Dyed, redyed, and renewed

'K, you know the sock yarn I dyed with Kool-Aid, that I blogged about here? I decided I wasn't happy about it and decided to overdye it with Jacquard dye in a mixture of vermilion and sky blue. The results:



Pretty, wouldn't you agree? A lovely wine-dark color, with some lighter reddish-purple highlights. I like it much much much better than the original.

And here's some Bare sock yarn I dyed in sort of a spruce green, blending Jacquard dye in sapphire blue, yellow sun, and a little black to mute it:



Been doing a lot of reading and thinking the past several days. Philip Yancey and Donald Miller have given voice to so many of my concerns, stumbling blocks, bêtes noires, etc. On the question of why God allows screwed-up teachings and heretical theologies: Yancey observes in Disappointment with God that God delegated His work on earth and His holiness on earth to us flawed humans. God takes a huge risk in doing so - the risk that we will "badly misrepresent him." And Christians have misrepresented God throughout history - the Crusades, anti-Semitism, slavery, misogyny, homophobia, the Religious Right. But that was still God's plan. Paul referred to that as "the foolishness of God" and observed. "And yet the foolishness of God is wiser than men." Somehow, it works more often than not, even if we humans screw it up from time to time.

On the subject of how some of God's delegates on earth really screw it up and make God look bad: Donald Miller writes about how Robert Tilton was exposed on TV as having stolen money from his flock, was disgraced, and lost his ministry. Miller observes, "[G]uys like Robert Tilton make me like Jesus more because the people Jesus had the least patience with were the people who said they represented God but didn't." Miller finds that he actually feels sorry for Tilton, for what Tilton will face when he goes before God at the final judgment. He notes that "God-imposters" don't really worship God, they worship their own little god that they have made in their own image, instead of the other way around. I'm still not sure what the answer here is, except that we shouldn't try to make God in our own image, not when He did it the other way around.

Anyway. I'm kind of feeling like my overdyed yarn. Not happy the way things came out originally (or the way things were for several years), but I'm being overdyed and coming out better. I know this doesn't make a lot of sense. I guess I'm still in the dye pot and haven't been rinsed and dried yet, so I don't know exactly what color I'll come out as. I just know it'll be better than what was.