Broken Brick Recycling

A former student friend wrote on Facebook:
"Spiritual realities come through experience. Otherwise you just have spiritual theories."

My response:

But how do you determine whether what you are experiencing is real/true/good or not? That is why I am fond of what has been called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience are ALL necessary. Each one of these is necessary for our life in Christ, but apart from the others it is insufficient.

Life in Christ is like a brick, out of which Christ forms His Kingdom. Each brick has those four corners: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. If any one of those corners is overemphasized, the brick will be out of kilter. Instead of being a rectangle, it will be a trapezoid, and so harder to build with. Jesus is in the process of recycling broken bricks and rebuilding His kingdom, which was bombed by Satan.

Here is a Korean "Broken Brick Recycling Machine." (Look here for more information.)



However, unlike the Korean machine, Christ's restoration is personal, not mechical.
The mystery of our faith is that He is building His kingdom out of our brokenness, but at the same time He is building, He is scraping away or extending us so that, more and more, we become strong, stable blocks.

Some of us need more knowledge of Scripture; so His Holy Spirit prompts us to "take up and read!"

Some of us need to discover the Church throughout time and space, and the traditions of the community that has shaped us, so His Holy Spirit urges us to remember and pass on that which we have received.

Some of us too easily dismiss the life of the mind, so His Holy Spirit encourages us to better understand and defend our faith.

And some of us, as my student opined, are too comfortable with theory, so His Holy Spirit urges us to act and to be acted upon.

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