In full awareness that some of our readers despise truth when it comes from the mouths of those with whom they find no fellowship, I publish this beautiful paragraph from the pen of Anne Lamott:
[Rahab] did it [hid the Israelites spies under flax on her roof in defiance of the king's orders] because she was desperate, and so she listened to her heart. In my experience, there is a lot to be said for desperation–not exactly a bright side, but something expressed in words for which ‘God’ could be considered an acronym: gifts of desperation. The main gift is a willingness to give up the conviction that you are right, and that God things so, too, and hates the people who are driving you crazy….Something told Rahab that if she aligned herself with the people who had been brought so far by faith, she would be safe as well. This gave her the radical conviction that she should be cared for. Rahab believed that God was trying to get her attention, and she listened.
–Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, 20, 21
Today God got my attention.
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11 Comments(+Add)
Rahab was foreknown by God.
Purge us oh Lord of this pelagian/arminian crap.
I wonder where Ms Lamott got her knowledge of Rahab’s mindset?
Why isn’t she a “modern gnostic” unless that term is reserved for those who are actually spirit-filled.
Chris P. –
Don’t you pretend to know the mindset of Jesus or the Church Greats (Spurgeon, Luther, etc) on subjects of which they never ever spoke on?
Purge us, oh Lord, of this self-righteous self-redeeming law-based crap.
Chris,
What does comment number 1 have to do with anything? What does your comment have to do with this statement:
??
I know you won’t come back and actually answer, so I’ll assume it is nothing and that your reading comprehension is nill.
jerry
Jerry,
Did you transpose that quote accurately? That is some of the worst grammar I have ever read from a professional writer. I can’t get past the grammatical structure of the paragraph to get to the meat of her intent.
That absolutely makes no sense. “Would be cared for” perhaps?
I don’t know. Must be a slow news day for that to have caught your eye.
Hey, on second thought, sorry to be so critical. If something moves you it does. I just read that and went “Whaaat?????”
We actually were talking about this last night at the Bible Study my wife and I lead. It wasn’t this particular passage, but we were talking about how God responds to our desperation and often time doesn’t respond until we are at the end of our rope.
In a very real way, God’s heart is only moved by people who are willing to admit that they’re completely helpless without Him. It doesn’t seem like a stretch to get the idea from the text that Rahab somehow knew the city was doomed. So in her desperation to be saved, she took a risk in helping the Israelites. She had heard about what God had done for them already, and because of that, she believed that God was doing something miraculous again.
I know the comment about “despise truth when it comes from the mouths of those with whom they find no fellowship,” was a shot at me and some others, but I cannot get by the fact that Anne Lamott supports abortion and Planned Parenthood. What about the desperation of the unwed mother, or the rape victim, or the poor woman? Can’t God help them? Is giving to an organization dedicated to killing unborn babies stepping in the way of God doing a miraculous work in the lives of a mother and her child, even if they are at the end of a proverbial rope?
I wonder…..
RE #8
So, because Lamott supports abortion you cannot even comment on the quote? Because you disagree with her on one subject, you are unable/unwilling to even discuss or engage on any other subject?
This is a keen insight into the ODM mind. Now I understand how someone can be written off completely (not thinking of Lamott here, just in general)… Now I understand how lots and lots and lots of orthodox statements can be ignored and one questionable comment or illustration or tangential belief elevated and continually held up as proof of heresy.
RE : 8
Another thought… and again, I am unfamiliar with Lamott past this one issue so I write from a generally conceptual pov…
If, as Pastorboy says, our concern is to be for the desperate, the victim, the proverbial widows and orphans, those who cannot defend themselves – and who would disagree with him…
…if this is our concern. Then we should express outrage with an organization that, in a misguided manner, attempts to help those who are unwed mothers and rape victims or just too poor at the expense of the unborn.
But should we also not express equal outrage with a government that, in a misguided manner, attempts to defend itself proactively and in the process causes the deaths of innocent fathers, mothers, the poor, etc. etc. etc.?
Wow, John is unable to deal with the content yet again thus proving the need for sentence number 1 of this post.
John you better quit paying your taxes because the federal government supports all sorts of stuff that you find in opposition to your faith.