"You may talk about the nobility of human nature, but there is something in human nature which will laugh in the face of every ideal you have" -- Oswald.
I just started reading Now & Then by Frederick Buechner, and an early quote from one of Buechner's seminary professors, James Muilenburg, seems to complement Oswald's thoughts for today:
"'Every morning when you wake up,' he used to say, 'before you reaffirm your faith in the majesty of a loving God, before you say I believe for another day, read the Daily News with its record of the latest crimes and tragedies of mankind and then see if you can honestly say it again.'"
As Christians, Oswald writes, we are not to be "innocent," but "pure." I take that to mean that our faith should be an eyes-wide-open one in which we acknowledge that "the basis of life is tragic," that sin -- original and immediate -- and its consequences are wreaking havoc round about us, and yet, still, we daily choose to reaffirm our faith in the majesty of a loving God.
Tension and struggle are inherent in such a faith. Hence, the daily reaffirmation. The goal of this faith is not a mastery in which we then proceed on our own. No. No. No, Barb. You are so susceptible to that notion. The goal is to come again to him moment by moment. Though you've wandered away, come again. You cannot make sense of life on your own. You were never meant to.
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