Analysis of George's Story: Reflection on Faith, Grace, and Worldview

This assignment presents a student's reflection on the case study of George, a bisexual chain smoker, and his acknowledgment of God, drawing upon Yancey's readings on a Bible-based, Christ-centered worldview. The reflection analyzes George's internal struggles, his regrets, and his attraction to Christian hymns, highlighting the concept of grace as a downward-flowing force. The student evaluates George's story, drawing parallels to nested dolls representing the multifaceted nature of human beings, capable of both good and evil. The reflection concludes with personal takeaways, emphasizing the irreducible nature of human life and the importance of avoiding judgment, as taught by Paul. The assignment references several academic sources including works by Feldman, Gray, Harris, Mezirow, and Yancey.

Reflection 1
Reflection
Name of the Student:
Academic Affiliation:
Date:

Reflection 2
Describe
Based on the readings by Yancey (2010) titled “Foundations of a Bible-based Christ-
Centered Worldview” and more specifically “What is good is God? On the Road with stories of
grace”, it is quite evident that George despite being a chain smoker and a bisexual individual
acknowledged the existence of God and a higher power. This was quite evident through his love
of watching television programmes on the Television and listening to the singing of the Christian
choir. In essence, George was more attracted to the verse which encouraged him not to get rid of
his soul through just one dark blot but rather to depend of the blood of God that was capable of
cleansing each of the spots (Harris & Walling, 2018). George, through listening to the hymns
agreed with the fact that God indeed loved him the way he was unlike other people who loved
him with strings attached. George regretted having disappointed his family through failure of
realizing his potential while in school, disappointing the church through his decision of fighting
in war as well as through his personal behavior and disappointing his doctors and friends in the
manner that he treated his health through the smoking of cigarettes, having poor diet, and
drinking.
Analyze
Based on the story of George, it is quite evident that people may indeed become guilty of
themselves for disappointing other people in their lives. This actually makes people hate
themselves as result of creating such disappointments. It is also a lesson learnt from the case
study of George that indeed, grace is like water and therefore it flows downwards (Mezirow,
2018). This implies that no matter how low individuals can sink, grace is capable of flowing to

Reflection 3
the lowest parts of their lives. The power of grace is quite essential because it normally flows
downwards first before ultimately buoying an individual to heights that can never be imagined.
Evaluate
An evaluation of George’s case study points out the fact that just like the doll which was
bought by George’s friend, we human beings are actually like the nested dolls which were
comprised of multiple selves which made us to become a mysterious combination of both evil
and good, folly and wisdom, instinct and reason. It is noticed that the human population usually
continue “breaking through the lines” in ways that are very mysterious (Gray & Coombs, 2018).
This is an indicator that all human beings have the potential of both despair as well as triumph,
of cruelty and compassion, of sin and salvation, of love and hate, and even of loyalty and
betrayal. This implies that our personal choices which we make in our lives as well as the
individuals that we become does not necessarily reduce towards a “predictable graph”.
You
The case study on George has taught me important lessons and chief among them the fact
that human life is indeed irreducible and that it is important for all Christians to become aware of
the fact that all of us actually fall short. It is also important never to judge other people as Paul
said since I will be condemning myself (Feldman et al, 2018).

Reflection 4
References
Feldman, A., Altrichter, H., Posch, P. and Somekh, B., 2018. Teachers investigate their work: An
introduction to action research across the professions. Routledge.
Gray, T.W. and Coombs, C.J., 2018. Developing professional judgement in surgical trainees: the
role of critical reflection. Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery, 1(1).
Harris, P. and Walling, D.R., 2018. Changing the Narrative of School: Toward a Neuro-cognitive
Redefinition of Learning. In Educational Technology and Narrative (pp. 283-293). Springer,
Cham.
Mezirow, J., 2018. Transformative learning theory. In Contemporary Theories of Learning (pp.
114-128). Routledge.