I was reading the book, "The Man who thought his wife was a hat", written by Oliver Sacks, the same person who wrote "Awakenings", and I came across an interesting neurological condition that seems to illustrate the postmodern paradigm we live in. It is called Karsakov's Syndrome, where a person has no memory of who they are, or in other words, has lost their personal story. I am not an expert in neurological diseases (I can't even spell "neurological"), but when I read this I was struck with the seemingly obvious comparison with our present postmodern position (say that three times fast).
I spend a good bit of time outside of my church. Whether it be in hospitals, coffee shops, or other places, the one thing I am noticing is that people are hungry for a story. Rick Warren calls it a purpose; having a purpose for life. That is part of it, but it is more wholistic than just having a purpose. A purpose is something that is part of a story, but a story is the essence of meaning, where everything is born, and from which everything is sustained.
People with Karsakov's syndrome have the dreadful tendency to forget who they are and what they are doing. They will lose their whole personal story, and from scratch, have to make a new one up. You see, it is impossible to live without some sort of personal narrative. This is why they create one, for they couldn't live without some sort of identity; an identity that comes from a story.
This is the picture of many in our postmodern time. There is a hunger for a narrative that explains life, that gives it meaning. Many search for it in many different places, and in many different ways. yet, when they are dissapointed, they quickly forget the story they have taken on and put on something else. Christianity is just one of the stories offered to our Karsakov society. Yet, the story of Christ is the story of the world' s true meaning. It is the story that allows us to find who we are, and what this world we live in is all about.
Maybe the role of the church is not to "reach the lost", but share the story. Story...huh...sounds like "good news".
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5 comments:
Ben, You are so right on here,..you just don't know how much. I would suggest that anyone who does not think this is true read a little 100 page book by John Eldredge, named "Epic", or if you want the 'big picture' he has another book called "Waking the Dead"
This tells the story that we are caught up (born into) in. His theory is that only by realizing not only that there "is" a story and that we are caught up in it, we were designed by God to play a specific roll in that story. Only by accepting that roll can we experience the fulleness of life that Christ said he came to give us! John's thought is, and it is mine now as well, is that just exactly like the "Matrix" (movie), we need to realize that the daily world around us is something that is being manipulated by the devil ( and very effectively, I might add) to keep us occupied, pre-occupied if you will with the things we humans think are important so that we not only don't fullfill our roll in the story, but most of us have this Karsakov's Disease so bad that we don't even know that there is a story any more. We are just like Neo in the movie, before he meets Morphius, we know, suspect, that there is something big, or different, or wrong, out there. That the world is not all together right. We just have been successfully blinded for so long that even as Christians, we just go along wondering why we don't have or feel more success in our walk with the Lord. The sad part of this is, in my mind,.. the Churches of today have also been blinded and no longer know how to, or even know that they can, address this issue, for the Christians seeking the fullfilling life that Christ has promised us.
They have forgotten, or in some cases, choose to ignore the "whole" story. It is not a human story, it is God's story. It is intirely spiritual and we have a small, yet significant roll in it. Jesus is still trying to bring us back to the point where we not only realize this fact, but take up our part and stand and act with him. Side by side.
"....the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." Matt. 11:12(NAS)
There is a call to battle, and we, as well as the Church, are missing it.
james said, " It is not a human story, it is God's story. It is intirely spiritual and we have a small, yet significant roll in it."
james i agree with most everything you wrote except the piece that I quoted. The narrative we're talking about is God's story but that story is OUR story as well.
To try and divide the two is to fall into the trap that created secularism during the enlightenment.
God is a God who acts within history- all of God's acts, promises and covenants were within historical situations. So to say that this story is "entirely spiritual" is rather gnostic and not accurate bilically nor a traditional perspective.
I would also say that we have more than small role in the narrative. The Body of Christ by nature of who we are embody (no matter how imperfect)Christ in the world. That's a pretty large part of the narrative that continues to get told today.
Like I said, I really agreed with everything else, these were just some things that stood out to me.
Good article.
shalom,
jonathon
Jonathon, You are right on! It was my mistake by using the words "entirely spiritual" with out further explaining my intended context. It was in my head, I just failed to put it on paper, as you will. I meant that our daily walk for Christ, with Christ is here in this world and yes, is no small thing, just that the battle for the Kingdom of Heaven, which started way before God brought us into the picture to play our part, is primarily spiritual for us even though we live in the world. The forces of darkness are wholly brought against us spiritually to manipulate the real world around us, deceive us and confuse us, blur the lines. We must understand that and use the tools God has given us to fight the spiritual battle daily. Not falling into what Ben originally referred to as the Korsakov’s syndrome.
I never intended to infer that our daily walk with Christ or our role in the story was "entirely spiritual", just our battle to maintain our faith and our witness for Christ.
I want to daily remember and know the story God is writing and not the story the world tells me. Then I can ask the Lord for his help in showing me the "Matrix" as it were so I don't get caught up in it.
Thanks for the thoughts, I am just restating recent revelations in my own walk of faith, given to me by God via the author I previously mentioned. He has a way with words, that’s why he is the author and I am not.
james
Thanks Guys for your input.
Great stuff.
James,
I agree. We must connect with God's story again. We as the church have, whether knowingly or not, bought into the cultural story of who we are why we are here. This permeates our whole existence, and we have become irrelevant at best, and destructive at worst. What would happen if we were to define our existence on God's story? The story of his redemptive plan.
Jonathon,
Good correction. We need to remember that this isn't just "Gods" story, but in reality, "God's" story is our story as well. WE are eternally connected to the creator of eternity. I have known those that treat the story of redemption in the Bible as "Gods story" in the sense that it has no directive for us. God's great rescue plan involves us. It is for us. It is our story as well.
Good stuff y'all.
Now, how can we tell this to a Karsakov World?
Ben,
For me it comes down to being as real as I can be, in the sense of "who God created me to be". I have been asking God lately to show me what my role in spreading his word, for his glory, is to be.
I believe that for me to "be real" to God, to myself and to the world around me, I have to learn that I need God to be involved in everything I do.
So, what that means is, if I can be as real of a person to the world as possible, not put up a false image of who I think, or whom some one else thinks I am. I am putting my self out there to possibly get hurt and/or taken advantage of. This may (will) show my inadequacies and failures as a human being.
Obviously the world spends all of their energy trying to hide this fact from each other. Sadly, a lot of 'religious' people do this as well.
By being real and open, you show your failures, but then by being obedient to God's will you also show the world that you do and must constantly lean on God for only he can fill in all of the gaps.
Then the world will see the 'me' God created and not the 'me' I created. This should allow me to be a more effective witness, be myself, created in the image of God, totally dependant on God.
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