I recently read a story about a Hasidic Rabbi who was very well-known for his piety and devotion. One day he was unexpectedly confronted by one of his young students. In a sudden burst of emotion, the student said, "Rabbi, I want you to know how much I truly love you."
The Rabbi looked up from his books and asked his young disciple, "Do you know what hurts me, my son?"
The young student was puzzled and taken totally off-guard. He said to the Rabbi, "I don't understand your question. I am trying to tell you how much you mean to me, and you confuse me with an irrelevant question."
"My question is neither confusing nor irrelevant," rejoined the Rabbi. "For if you do not know what hurts me, how can you truly love me?"
I often wonder if that is God's response when I go before Him in prayer, worship, and devotion. I often want to rejoice in His attributes and saving acts and to thank Him for the many blessings He given to me.
On the other hand, do I allow my heart to break over the things that He cares about? Faithlessness, hypocrisy, division, injustice, hatred, and perhaps especially religiosity: all of these things deservingly receive bitter rejection from God in Scripture.
Can I truly say that I love God until I am willing to allow myself to be wounded with the same pain that He feels as He looks out on this fallen world?
I do not at all approve of the homosexual Episcopal Bishop Eugene Robinson, who gave an invocation at one of the many inaugural events this past Tuesday. Yet as he prayed, asking God to bless us with tears, sadness and frustration over the many ills that continue to plague this great nation, I found myself nodding in agreement. Sin continues to plague this world, and I believe that there is a level of spiritual maturity that can only be achieved when we see that sin through God's eyes and respond with the same sadness.
May God continue to tender our hearts to reject the fallenness of our world, and may that compell us to go forth with the only true source of healing: the Name and Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Recommended Reading...
I recently re-read one of my favorite plays: The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot.
Eliot was a contemporary of "The Inklings" but did not share their common love for Medieval and Renaissance literature. Definitely a man of his own time, Eliot prefered modern poetry and contemporary themes for his plays and literature (with the exception of his Nobel-prize winning Murder in the Cathedral, which is a historical drama based on the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett). C. S. Lewis himself expressed a deep dislike for Eliot's style. However, near the end of both their lives, they worked together in committee on a new translation the Bible, and they developed a mutual respect for one another.
The Cocktail Party illustrates the messiness of modern relationships: the breakdowns in communication, the alienation, and the total misunderstandings that often occur between people. Though its theme is serious, it is a comedy. It centers on the failing marriage of Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne, although other friends with their own idiosyncracies are brought into the mix. The most interesting character is "the unidentified guest" at the cocktail party, originally portrayed by the master character actor Alec Guiness. This unidentified guest is later revealed to be a wise counselor who enables all the characters, especially Edward and Lavinia, to better understand the nature of their flawed relationships and the path that is necessary for healing.
Eliot's Christian faith shines throughout the play, often in specific lines, but also in its overall message: that it is sacrifical love that leads to the redemption of relationships. Although written sixty years ago, this play has much to teach our culture today, in which fragmented relationships have become the rule rather than the exception. I highly recommend it!
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the play:
"To invite a stranger is to invite the unexpected, to release a new force, or let the genie out of the bottle. It is to start a train of events beyond your control."
"What is hell? Hell is oneself, Hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone."
"I really want to believe that there is something wrong with me--because, if there isn't, then there is something wrong, or at least, very different from what it seemed to be, with the world itself--and that's much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I'd rather believe there is something wrong with me, that could be put right."
"You suffer from a sense of sin, Miss Coplestone? That's most unusual!"
"Only by acceptance of the past can you alter its meaning."
Eliot was a contemporary of "The Inklings" but did not share their common love for Medieval and Renaissance literature. Definitely a man of his own time, Eliot prefered modern poetry and contemporary themes for his plays and literature (with the exception of his Nobel-prize winning Murder in the Cathedral, which is a historical drama based on the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett). C. S. Lewis himself expressed a deep dislike for Eliot's style. However, near the end of both their lives, they worked together in committee on a new translation the Bible, and they developed a mutual respect for one another.
The Cocktail Party illustrates the messiness of modern relationships: the breakdowns in communication, the alienation, and the total misunderstandings that often occur between people. Though its theme is serious, it is a comedy. It centers on the failing marriage of Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne, although other friends with their own idiosyncracies are brought into the mix. The most interesting character is "the unidentified guest" at the cocktail party, originally portrayed by the master character actor Alec Guiness. This unidentified guest is later revealed to be a wise counselor who enables all the characters, especially Edward and Lavinia, to better understand the nature of their flawed relationships and the path that is necessary for healing.
Eliot's Christian faith shines throughout the play, often in specific lines, but also in its overall message: that it is sacrifical love that leads to the redemption of relationships. Although written sixty years ago, this play has much to teach our culture today, in which fragmented relationships have become the rule rather than the exception. I highly recommend it!
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the play:
"To invite a stranger is to invite the unexpected, to release a new force, or let the genie out of the bottle. It is to start a train of events beyond your control."
"What is hell? Hell is oneself, Hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone."
"I really want to believe that there is something wrong with me--because, if there isn't, then there is something wrong, or at least, very different from what it seemed to be, with the world itself--and that's much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I'd rather believe there is something wrong with me, that could be put right."
"You suffer from a sense of sin, Miss Coplestone? That's most unusual!"
"Only by acceptance of the past can you alter its meaning."
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