Volf talks about celebrating the goodness in the midst of imperfection - the presence of a lily in the swamp instead of simply mourning the reality of the swamp, and that is just what parenting is. Realizing, even with our best effort, our kids will grow into flawed adults, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate the beauty and the goodness we see in them.
I have long been interested in the ways in which theology may, or may not, speak to the world outside the church. As an adolescent I was schooled in pusillanimous church arguments by the preacher, arguments I took way too seriously, because, well, because he told me I should. I’m not so interested in those debates I take to be rather petty and trivial.
What I’m interested in these days is wondering how we, how I, keep on going.
Admittedly, my mind turns to the humorous more often than the poetic—likely because humor is in greater demand when one’s two-year-old smears fecal matter all over the floor as one is rushing to leave for a wedding… or when one’s three year old asks a non-pregnant woman in line at Kroger if she “has a baby in her belly”… and
