No Man Is An Island
I'm not referring to the song from the 60's (though the lyric of that song is pretty powerful, and relates to the subject), but the book by Thomas Merton of the same title. I read the book years ago, but recently I received a new hardback edition from my wife, Anjie. She's given me Merton before, but there was something special about this gift, so I thought I'd better sit down and give it a new read.
Last week, on Wednesday, I caught an early morning flight to Rochester, Michigan, where I was scheduled to speak on the campus of Rochester College, hoping to bring a blessing to the artists there. (That's another blog entry.) As the plane crossed country, I was hammered by my allergies--sneezing, nose running, eyes itching, throat scratchy--which meant I was poised in my cabin seat halfway between insanity and comatose lethargy, marshalling every bit of energy I have to not do things for which I would later be sorry. Sheer comic madness, my nose big and red as a balloon.
So there I am, staring through half-open eyes at the wisdom of Thomas Merton, reading things like,
"Love not only prefers the good of another to my own, but it does not even compare the two. It has only one good, that of the beloved, which is, at the same time, my own."
"One who really loves another is not merely moved by the desire to see him contented and healthy and prosperous in this world. Love cannot be satisfied with anything so incomplete. If I am to love my brother, I must somehow enter deep into the mystery of God's love for him."
Love, freedom, God's will animating and acting on all of creation to bring about the good of those who love him, the death of self and the finding of the true self which is only found in God...these are themes Merton rolled me around in that day on the plane, and they've been working on me throughout the past week.
Here's one of the more arresting thoughts I've had, and only time will tell what becomes of it, but it relates to the will of God unfolding in my life as a result of the work of Christ in me through His Spirit. The pop culture question "What Would Jesus Do?" (it used to not be pop culture, but it is now) I have not typically found to be helpful. Dallas Willard argues it's not a useful question because most of us aren't prepared spiritually to do what Jesus would do in any given situation, but that's a sidebar--not my point.
A new question announced itself in my head, and I've thought about this whole notion every since. Here it is, the same question asked in a couple of different ways.
The way those questions strike my ears is different that the WWJD question. The WWJD question seems placed out of time, a lowest common denominator question that misses the idea that God's creation of me is specific, with DNA mapping of talents and tendencies, with particularities of culture and time, with opportunities for service that were not part of Jesus' historic paradigm. The life of Christ lived out on the body of Jeff Berryman, with this set of artistic skills, in this family, with these friends, in this local church body, with this local theatre, with these writer's groups, with this blog, with this lifelong desire and battling against depression, with all that is my life--what would Christ do with it if he had it to live instead of me?
He came to live the life God had called him to, saying over and over that he was only doing what his Father told him to do. So if I only did what my Father told me to do (assuming I could discover it, which Merton absolutely presupposes as a possiblity), would it be this thing I'm doing just now, today?
My point is not about discovering God's will, but about the willingness to shift the paradigm so that I truly believe I will only find my life by letting Christ live it.
More to come along these lines...
7:09:19 AM
