The way less traveled by...

What can really be said in the face of meaningless suffering? We question life and God, and he and life turn and question us instead. “Who are you,†he asks. “You act like, and strive for knowledge, as if you were god, but you are not. Consider my unfathomable ways.†Is it impossible to ask the meaning of life, for it is beyond our reach? Is our control of our lives only an illusion, just as we fool ourselves into thinking we can control the world? If you believe yourself to be suffering unjustly and meaninglessly, perhaps you have bought into the illusion that you can determine and order your life by righteousness, instead of living by trust. Perhaps you are being tempted to indict God.

Ultimate salvation does not rest with us, for we cannot even save ourselves day to day. Science advances, we live like kings, but cancer laughs at our impotence, and there is no peace in the land, no matter how much we believe in the power of the United Nations. The more we appear to succeed, according to the voices we prefer to listen to, the more believable the illusion becomes, and the more tempted we are to sit in judgement upon God when he won’t get with our program and vindicate our godhood.

What is Job's journey? He admits he has spoken of things he did not understand. Does he include his first and best reaction in 1:21 and 2:10? Perhaps he did not speak wrongly in those cases, but did not really understand. A change of knowledge has happened in his encounter with God. Perhaps his suffering was not ultimately meaningless, as his inner being has been brought into congruity with his words – “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.†(1:21)

The more I do Hebrew, and consequently the more I read, "in my father's house," which tends to crop up often, I remember all the talk about "houses" in Frank Herbert's Dune.

Not for the last time do I wonder whether I should have done English as my undergrad and then wrote/read/taught fiction.

For those who may still be following this blog... perhaps I'll write more when I'm not writing so much for school, which will be done in June/July!

I spent the summer learning Hebrew, and am now in "intermediate" Hebrew.

"Intermediate" may lead you, as it did me, to the conclusion that I would be attaining some sort of proficiency in the language. Sorry to disappoint, but I just spent 45 minutes "translating" Exodus 34:11-13. I must place "translating" in quotations because I purchased BibleWorks and rely heavily upon it. Hopefully Hebrew won't disappear as quickly from my brain as Greek did.

I'm also doing a class on Proverbs/Job/Ecclesiastes. The most interesting thing I've read lately consequently has been Eccl. 3:9-14. The burden of being pulled into the beauty of present and also carrying eternity in our hearts - being a limited and yet unlimited people - can be quite paralyzing, confusing, disheartening. I want to know the meaning of existence, and yet I can often do no better than enjoy a sunset and a cup of coffee; so beautiful in itself, and yet barely scratches the surface.

Consider that the teacher then comes to 3:12-14 where he finally for the first time says, "I know." All his questions, and now he says, "I know" something. What does he know? Give us some answers already! The focus shifts decisively towards God, the one who authors all of this.

Is he good? Can he be trusted? Can we find some sort of rest, caught between limited'ness and unlimited'ness given that this good and trustworthy God has made us this way "so that men will revere him?"

Hmmmm...

Here is Walker Percy's opinion, from The Message in a Bottle, p. 24:

To my surprise I am loving the Institutes. In particular, Calvin's discussion of the pursuit of righteousness is beautiful.

"But no one in this earthly prison of the body has sufficient strength to press on with due eagerness, and weakness so weighs down the greater number that, with wavering and limping and even creeping along the ground, they move at a feeble rate.

Let each one of us, then, proceed according to the measure of his puny capacity and set out upon the journey we have begun. No one shall set out so inauspiciously as not daily to make some headway, though it be slight. Therefore, let us not cease so to act that we may make some unceasing progress in the way of the Lord. And let us not despair at the slightness of our success; for even though attainment may not correspond to desire, when today outstrips yesterday the effort is not lost. Only let us look toward our mark with sincere simplicity and aspire to our goal; not fondly flattering ourselves, nor excusing our own evil deeds, but with continuous effort striving toward this end: that we may surpass ourselves in goodness until we attain to goodness itself.

It is this, indeed, which through the whole course of life we seek and follow. But we shall attain it only when we have cast off the weakness of the body, and are received into full fellowship with him."
(Vol. 1, p. 689)