what can only be described as a once in a lifetime experience. We were on the interstate somewhere between Winston-Salem and Greensboro looking for a turn-off to find some little camp in the High-Point area. It was the middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFuzzy Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Once while I was traveling in a van full of mendicants through North Carolina I had what can only be described as a once in a lifetime experience. 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