INSPIRATION
On account of the occasion, with it being Independence Day, I'd like to return to the subject of independent spiritual exploration. I've become convinced that God's revelation to humanity evolves through time and culture. I believe we are bombarded by his voice to this very day, and I'm choosing to listen. Still, I must proceed with caution. If I'm to take this approach, I could unintentionally twist what he has placed in my heart into an incoherent or deviant mess. Regardless of this danger, I am proceeding unafraid.
What is inspiration? It's clearly not a work of stenography. Instead, I believe it's a Spirit-led articulation of the action and revelation of God within the context of people's lives. How one fleshes this out is personal and particular (thus the synoptic problem), and thus contingent upon the writer's viewpoint, culture, audience, and purpose in writing. The Apostles, like all humans, were a product of the world in which they lived. By allowing the writers to draw up accounts according to what they witnessed with their own eyes, God clearly communicates his desire for us is comprehensible, available, and shouting out to us in the midst of the world we inhabit.
Neither is it an assemblage of maxims, but a complex narrative playing out through the history of his people. Anything less wouldn't meet us where we live, and for good reason. How could our hearts be in it, when we'd have no indication that God was working in the world? Fortuitously, he is slowly, but immanently, revealed through peoples' lives, history, and the writings of spiritual men who witnessed his hand in this world. I would go so far as to say God's revelations mean more to us because they're written in our own words.
Our contribution is clear, and it's an awesome responsibility. It is a responsibility I think many would rather ignore. Having recognized and accepted it, who will bear it with humility in the postmodern and quickly secularizing world we now face? We need his voice to rise, and we need it now, honestly assessing the challenges we face and meeting them head on.