Monday, June 1, 2009

Give us this day our daily bread


We’ve now turned a corner from being “participants in the being and action of God” (p. 181) that can change us from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. Now we turn to our needs, but they aren’t random needs. They’re what we need to live for God’s glory. Need is the challenge of this petition. We don’t like to need, but in asking for bread we are recognizing our need, that we are not, ultimately, self-sufficient. But self-sufficiency is a cultural value for us, particularly in America. But when we don’t recognize need, we don’t receive grace. The best section of this chapter:


The limitations of our created state are invitations to live in a generous and receptive dynamic in the creaturely life that teems around us. Limits don’t limit us from being fully human. They only limit us from being God.

A violinist does not complain that her violin has only four strings. A poet doesn’t rail against the limit of fourteen lines in the sonnet he is writing. Every so-called limit is access to a gift, a gift of love, a gift of beauty, all gifts on offer to be received by open hands. (p. 184)

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