I don't know about you, but from the moment I began reading Girl Meets God, I was hooked. Frankly, I think it's her intellectual search of her faith.
I've always been curious about the Jewish faith and traditions, so I'm finding that aspect of the book really interesting. For example, I didn't know that the faith is passed to the children maternally.
When she started thinking about believing in Jesus and her friend Pastor Mike said, "... you can't just divorce Judaism," I think that was insightful.
What struck me personally in my own faith is her comment from the Mitford books where they quote Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." I think perhaps these books drew Lauren into the Christian faith more than she realized at the time. This particularly scripture is a reminder to me that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. And oftentimes, when I'm going through a particularly difficult time, it's for a reason. And sometimes, I never discover the reason. I often forget that my strength comes from Him, not me.
Did anything strike you personally as you read the first three chapters of this book?
20 comments:
I found Lauren to be unusual in that her thoughts were so dominated by religion at her young age. She impressed me as trying very hard to find her direction both in a very rational and yet very emotional way.
I agree. The reading and studying she did were amazing. The preparation to become an Orthodox Jew took a tremendous amount of time.
Strike me personally? She wacked me on the head when she wrote (first chap.) that she was praying (In Hebrew, I guess) "for God to save us" ... but then she wrote "but I know I have already been saved." PROFOUND!
Yes, her intellectual approach to faith speaks to me.
Pat - you're so funny. Yes, I probably felt whacked in the head a couple of times too. I have other areas later in the book that made me think God was trying to remind me of things.
I like where she talks about Advent and how if we all really considered what "the Incarnation meant, we'd be so preoccupied with awe that we wouldn't notice all the shopping."
Would you have interpreted her dream about being held captive by mermaids and a young man saving her to be Jesus saving her? Did I miss a clue that she mentioned about the dream? She seemed so certain that this is what the dream meant.
I'm not a good interpreter of symbolism in dreams. I guess you could interpret it as the man saving her was Jesus -- it's a stretch for me. That's some metaphor.
With the holidays drawing closer, I keep thinking about her comments about Advent. And her friend Jo Bailey Wells, who doesn't go to Christmas parties before Christmas because she doesn't think we should celebrate before His birth. It certainly draws the attention back to the reason for the season.
Yeah, the dream thing. I don't know how a person can be so CERTAIN of the meaning of their own dreams, but then I guess, why not; I guess we have the right to infuse our own dreams with our own meanings.
I liked the part about Advent, too. Unless we completely shelter ourselves in November and December, it's impossible not to confuse/combine Advent with the "season" of Christmas. And ... I feel so awkward writing this ... but God coming to us as a baby is kind of lost on me. A baby? In my (limited) experience, they don't "do" a lot. Now Good Friday, Easter - that is powerful stuff. IMHO, of course.
Speaking of powerful stuff. She wrote that at the Last Supper Jesus breaks bread for us ... and then on the cross he will break his body for us. That gives me something new to think about during communion.
It's this thinking ... thinking ... thinking. She does not come to Christianity through a conversion experience (as she notes). She THINKS about everything and then she comes to believe it.
I think it's an interesting idea to save up to celebrate after Christmas. I'm just so obessessed with getting things organized that it would probably send me over the edge. But I do remember a Christmas holiday when we had a severe family crisis and I had to let go of many things I thought I "had" to do to make it Christmas when I realized they weren't that important to the season. And they definately weren't celebrating the birth of our Lord. So I learned that year to let go of many of the things I felt had to be done to make it Christmas.
And because she thinks about it, I believe she makes us look at many of the traditions within the Christian church and appreciate why they are so important to our faith.
And isn't that part of the appeal of any religion where there are a lot of "rules?" On this day, you do X but not Y. On the other day, you do Y but not X. Imagine what it would be like to not be able to do ANYTHING related to Christmas until the actual day. I do think it would make it more meaningful!
I think it was a Karen Armstrong book (???) where she went to live in a convent and her choices each day to get dressed were this plain brown dress or the other plain brown dress. Suddenly, all those "things" that go along with getting dressed were useless and she was able to devote that time & energy to her spiritual journey.
That's an interesting comment Pat. I think you're right. And the comment about giving up the ridiculous thoughts of what to wear (or other meaningless tasks) would give us far more time to dedicate to our faith.
Kim, thanks for making this happen! Looking forward to the next chapters (I'm in to them a few pages) and input from others.
I am still back with the mermaids. In rereading pages 55 and 56 in the advent chapter, I thought the part was significant about her telling her mother and her fiance in the dream about the mermaids and her rescue but, even though they didn't accuse her of lying or suggest that she be institutionalized, "They simply knew that mermaids didn't exist so, obviously, I hadn't been kidnapped by any." This could be interpreted as meaning that something that we can't see or is out of the realm of human of experience can't be real -- like Jesus as our Savior.
Thanks for everyone's comments. Anyone who reads afterward is welcome to add their comments as well. We'll be blogging live again Tuesday, November 10 at 7:30. Jennifer has agreed to host for the evening. Please feel free to continue to comment throughout the month or to log on when you have a free moment.
I agree that Lauren does a lot of thinking about God but that isn't what led her to Jesus. God did. On page 57 she discusses God as a novelist who leaves clues to the outcome, but she missed them. She notes that God was leaving clues as He led her to Christianity, but "you cannot see until you get to the end that God was leaving clues for you all along."
October 13, 2009 8:44 PM
I enjoyed reading your blogs from Tuesday evening--I was unavailable at that time, but wanted to comment on something Winner discussed in her section on Advent (Conversation Stories). She mentions a particular Jewish document that has 13 principles of faith, often recited by orthodox Jews following mornings prayers. The title of the document literally means "I believe" and Lauren connected that with the word from which we get "creed"--the Latin word "Credo" which means "I believe." Of course, "I believe" are the first words in each article of our Apostles' Creed. I was teaching the 8th grade Affirmation of Baptism class on Sunday (confirmation class), and I was discussing that very thing--that "credo" means "I believe." Winner recognizes that Judaism is, like Christianity, a religion of belief. I told the class that the Apostles' creed doesn't begin by us saying, "The facts below prove the existence of God." Instead, we simply say "I believe." You and I cannot force anyone to believe in this particular God. Faith is a gift from God, and the Apostles' Creed, as well as that Jewish document to which Lauren referred, is a statement of faith. That is very different from a statement of fact. But it doesn't make God any less true.
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