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Evan: I came across a definition of the gospel that puzzles me because it’s different, but it really attracts me. The gospel—the supreme desire to do the Father’s will coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God.
Sophia: Do you experience these feelings?
Evan: Sometimes.
Sophia: And at other times?
Evan: At other times, being a child of God is a simply a fact about who we are, and the will of God is simply a fact about our duty.
Sophia: But facts are essential in human living.
Evan: They sure are. Facts keep us grounded.
Sophia: Every spiritual truth, when we genuinely realize it, has beauty. And we respond to that beauty with joy. But living the truth in daily life is not one-sided blissing-out. In anything we do there is something of fact and something of value. For example, whether we’re washing dishes or mowing the lawn there are facts and values involved. If we’re driving a car, there are facts about the flow of traffic on the road and the science that explains it; and there are values like ethical responsibility and the potentials of experiencing divine values when I am driving as a sister with my siblings on the road. When we understand the task immediately in hand in terms of its wider cosmic meanings and its potentials for divine value, then we taste what it is to live the truth fully.
Evan: You philosophers can be difficult to follow. But what I take home in what you’re saying is this. We can experience any of the great core spiritual gospel truths on the level of fact or on the level of value. Now I understand why the gospel, the good news, is also translated as glad tidings. The supreme desire to do the Father’s will coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God. In the family of God we can each know the joy of being a child of God and can know doing the will of God as our supreme desire. Glad day to you, Sophia.
Sophia: And glad day to you, Evan.
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