Sometimes beauty and peace come from waiting, from hidden times of refining and maturing, from taking the long road through desolate places - from passing through the darkness and the pain instead of skirting around it. On the other side, one finds that there has grown within him a new depth and strength of character, a patience and endurance he never had before, and with that endurance new reserves of hope and faith.
We never want to wait. The months of engagement before a wedding, though full of joy and excitement, can be almost tortuous at times because of the heights of anticipation, the constant pushing forward as though by sheer will power the days can be made to go past more quickly. When we have had an interview for a job or a school or a scholarship, the time spent waiting to know what the decision will be is charged with impatience and anxiety - as we say, we can't wait to hear back. Whether we want something or fear something, the time before we obtain our desire or before the dreaded moment arrives seems unendurable. Even if it ends with bad news, we want it to be over, so we don't have to wait any longer, so we don't have to wrestle with worries and dreams, hopes and fears: so we can know what is to be, and act accordingly.
Waiting feels like inaction. Passivity, helplessness, lack of control, inefficiency - all these words describe how it feels to be forced to sit back and wait. There is no more preparation to be done, no more actions to take; all that is left is to wait. And so we wait fitfully and uncomfortably, even angrily, chafing at the bit. But maybe waiting can be a blessing and a gift, despite its unwelcome appearance. Because waiting demands inaction, a cessation of all our frantic planning and activity, it offers us a chance to rest. Because it holds us captive in a state of unknowing, it gives us an opportunity to learn to trust the God who does know what the future holds. We can choose to wear ourselves down with worry, or we can choose to wait with patience, to endure the pain of not knowing and not being able to do anything about it, and in so waiting to deepen our trust and strengthen our character and our faith.
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Pursuit of Happiness
The dilemma before us is not whether an individual has the right to pursue their own happiness, but whether they have the right to pursue that happiness at the expense of the well-being of other people; that is, is every road permissible, or are some barricaded for the good of society and the protection of the innocent?
Here is a practical example of what I mean (based loosely on a real story). A woman (let's call her "H") has been with her current husband, "M," for about 10 years. They've been married for 8 of those years, and have 3 children together. But "H" is starting to become tired of the situation. Life has been a hard grind for her the past few years - they've drifted in and out of unemployment and homelessness - and she doesn't see much hope for the future. Honestly, she hasn't been happy in a long, long time, and she's thinking about leaving. Her husband is a nice guy, sure, but she wants more. If the right man appeared, he would seem like a bright light at the end of the dark tunnel she imagines stretching into the years before her - he would seem like a ticket to happiness.
If divorce would truly make "H" happy, does she have the right to take that option, even though "M" had never actually done anything wrong? Does she have the right to hurt him simply for the sake of her personal happiness? If they were dating I would say yes; after she has vowed to stay with him for life and he has built his life around that commitment, I would say no. She has burnt that bridge; she has blocked that road. She is still free to pursue happiness, but not by those means. And what about their children? Does she have the right, in the pursuit of her own pleasure, to split apart their family and destroy their security, to set them up for poverty and broken relationships in their own futures? As their mother, is there some duty that constrains the avenues she is allowed to travel in the pursuit of happiness?
Society suffers when personal happiness is elevated above moral duties and relational responsibilities, because personal happiness is not a strong enough glue to hold families and communities together. It is widely acknowledged that in order to accomplish something wonderful it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice something incredibly valuable; what is not so widely recognized is that it is sometimes also necessary to make that sacrifice in the simple attempt to be a decent human being and fulfill one's duties. And because the task and the goal can seem so mundane - so trivial and ordinary - the sacrifice can be even harder. There is no glamor or glory attached to it, and the dreams of happiness one must surrender sparkle so beautifully (and deceptively) in one's imagination. But when one thinks of the broken hearts and homes that an unbridled pursuit of personal happiness leaves in its wake, it is clear that these duties are not trivial and these sacrifices are not pointless.
So yes, we have the right to pursue happiness, but we do not have the right to pursue happiness with whatever means we choose. Our past choices narrow our future options; our moral obligations further establish the set of paths on which we may travel. But this limiting is what gives strength to the fabric of civilization - and if we work to create happiness on the paths we walk, whatever they may be, that limiting has also given strength of character to our souls.
Here is a practical example of what I mean (based loosely on a real story). A woman (let's call her "H") has been with her current husband, "M," for about 10 years. They've been married for 8 of those years, and have 3 children together. But "H" is starting to become tired of the situation. Life has been a hard grind for her the past few years - they've drifted in and out of unemployment and homelessness - and she doesn't see much hope for the future. Honestly, she hasn't been happy in a long, long time, and she's thinking about leaving. Her husband is a nice guy, sure, but she wants more. If the right man appeared, he would seem like a bright light at the end of the dark tunnel she imagines stretching into the years before her - he would seem like a ticket to happiness.
If divorce would truly make "H" happy, does she have the right to take that option, even though "M" had never actually done anything wrong? Does she have the right to hurt him simply for the sake of her personal happiness? If they were dating I would say yes; after she has vowed to stay with him for life and he has built his life around that commitment, I would say no. She has burnt that bridge; she has blocked that road. She is still free to pursue happiness, but not by those means. And what about their children? Does she have the right, in the pursuit of her own pleasure, to split apart their family and destroy their security, to set them up for poverty and broken relationships in their own futures? As their mother, is there some duty that constrains the avenues she is allowed to travel in the pursuit of happiness?
Society suffers when personal happiness is elevated above moral duties and relational responsibilities, because personal happiness is not a strong enough glue to hold families and communities together. It is widely acknowledged that in order to accomplish something wonderful it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice something incredibly valuable; what is not so widely recognized is that it is sometimes also necessary to make that sacrifice in the simple attempt to be a decent human being and fulfill one's duties. And because the task and the goal can seem so mundane - so trivial and ordinary - the sacrifice can be even harder. There is no glamor or glory attached to it, and the dreams of happiness one must surrender sparkle so beautifully (and deceptively) in one's imagination. But when one thinks of the broken hearts and homes that an unbridled pursuit of personal happiness leaves in its wake, it is clear that these duties are not trivial and these sacrifices are not pointless.
So yes, we have the right to pursue happiness, but we do not have the right to pursue happiness with whatever means we choose. Our past choices narrow our future options; our moral obligations further establish the set of paths on which we may travel. But this limiting is what gives strength to the fabric of civilization - and if we work to create happiness on the paths we walk, whatever they may be, that limiting has also given strength of character to our souls.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A Farewell (or A Eulogy)
Our culture is in the process of banishing two of the great handmaidens of civilization. I'm not thinking of truth and beauty, although the same could be truly said of them (and indeed they are the greatest, second only to the great triad of faith, hope, and love), but rather of another pair: nobility and wonder. In their place, we have chosen cynicism and flippancy - cheap and shriveled substitutes for the living glory we might have known.
When I use the word "nobility," I am not referring to aristocratic hierarchies or rich and landed persons, but to an "elevation of mind and exaltation of character," to high ideals and upright conduct. Nobility is what enables a person (and collectively, a society) to see innate worth rather than mere hedonistic or utilitarian value in every individual human being, to pursue true honor and seek after deeper meaning without forsaking dignity and courtesy, and to labor wholeheartedly for a cause because it is right and true and glorious and beautiful even if it has no earthly hope of success. It is a focus on deeper and higher things - an eternal perspective - that enables production rather than consumption and allows one to be content and at peace in any material circumstance. It is a quietness of the heart that leads to efficacious action rather than to indolence, because it is coupled with a great purpose: to know and will the good. In this quietness, filled and made great by the desire for the good, there is no room for petty complaints, for selfish worries, or for the trivial thoughts and actions that waste a life; there is no capacity for scoffing at or ridiculing anything that aspires to the good.
Wonder has no capacity for scoffing at all. Wonder looks at the world around her and delights in the beauty of it all, dances to its secret songs, falls back in awe at the marvels she beholds. She is like a child in her open curiosity and excitement, but with the maturity and wisdom to endure through great trials and see the glory behind this pain, the light beyond these dreary shadows. You might accuse of her of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses; she would retort that you must be looking at it through blackened ones. She asks why "the way things really are" must always be the way that holds the most hurt, that allows for the most sin, that conceals corruption and falsehood, when God is good and has made a good world. It is not that she ignores all that is bad and decaying and cruel - it is simply that these things fade away in the light of all the wondrous things she sees as well. Her eyes look into the eternal, and her heart is filled with a joy greater than all temporal ills, which no evil can destroy. While she may appear foolishly innocent and hopelessly naive, she has in reality found a solid rock beneath the shifting sands on which those around her have staked their souls, and she has seen the truth to which they have blinded their eyes. She sees the permanent unfading goodness against which the winds of trouble and sin beat in vain, and rejoices in that goodness rather than despairing at the winds.
How sharply nobility contrasts with the flippant and mocking attitude of our culture today! We would rather stand by and laugh (and what a deadened, joyless laughter it is, in the bitterness of our hearts) at the demise of our communities and families than hope and labor for their healing; we laugh too at those who do labor, and take pleasure in their failures, because then we can proudly proclaim how right we were about the fall of civilization. It is damning to say that we saw things fall apart and chose to do nothing, even if the fall were inevitable; but we see only how we might come out on the top of the pile at the end of that fall and then laugh in our self-assured complacency all the way to the bottom. Then, to make our consciences rest easy at the deceit, exploitation, filth, and pain that we rely upon to maintain our material comfort and fill our empty hearts, we make innocence a joke and ridicule those deluded enough to believe in beauty and to cling to truth. There is no quietness except the stillness of the morgue; no peace except the final rest of death.
And how complete is the separation between open-eyed, childlike wonder and our harsh, defensive cynicism! More than anything else, cynicism is the last defense of the terrified heart against despair: by assuming the worst in advance, with an attitude of knowing negativity, one can escape the pain of thwarted dreams and even take pride in one's ability to avoid the delusions of joy. After all, it is undeniable that things will go wrong in this life, and that people will disappoint us. Why should we trust anyone, when we have been hurt and seen other be hurt by betrayal of such trust? Why should we look for beauty in anything, when the startling filthy ugliness of sin has jumped out at us from so many seemingly beautiful people and places? How can we open our hearts again to beauty and light and truth when we have begun to doubt that they exist at all, when we have been crushed in the darkness and cruelty of this life? In our cynicism, we can feel that at least all this pain has made us wise enough to understand the darkness of the world. And we look down upon wonder and joy with cool and sneering disdain, because in the depths of our hearts we hate and despise them as cheats - even as we desperately crave what they pretend to give - but know how foolish it would be to reveal those true feelings. In wonder, every emotion is genuine and life, imbued with the light of truth, overflows with joy; in cynicism, no sincere feeling is revealed, and the heart, being covered with deceit, moulders in the dust of fear and the black rot of hate.
Nobility offers to take the pain and fight the evil, regardless of the consequences; its deepest desire is to do what is right, and not merely to do what is right but to pour itself out in the doing, and not solely to pour itself out in the doing, but to suffer all the pain of the doing in themselves. Nobility seeks to not to draw in, but to give out; not to obtain personal pleasure, but to do what is right that others might thus be uplifted:
"'If I were to be made a knight,' said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, 'I should insist on doing the vigil by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left, and, if I were defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it.'
'That would be extremely presumptuous of you,' said Merlyn, 'and you would be conquered, and you would suffer for it.'
'I shouldn't mind.'
[...]
Merlyn wrung his hands. 'Well, anyway,' he said, 'suppose they did not let you stand against all the evil in the world?'
'I could ask,' said the Wart.
'You could ask,' repeated Merlyn.
He thrust the end of his beard into his mouth, stared tragically at the fire, and began to munch it fiercely." - T.H. White, The Once and Future King
Wonder sees the world and rejoices that it is. If we can mourn a loss or complain at the downward path some things are taking, we can with wonder celebrate those things that are not lost, and praise those things that rise upward. While we know that all is not well now, that there is pain and darkness and sin, we do not have to be absorbed by those negative things: we can wonder and delight in the things that are good in opposition to the evil and in the things that are good simply in being themselves:
"This elementary wonder, however, is not a mere fancy derived from the fairy tales; on the contrary, all the fire of the fairy tales is derived from this. [...] These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water. [...]
The wonder has a positive element of praise. [...] Here I am only trying to describe the enormous emotions which cannot be described. And the strongest emotion was that life was as precious as it was puzzling. It was an ecstasy because it was an adventure; it was an adventure because it was an opportunity. The goodness of the fairy tale was not affected by the fact that there might be more dragons than princesses; it was good to be in a fairy tale." - G.K. Chesteron, Orthodoxy
We have dismissed King Arthur as a myth, turning him into a comic buffoon or an ignorant medieval warrior, so his nobility will not affront our flippancy. Chesterton we never knew - and what did he know about life, anyways, that deluded Christian author from a wealthy family in a privileged nation? God we have forgotten. And with Him we have forgotten how to conduct ourselves with the honor of a noble spirit and the joy of a wondering heart; we have forgotten how to be truly civilized, and so all things come apart.
When I use the word "nobility," I am not referring to aristocratic hierarchies or rich and landed persons, but to an "elevation of mind and exaltation of character," to high ideals and upright conduct. Nobility is what enables a person (and collectively, a society) to see innate worth rather than mere hedonistic or utilitarian value in every individual human being, to pursue true honor and seek after deeper meaning without forsaking dignity and courtesy, and to labor wholeheartedly for a cause because it is right and true and glorious and beautiful even if it has no earthly hope of success. It is a focus on deeper and higher things - an eternal perspective - that enables production rather than consumption and allows one to be content and at peace in any material circumstance. It is a quietness of the heart that leads to efficacious action rather than to indolence, because it is coupled with a great purpose: to know and will the good. In this quietness, filled and made great by the desire for the good, there is no room for petty complaints, for selfish worries, or for the trivial thoughts and actions that waste a life; there is no capacity for scoffing at or ridiculing anything that aspires to the good.
Wonder has no capacity for scoffing at all. Wonder looks at the world around her and delights in the beauty of it all, dances to its secret songs, falls back in awe at the marvels she beholds. She is like a child in her open curiosity and excitement, but with the maturity and wisdom to endure through great trials and see the glory behind this pain, the light beyond these dreary shadows. You might accuse of her of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses; she would retort that you must be looking at it through blackened ones. She asks why "the way things really are" must always be the way that holds the most hurt, that allows for the most sin, that conceals corruption and falsehood, when God is good and has made a good world. It is not that she ignores all that is bad and decaying and cruel - it is simply that these things fade away in the light of all the wondrous things she sees as well. Her eyes look into the eternal, and her heart is filled with a joy greater than all temporal ills, which no evil can destroy. While she may appear foolishly innocent and hopelessly naive, she has in reality found a solid rock beneath the shifting sands on which those around her have staked their souls, and she has seen the truth to which they have blinded their eyes. She sees the permanent unfading goodness against which the winds of trouble and sin beat in vain, and rejoices in that goodness rather than despairing at the winds.
How sharply nobility contrasts with the flippant and mocking attitude of our culture today! We would rather stand by and laugh (and what a deadened, joyless laughter it is, in the bitterness of our hearts) at the demise of our communities and families than hope and labor for their healing; we laugh too at those who do labor, and take pleasure in their failures, because then we can proudly proclaim how right we were about the fall of civilization. It is damning to say that we saw things fall apart and chose to do nothing, even if the fall were inevitable; but we see only how we might come out on the top of the pile at the end of that fall and then laugh in our self-assured complacency all the way to the bottom. Then, to make our consciences rest easy at the deceit, exploitation, filth, and pain that we rely upon to maintain our material comfort and fill our empty hearts, we make innocence a joke and ridicule those deluded enough to believe in beauty and to cling to truth. There is no quietness except the stillness of the morgue; no peace except the final rest of death.
And how complete is the separation between open-eyed, childlike wonder and our harsh, defensive cynicism! More than anything else, cynicism is the last defense of the terrified heart against despair: by assuming the worst in advance, with an attitude of knowing negativity, one can escape the pain of thwarted dreams and even take pride in one's ability to avoid the delusions of joy. After all, it is undeniable that things will go wrong in this life, and that people will disappoint us. Why should we trust anyone, when we have been hurt and seen other be hurt by betrayal of such trust? Why should we look for beauty in anything, when the startling filthy ugliness of sin has jumped out at us from so many seemingly beautiful people and places? How can we open our hearts again to beauty and light and truth when we have begun to doubt that they exist at all, when we have been crushed in the darkness and cruelty of this life? In our cynicism, we can feel that at least all this pain has made us wise enough to understand the darkness of the world. And we look down upon wonder and joy with cool and sneering disdain, because in the depths of our hearts we hate and despise them as cheats - even as we desperately crave what they pretend to give - but know how foolish it would be to reveal those true feelings. In wonder, every emotion is genuine and life, imbued with the light of truth, overflows with joy; in cynicism, no sincere feeling is revealed, and the heart, being covered with deceit, moulders in the dust of fear and the black rot of hate.
Nobility offers to take the pain and fight the evil, regardless of the consequences; its deepest desire is to do what is right, and not merely to do what is right but to pour itself out in the doing, and not solely to pour itself out in the doing, but to suffer all the pain of the doing in themselves. Nobility seeks to not to draw in, but to give out; not to obtain personal pleasure, but to do what is right that others might thus be uplifted:
"'If I were to be made a knight,' said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, 'I should insist on doing the vigil by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left, and, if I were defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it.'
'That would be extremely presumptuous of you,' said Merlyn, 'and you would be conquered, and you would suffer for it.'
'I shouldn't mind.'
[...]
Merlyn wrung his hands. 'Well, anyway,' he said, 'suppose they did not let you stand against all the evil in the world?'
'I could ask,' said the Wart.
'You could ask,' repeated Merlyn.
He thrust the end of his beard into his mouth, stared tragically at the fire, and began to munch it fiercely." - T.H. White, The Once and Future King
Wonder sees the world and rejoices that it is. If we can mourn a loss or complain at the downward path some things are taking, we can with wonder celebrate those things that are not lost, and praise those things that rise upward. While we know that all is not well now, that there is pain and darkness and sin, we do not have to be absorbed by those negative things: we can wonder and delight in the things that are good in opposition to the evil and in the things that are good simply in being themselves:
"This elementary wonder, however, is not a mere fancy derived from the fairy tales; on the contrary, all the fire of the fairy tales is derived from this. [...] These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water. [...]
The wonder has a positive element of praise. [...] Here I am only trying to describe the enormous emotions which cannot be described. And the strongest emotion was that life was as precious as it was puzzling. It was an ecstasy because it was an adventure; it was an adventure because it was an opportunity. The goodness of the fairy tale was not affected by the fact that there might be more dragons than princesses; it was good to be in a fairy tale." - G.K. Chesteron, Orthodoxy
We have dismissed King Arthur as a myth, turning him into a comic buffoon or an ignorant medieval warrior, so his nobility will not affront our flippancy. Chesterton we never knew - and what did he know about life, anyways, that deluded Christian author from a wealthy family in a privileged nation? God we have forgotten. And with Him we have forgotten how to conduct ourselves with the honor of a noble spirit and the joy of a wondering heart; we have forgotten how to be truly civilized, and so all things come apart.
Friday, January 6, 2012
A Prayer
In the midst of the world's chaos, may we find peace in Christ.
When all around us society crumbles, communities fall apart, and people's lives are broken, and everyone seems hell-bent on progressing in the course that brought us to this place, may we find hope in the faithfulness of our Lord. May we remember that His promises are true and that His Word cannot be shaken.
When all our civil leaders are tainted by corruption and greed, and political campaigning becomes political mudslinging with no hope of integrity or improvement, may we remember that we are ultimately citizens of heaven, and may we find strength in the knowledge that God's throne is founded on righteousness and justice.
When people we know, in the face of society's brokenness, still tell us that supporting marriage and family is "weird", may we learn to feel compassion rather than contempt for the blindness - and may we remember that God has power both to open their eyes and to heal the torn fabric of our nation's families. May we remember that no obstacle is too great for Him to overcome, no wrong tradition so firmly entrenched that He cannot uproot it.
When the pain in the eyes and the bitter words of others reveal the despair and empty loneliness of their hearts, may we, by Your grace, Lord, be ministers of that grace to them in their hurt and in their lostness. May we remember that Your grace has saved us out of the depths of our sin! - and thus is more than sufficient to save and heal these others also.
In the valley of the shadow of death, may we find comfort in Your guiding presence.
When all around us society crumbles, communities fall apart, and people's lives are broken, and everyone seems hell-bent on progressing in the course that brought us to this place, may we find hope in the faithfulness of our Lord. May we remember that His promises are true and that His Word cannot be shaken.
When all our civil leaders are tainted by corruption and greed, and political campaigning becomes political mudslinging with no hope of integrity or improvement, may we remember that we are ultimately citizens of heaven, and may we find strength in the knowledge that God's throne is founded on righteousness and justice.
When people we know, in the face of society's brokenness, still tell us that supporting marriage and family is "weird", may we learn to feel compassion rather than contempt for the blindness - and may we remember that God has power both to open their eyes and to heal the torn fabric of our nation's families. May we remember that no obstacle is too great for Him to overcome, no wrong tradition so firmly entrenched that He cannot uproot it.
When the pain in the eyes and the bitter words of others reveal the despair and empty loneliness of their hearts, may we, by Your grace, Lord, be ministers of that grace to them in their hurt and in their lostness. May we remember that Your grace has saved us out of the depths of our sin! - and thus is more than sufficient to save and heal these others also.
In the valley of the shadow of death, may we find comfort in Your guiding presence.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Hope in the darkness
I've been struggling to write about anything lately, partly because I've been reading too much too quickly without enough accompanying rumination (and partly because what I have been ruminating about isn't in line with what I try to write about here). I do apologize for that!
With that said, today I still do not have a specific thought or topic in mind, but I do have a general feeling or mood. I've been reading about the state of the DRC, about the Occupy Wall Street movement, about the aftereffects of feminism, about famine and disease across the world, and about finance and economics here in the US, and honestly it's been rather depressing. Everywhere one turns, it seems, the world is rife with sin - really horrifying sin in some places, and in every place sin that is entrenched and unchallenged - and filled with pain. If death is the payment for sin, pain must be the benefits that accompany the salary. In the face of all those problems, especially knowing that they will necessarily become worse if the world follows its current course, it can be hard to remain hopeful about the future. What is there to be hopeful for? Will the DRC, along with other struggling nations in Africa and elsewhere in the world, find healing and restoration? Most likely not, at least in the near future, without a dramatic intervention by God. Will people in the US learn to take responsibility for themselves and the consequences of their choices, and rebuild a stable society? Perhaps, but it seems like at least half of the population is bent on destroying any long-term society in the name of short-term peace and prosperity, so I wouldn't count on it.
Everywhere I look, people are pointing out the problems in the world, and finding someone or some group or some ideology to blame those problems on. Problems in Africa? Blame the blacks (not linking the article I read here as it was really hateful), or Western interference, or the environment! Problems between the sexes? Blame the women who live for their own pleasure and "fulfillment" at the expense of their husbands and children - or blame the men who live with their parents and play video games and overall refuse to "man up"! Problems with the economy? Blame the ones who make irresponsible choices and don't want to live with the struggles they've made for themselves - or blame the ones who sit in power and wealth and increase their gain with corruption and greed! While the articles I linked tend to be courteous and respectful about their arguments (I picked ones I liked, for the most part), there is a lot of blaming going on elsewhere, and the general atmosphere of it is hard to escape. Even when I agree with a point or an argument the net effect is incredibly disheartening (and my recent reading list hasn't even included directly political issues, religious issues, or education issues, which I know from past experience can be even more discouraging to me).
My friends, if we want to change the world, we have to start on our knees. Anyone who chooses to open their eyes can see that there are problems, and anyone born with a sin nature knows the incredible strength of the human desire to follow our own lusts and emotions regardless of the consequences for ourselves or for other people. Problems aren't going to be solved by pointing them out to the people responsible because, all too often, they simply don't care. They have chosen that path, they have seen the consequences, and they have continued to walk down it. The world might go to hell in a handbasket, but at least they did what they wanted as it went. We cannot look to other people for hope, because the basis for hope is not found in humanity but in God.
This is where the dark mood of this post begins to change: in God. While we are not capable of redeeming and restoring the world through our own efforts (witness many generations of attempts and many billions of dollars spent towards these ends throughout history), God is capable of that task. He begins in the heart of each individual and works up from there to restore society, to create beauty, to build stability, and to renew love in community. Looking at the state of our world, it is obvious that this will not be a quick or easy fix - but the Lord of all the Universe has already given His own Son towards the work and we can be sure that He will not fail at what He has begun. There will be restoration, and all things will be new! If we hold on through the darkness to the hope we have received through Christ, we will see that hope fulfilled.
With that said, today I still do not have a specific thought or topic in mind, but I do have a general feeling or mood. I've been reading about the state of the DRC, about the Occupy Wall Street movement, about the aftereffects of feminism, about famine and disease across the world, and about finance and economics here in the US, and honestly it's been rather depressing. Everywhere one turns, it seems, the world is rife with sin - really horrifying sin in some places, and in every place sin that is entrenched and unchallenged - and filled with pain. If death is the payment for sin, pain must be the benefits that accompany the salary. In the face of all those problems, especially knowing that they will necessarily become worse if the world follows its current course, it can be hard to remain hopeful about the future. What is there to be hopeful for? Will the DRC, along with other struggling nations in Africa and elsewhere in the world, find healing and restoration? Most likely not, at least in the near future, without a dramatic intervention by God. Will people in the US learn to take responsibility for themselves and the consequences of their choices, and rebuild a stable society? Perhaps, but it seems like at least half of the population is bent on destroying any long-term society in the name of short-term peace and prosperity, so I wouldn't count on it.
Everywhere I look, people are pointing out the problems in the world, and finding someone or some group or some ideology to blame those problems on. Problems in Africa? Blame the blacks (not linking the article I read here as it was really hateful), or Western interference, or the environment! Problems between the sexes? Blame the women who live for their own pleasure and "fulfillment" at the expense of their husbands and children - or blame the men who live with their parents and play video games and overall refuse to "man up"! Problems with the economy? Blame the ones who make irresponsible choices and don't want to live with the struggles they've made for themselves - or blame the ones who sit in power and wealth and increase their gain with corruption and greed! While the articles I linked tend to be courteous and respectful about their arguments (I picked ones I liked, for the most part), there is a lot of blaming going on elsewhere, and the general atmosphere of it is hard to escape. Even when I agree with a point or an argument the net effect is incredibly disheartening (and my recent reading list hasn't even included directly political issues, religious issues, or education issues, which I know from past experience can be even more discouraging to me).
My friends, if we want to change the world, we have to start on our knees. Anyone who chooses to open their eyes can see that there are problems, and anyone born with a sin nature knows the incredible strength of the human desire to follow our own lusts and emotions regardless of the consequences for ourselves or for other people. Problems aren't going to be solved by pointing them out to the people responsible because, all too often, they simply don't care. They have chosen that path, they have seen the consequences, and they have continued to walk down it. The world might go to hell in a handbasket, but at least they did what they wanted as it went. We cannot look to other people for hope, because the basis for hope is not found in humanity but in God.
This is where the dark mood of this post begins to change: in God. While we are not capable of redeeming and restoring the world through our own efforts (witness many generations of attempts and many billions of dollars spent towards these ends throughout history), God is capable of that task. He begins in the heart of each individual and works up from there to restore society, to create beauty, to build stability, and to renew love in community. Looking at the state of our world, it is obvious that this will not be a quick or easy fix - but the Lord of all the Universe has already given His own Son towards the work and we can be sure that He will not fail at what He has begun. There will be restoration, and all things will be new! If we hold on through the darkness to the hope we have received through Christ, we will see that hope fulfilled.
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors together with birth pangs until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?" - Romans 8:18-24I urge you (as one weak and easily discouraged herself, and much in need of her own advice) not to become disheartened and discouraged as you see the world falling apart around you. It has been falling apart ever since man fell first, and only the common grace of God is keeping it together now, and only His saving grace can fully restore and make it right. That is why it is so important, if we truly want things to change, to pray about those things, to lift up those needs and that darkness to the Lord! For we have this promise, in which we hope: that He will accomplish that end and that, in Him, one day, the earth shall be full of joy and love and glory as it is now full of sorrow and bitterness and cruelty. That hope is reason to smile even when faced with the darkness and sin of the world, because we know it will not last and cannot conquer.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Bonhoeffer on life and identity in Christ
I have no thoughts of my own right now, but here is a thought that I need to remember more often as I go through life:
"... the Christian is the man who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself, but in Jesus Christ alone. He knows that God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him guilty, even when he does not feel his guilt, and God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him not guilty and righteous, even when he does not feel that he is righteous at all. The Christian no longer lives of himself, by his own claims and his own justification, but by God's claim and God's justification. He lives wholly by God's Word pronounced upon him, whether that Word declares him guilty or innocent." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
"... the Christian is the man who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself, but in Jesus Christ alone. He knows that God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him guilty, even when he does not feel his guilt, and God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him not guilty and righteous, even when he does not feel that he is righteous at all. The Christian no longer lives of himself, by his own claims and his own justification, but by God's claim and God's justification. He lives wholly by God's Word pronounced upon him, whether that Word declares him guilty or innocent." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Saturday, September 3, 2011
The wisdom of women
I had the great pleasure of attending a friend's baby shower today (her baby girl is due October 7!), and have since been thinking about the three great transitional moments of a woman's life. First a girl becomes a woman; then she becomes a wife; then she becomes a mother. At each moment more traditions are handed down, more memories are passed from one generation to the next - one generation receives the knowledge of all the generations before them, a scroll, so to speak, aged and fragile, colored with the stains of time, bearing our mothers' wisdom. And we read it with eager eyes of anticipation - and then we read it again, with desperate eyes in the frantic stress of life, and we cry our hearts out because all that wisdom cannot solve our problems or make our lives comfortable.
But when we have cried all our tears, and come to the eerie quiet at the bottom of sorrow and struggle, we are reminded that our mothers never promised that their advice would fix all the hardships in our lives. They never claimed that their wisdom would make the situations in which we walk any easier to travel. Rather, they made the even greater claim that if we lived by that wisdom, we would change - that we would be able to bear the burdens life laid upon us, and be able to find peace and strength even in the midst of hardship and grief.
Change hurts. It isn't comfortable or pleasant to undergo the kind of pressure that will actually affect lasting transformation! But at least as women we have the accumulated wisdom of our mothers and grandmothers to guide us through that pressure to the beauty of a changed life. We do not have to walk the path of faith alone; all the women who have walked it before us lend us their support, and freely give to us the grace and knowledge they have won through fire.
But when we have cried all our tears, and come to the eerie quiet at the bottom of sorrow and struggle, we are reminded that our mothers never promised that their advice would fix all the hardships in our lives. They never claimed that their wisdom would make the situations in which we walk any easier to travel. Rather, they made the even greater claim that if we lived by that wisdom, we would change - that we would be able to bear the burdens life laid upon us, and be able to find peace and strength even in the midst of hardship and grief.
Change hurts. It isn't comfortable or pleasant to undergo the kind of pressure that will actually affect lasting transformation! But at least as women we have the accumulated wisdom of our mothers and grandmothers to guide us through that pressure to the beauty of a changed life. We do not have to walk the path of faith alone; all the women who have walked it before us lend us their support, and freely give to us the grace and knowledge they have won through fire.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Aborted from the mind
I recently read a NYT article about elective twin-reduction abortions (first through the Mere Comments blog, and then through the recommendation of a friend). It is so sad :( Basically, these women discover they're having twins and decide that they can't handle it - they don't have the time, or money, or emotional capacity, etc. So they have one of the twins aborted, and carry the other one as a single pregnancy. Can you imagine what that surviving kid would think and feel if they ever found out?
Honestly, to me this sounds like the same old argument for abortion. Why should we make a pregnant, unmarried teen carry her baby when she doesn't have the money to raise him, or the time to care for him and still make it through school or find a job, or the maturity and life experience to know what to do? So we feel sympathy for her (which is right and good) and allow her to have an abortion (which is not right or good).
The degree to which we as a society approve of abortion goes up as we feel pity for the mother's plight and goes down as we lose that pity. This was noticeable in the NYT's comments on the article above. Those who felt that raising twins was horribly difficult and not worth the fatigue and labor and inconvenience it brought to the mother's life were much more in favor of twin-reduction abortions (and they tried to make it sound morally acceptable by talking about how much more love and attention the mother would be able to give to the remaining child, as if love came in fixed quantities - oops, I gave my first child 100% of my mother-love, so now if I have a second one I'll have to love the first one less! - which is false). Others, who noticed that most mothers opting for this procedure were on the wealthy side, felt that the choice was purely selfish and unnecessary, and thus had far less pity and far less approval.
But none of the commenters (at least none of the many I read) judged it by an objective moral standard. It seemed to come down to whether or not they could justify it somehow, and "feel comfortable" with the procedure. None of them clearly said that the other twin - the one who was killed - was just as much a person as the second. The only difference was that the mother only wanted one child, not two. She had a picture in her mind of a single beautiful baby, and the presence of a second one overwhelmed her and clashed with her desires. Patrick Henry Reardon had it right when he said that "children are now being aborted in the flesh, because they have already been, in large measure, aborted from the mind" - that our culture "has largely stopped thinking of children as gifts from God."
If children are gifts from God, then we have no right to kill them. If they are our own creation, intended to satisfy our own desires, merely "potential" human beings as long as they are still dependent in the womb, then there should be no problem. Why it is any more or less morally reprehensible to abort a single pregnancy than to abort one of twins?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sisters of Life
Reading the Touchstone Mere Comments blog this morning, I came across a link to a very encouraging article about a group of nuns in New York City who are providing a home and resources to unwed mothers, as an alternative to abortion. They give them a place to live for up to 6 months before the baby is born and up to a year after, which allows the women to study or work and gives them the support they need during a time that could otherwise be extremely hard both emotionally and financially.
Anyway, it is really awesome to see an example of people living out their faith in selflessness and commitment, making a profound difference in the lives of others, so I thought I'd pass it along :)
Monday, July 25, 2011
Death and life
I think that my mind dwells too readily on death. Sometimes when my heart is full of pain and weariness I think about my own death, and it seems like a doorway of hope into a world of beauty and light. Other times, when my heart is full of need and fear, I think about the death of the people I love because I dread losing them. The slightest thing can go wrong in a schedule and my mind will wonder if they've had a car crash and I'll never see them again - or they can go in to the doctor for a cold or a minor problem and I worry that they'll have cancer or some other incurable disease and I'll have to begin the long process of saying goodbye. Anyway, I don't know if it's altogether good to be thinking of death so much, at least in the ways in which I think of it. Death isn't something either to be sought out or to be feared, I think.
To fear death is to be attached to the comforts of life at the expense of the greatness of life. It demonstrates a willingness to remain half-human, absorbed in trivial pleasures, blinding oneself to the breathtaking visions and dreams of life because of the risks they entail. It is to see a narrower world than that which exists in reality - to see only the separation for a time and fail to see the reunion of eternity, to acknowledge only the pain of today and not the joy of forever. It is to think, in incredible pride, that one's own pain and suffering in this moment outweighs all the other purposes for which God is calling a person (oneself or another) out of this world.
In both cases there is a lack of trust in God and an attempt to control one's own life apart from Him. Neither reflects those timeless words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." He did not go wildly forth seeking his own death in his own timing, because he knew that God had a further purpose for his life here on earth, and likewise he did not limit what he ventured for the gospel in fear of the possibility of death. He risked death because he wanted to live for something greater than himself.
To seek death is to forsake life - to deem all that life holds insufficient and worthless, to spurn the plans of God, to declare oneself the ultimate authority and power while simultaneously feeling utterly helpless and insignificant. It is the fight - the last desperate stand and even the apparent victory - of pride and the desire for self-sufficiency against the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of life and the unconquerable and undeniable faults and sins in oneself. It appears courageous to take that step into the utter unknown, but it is equally a cringing mournful fear of the perceived pain and hopelessness of life.
To fear death is to be attached to the comforts of life at the expense of the greatness of life. It demonstrates a willingness to remain half-human, absorbed in trivial pleasures, blinding oneself to the breathtaking visions and dreams of life because of the risks they entail. It is to see a narrower world than that which exists in reality - to see only the separation for a time and fail to see the reunion of eternity, to acknowledge only the pain of today and not the joy of forever. It is to think, in incredible pride, that one's own pain and suffering in this moment outweighs all the other purposes for which God is calling a person (oneself or another) out of this world.
In both cases there is a lack of trust in God and an attempt to control one's own life apart from Him. Neither reflects those timeless words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." He did not go wildly forth seeking his own death in his own timing, because he knew that God had a further purpose for his life here on earth, and likewise he did not limit what he ventured for the gospel in fear of the possibility of death. He risked death because he wanted to live for something greater than himself.
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