Dave | unobtrusive lucidity

How Could He?

I overheard a question this week; well, I suppose it was more of a statement, really. In any case, it went something like this:

“I don’t believe in God. If there was a God, why would He let us live like this?”

As usual, things that I see and hear tend to meld together with other things I’ve seen and heard. I say that because I also read a quote this week; I can’t remember it exactly (or find it with a cursory internet search), but it spoke to the effect of our being our brother’s brother, and that what effects one of us directly effects the rest of us indirectly.

One seemed to be the answer to the other to me. I think the reason that God would allow us to live like this is because we choose to live like this. The artist understands perhaps better than anyone else the creative impulse of our freedom to choose, freedom to move in the direction we choose, freedom to do and say what we want. I suppose that any parent (I’m not one, so I can’t relate, but I’m guessing) can understand all too well the pain of raising a child in the best wisdom and values they can, knowing that the child has the freedom ultimately to make poor decisions as an adult, and to see them make those feared poor decisions years later. I think it is like that with God: He designed us with the bittersweet creative knowledge that we were endowed with the same freedom that He is; that we can choose to see Him or remain blind to Him, to accept Him or to trick ourselves into believing that He is a product of our imaginations, to follow Him or say “no, thanks.”

Unrequited love is the most painful. We are all vulnerable to it, because when you love someone, there’s never a guarantee that they will love you back. Worse, one’s decision to hate instead of love has a “butterfly” effect. Our decisions do not, cannot, exist in a vacuum; they have repercussions, good or bad, for both ourselves and others. So we can’t control others’ actions any more than we can make them love us. And, often, if we do love someone, it leads us to not control their actions. I think both apply to that ultimate question.

He won’t force us to love Him back.

That’s why He can allow us to live like this.

I’m wondering how it is that we can continue to do so?

Rock N’ Roll Dreams

Karen and I were sitting in a restaurant Friday night, and there was a family behind us. They had a daughter…I’m not sure how old she was, but I’d guess around 15. The daughter was talking about music, and she suddenly mentioned the band Skid Row.

Have you ever had one phrase stop all the other sounds around you, so that you could only hear the person who said it? That’s how oddly impactful that name was to me.

See, I went through my metal phase in high school, and Skid Row was one of my favorites during that rebellious period. I can’t still scream out the chorus to “Youth Gone Wild” with little thought involved. It was just funny to me that someone of that age would be conversant with 80’s metal (although I think Skid Row released a new album about a year ago).

Today, I saw a boy, younger than 15 by my best guess, wearing a Guns N’ Roses t-shirt: the one that corresponded with their Appetite For Destruction album. Anyone else able to recall the edgy “Welcome To The Jungle,” or the seducing guitar line to “Sweet Child Of Mine”? Again, I was amazed.

Also a little disturbed that oldies music for them is what I grew up on. Geez, this smells like a mid-life crisis.

Seriously, though. Isn’t that funny?

Past Wisdom

I think our country frequently fails to listen to wisdom from our past. Or perhaps we forget about it. More often than not, I fear we have become too illiterate to know it existed.

I stumbled onto this quote from Benjamin Franklin today:

“Those who would give a little liberty for a little security deserve neither and will lose both.”

Hmmm…now what could America learn from this?

Jesus? Jesus, Anyone?

You already know I’m not a huge fan or religion. I’m particularly disdained, however, at the fact that religion can now be confused with pedophilia.

Friday, prosecutors in the Warren Jeffs polygamy case urged jury members to uphold the sanctity of the purity of a girl who, at age 14, was allegedly forced, against her better judgment, to marry her cousin and submit to his sexual advances.

I can’t even describe to you how disgusting that is. First of all, she was 14. Modern psychology tells us that, as a rule, individuals of that age are not prepared for the emotional ramifications resulting from an act of sexual intercourse…even assuming that they are physically ready, which I find myself doubting. Secondly, to compound the issue further, she was his cousin! West Virginia jokes aside, I was under the understanding that both incest and pedophilia were illegal. Those are some of those comforting laws that come with living in a civilized culture.

Last night, however, on Anderson Cooper 360, attorneys could be viewed arguing (you can catch it on the podcast) that Jeffs was protected from legal charges in encouraging this unholy union by stating that this fell under his freedom of religion, and that it is his faith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) that is under attack here, not him.

I nearly screamed in pain.

If there’s anything I disagree with less than religion, its the legal system (I think Shakespeare may have a had a point). But when our perverted system can actually formulate a response to protect someone who’s religion and status as a “prophet” have resulted, even if indirectly, in the incestuous rape of a little girl, and God knows what other sexual atrocities? Like I said: disgusting.

This is what happens, however, when not only the system goes horribly awry, but so does religion. Religion has replaced true spirituality in our culture. Anyone can claim that they are a a descendant of Jesus, like Jeffs has, and proceed to build a church (I use the word loosely) that will adhere to their every opinionated and twisted demand.

All that is required by anyone interested in spiritual pursuits is a cursory examination of the Scriptural accounts of Jesus’ life to discover that He finds these things abhorrent. You’ll also find, if you read a bit further, that He wasn’t a huge fan of religion as typically practiced, and it is that religion that has led us to this. At some point, the postmodern relativism of our twisted view of the Christ (and those who claim to be His prophets while obviously speaking out of sync with Him) must fall under scrutiny, and be held up against a standard of truth.

So what is that truth?

If you questioned Elissa Wall, the girl in question in the Jeffs case, I bet that she might say something to the effect of how she shouldn’t have been subjected to sex by her cousin when she was 14 years old. The epistemology may be subject to debate, but I imagine she would hold that fact to be truth.

It only becomes distorted when we do what the legal system does, and analyze it too far.

Contemplating Beauty

I woke up early a few days ago, and stood on our balcony for a while. It’s one of those places that make it easy for me to meditate and focus when I’m there…easy for me to see God. That morning I was actually there early enough (not necessarily happy to be awake that early, but…may as well make the best of it, right?) to see the pink tint start to come into the sky during daybreak. I had a chance to watch the pink overtake the dark, turn everything to blue, and become the morning.

It was beautiful.

I can’t think of what my life would be like if I didn’t make the time to meditate on things like that. Karen and I were talking a few days ago about how I’ve become more interested in quiet reflection as I’ve moved into my 30’s. Not like I’m old or anything, but it is a transition that has taken place.

I’ve found that I need to appreciate beauty.

Dostoyevsky said “beauty will save the world.” My first instinct was that that’s a pretty sweeping statement. But the more I find myself fixed on God after I’ve spent time thinking about beauty, the more I wonder if perhaps he wasn’t right, if even in an indirect, abstract sort of way.

In any case, I am a better person because of that sunrise. A couple of years ago, I remember sitting in a restaurant on Clearwater Beach outside of Tampa, Florida, and watching the sun set. The effect was even more pronounced then.

Will beauty save the world?

I don’t know. But it has at least changed mine for the better. I’m glad I’ve taken the time to see it.