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Complexity Inside Simplicity
A Golden Gate Take on Theology
Peter Lundell
I’m
standing on the icon of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. I am in awe.
My
rapturous feeling is not just because of the marvel of the thing but what it
shows me about God.
To me, it’s a massive steel-and-concrete depiction of Isaiah
55:8-9 NIV, “‘For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts.’”
This
suspension bridge depends on two towers on which hang two 6750-foot cables that
suspend the 4200-foot span.
Each
cable is three feet in diameter and is made of 3/16” wires — 27,562 of them.
Yes, 27,562 wires tightly are bundled into each cable.
These
two big cables rise into the sky — but on a foggy day, which is most of the
time here — they’re obscured in the mist.
And
it seems like a glimpse of heaven from below.
This
shows me about how we know God because theology can delve into endless
complexities of biblical and systematic theology — like the multitude of wires
in each cable.
Some
believers can be so complex in thinking about God that they lose sight of the
simplicity that Jesus exhibited about God.
Other
believers can be so simpli-stic in ignorance of complexity
that they miss the beauty of ultimate simpli-city that unifies all the
complexity.
Like
all these wires bundled into one cable, all the complexities of theology can be
ultimately bundled into the eminent twentieth-century-theologian Karl Barth’s
response, stated at Princeton University, to the question of what was his greatest
theological insight.
He said, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible
tells me so.”
Really.
Complexity
inside simplicity.
Any
attempt to understand God (what we call theology) is on one hand extremely
complex and on the other hand extremely simple — similar to the familiar way
that understanding a car engine is complex, but turning it on with a key is
simple.
And
these complex/simple cables rise into what looks like nothingness.
I
could have stood there all day and never seen the tops of the supporting towers
— as if the whole thing were imagination.
But
it’s not imagination to the hundreds of thousands of cars and thousands of
pedestrians crossing the bridge each day.
I
know the tops of these towers are really there. Because
they have to be. If they weren’t, the cables and entire bridge
would collapse.
Whenever
we suffer and ask why, or wonder about God and try to understand, we ask
questions that are like those complex/simple cables rising into obscurity.
To a
certain height, we can always see and understand, as God makes plain in the
Bible or reveals to us through experience.
But
pressing further, we go beyond what we can see. Questions and answers get
obscured in the ultimate otherness and unknowability of God, who is by nature
beyond our comprehension.
But
just as we know the invisible tops of bridge towers are there — because
if they weren’t the whole bridge would fall apart — we also know God
is there — because if he weren’t the whole world would fall apart.
As Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV says, “The secret things belong to the Lord
our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever…”
“Lord
God, may we grow in faith and wisdom to know how simplicity wraps complexity.
And may we always trust when it extends beyond what we can see or know. For we
indeed walk by faith and not by sight. . . .”
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God change your life?
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Peter Lundell
With a pastor’s heart, Peter Lundell connects
people and their life issues to a real God so they can live well in the face of
eternity. With a quarter century of missionary, pastoral, and teaching
experience, he brings new perspectives to interacting with God that most people
overlook. He holds an M.Div. and D.Miss. from Fuller Theological Seminary and
resides in Southern California. He authors books on Christian spirituality.
Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com.
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