Fairy Tale of Faith

In class we discussed the writing by G.K. Chesterton that was an extra reading assignment for Tuesday. I very much enjoyed this reading and what Chesterton had to say really hit home for me. This excerpt from Ethics of Elfland/Orthodoxy highlighted many of the key points we discussed in class, all stemming from the concept of fairy tales. Chesterton highlights the idea that we all begin life believing fairy tales and throughout the mess of reality, we loose sight of the extraordinary. We discussed in class that comedy is unexpected, tragedy is inevitable, and fairy tales are transformative. I believe fairy tales have transformed who we are and how we perceive life.  My favorite sentence in the passage stated "I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts." Chesterton suggests that through life we begin to lean on our own understanding through the experiences that have taught us that the extraordinary is limited to children. However I believe that as Christians we cling to the belief of the extraordinary; we serve an extraordinary God and must not lean on our own understanding but our trust in him.





In class it was stated that "the gospel has the power to transform" and to back that up, transformative was defined as "finding the unexpected and unordinary in the midst of the ordinary." Every single person walks on the same path of life, but not everyone walks with Jesus, many walk alone. The gospel has the power to transform, but in order for the gospel to transform, we must find the gospel (or unexpected) in the midst of our ordinary lives. Professor Leeper stated that "when you tell the same story in your unique way, that's when it gets interesting." Christians all have the same story to tell, just in our unique way. Our faith is our fairy tale, and in order for others to be transformed by the gospel, we must share our fairy tales.