(142) Hole-y Analogies & Reaping and Sowing

Author:  John
To:  Steve :-) and then Bob :-(

Steve, I know you are as excited as I am about Bob’s latest. All I can say (as Gomer used to say on the Andy Griffith Show, is “Gollleeee.” Gollleeeee, Steve, until now we didn’t know, we didn’t realize, we didn’t appreciate that our old friend Bob, our mild-mannered colleague for so many years, our co-dialoguer Bob in this very blog, is in fact a rare and incredibly wise Wise Man (of Biblical proportions) who evidently KNOWS THE MEANING OF LIFE! Yes, it is evident from his stunningly poignant and appropriate football analogy, that he is privy to a huge array of heretofore unknown secrets and truths about WHY WE ARE HERE, THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THIS GAME WE CALL LIFE, and HOW WE ARE SUPPOSED TO CONDUCT OURSELVES IN OUR VARIOUS ASSIGNED ROLES.

How else are we to interpret his game metaphor, but that Bob knows what every “player” is supposed to do, is able to judge any given player’s performance because he knows the exact role that person is supposed to play in life, and also knows what will happen if that person lives or fails to live accordingly? Yes, Steve, the fact that Bob, and only Bob, knows exactly what a left tackle is (even though we are all three witness to the metaphoric football game), knows what that position entails, knows what it’s duties and obligations are, and easily sees how well that individual is measuring up to those duties, tells me that Bob knows -- I tell you Steve he knows -- what any given individual’s purpose in this existence is and how he is or is not living up to that purpose in God’s eyes!

What other conclusion can I draw from such indicators from Bob as this: “It’s not a question of what I want to believe about our left tackle. It’s a matter of what anyone who’s looking can see out there on the playing field.” Steve, Bob can SEE THROUGH TO THE TRUTH and meaning of a person’s existence in ways that we can’t. (And what a great irony that until now he evidently didn’t even realize that you and I -- poor blind observers wallowing in ignorance that we are -- lacked his all-seeing, all knowing powers.)  Well, imagine how useful his clairvoyance is going to be now that we know Bob has this skill!  Steve, I for one am going to immediately request a private reading with Bob so that he can look ME over and clear up these questions about me that have haunted me all my life! I can’t wait to find out how well I have been doing at free safety, or maybe tailback, all these years!

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Well enough of that. Bob’s game metaphor has, in my opinion, more holes in it than Swiss cheese, and though I am sorely tempted to rebut each and every one of them, I think I will just limit my remarks to this more general response: :

In my opinion, we very obviously know very little about why we are here and how we are supposed to conduct ourselves. Nor do we know with any certainty much about “how we are doing” in God’s eyes. Nor do we know with any certainty if the things that befall us are due to chance, karma, reward and punishment, or intervention of other kinds by God (not to mention, as some Christians would, the possibility of an evil force also affecting us).

I think that the mind (and I use that term for lack of anything better) of God is so unimaginably “larger” and more profound than our minds that for us to try and describe its workings is likely to be about as successful and accurate as expecting a snail from the garden to understand the workings of this computer I am writing on. And I believe those workings of His mind include everything that we each experience minute by minute in our lives.

By that I do not mean that God predestines our actions, lives, or fates. As I’ve often stated, I think we have been given that greatest gift of free will, and how we use it is very important (but again in ways we cannot fully understand).

I think the best any of us can do is to CHOOSE to believe certain things about God and his relationship to us, and live our lives accordingly. I choose to believe that God is acting upon each and every one of us in ways that we cannot positively prove or possibly even detect. I choose to believe that God is witness to every single thought that passes through my head and every emotion I experience, and the same for every single human on this planet (not to mention other life forms on other planets). And the older I get, the more I feel in my bones that there is a purpose behind every single thing that happens, from the most joyous and uplifting to the most violent and seemingly unfair.

Now on to some other specific points that came to mind in reading Bob’s latest:

When I look over the things that Bob says he believes it is proper to pray for, what is missing from that list is obvious, and that omission, it seems to me, is a central disagreement between us. One rather large example of what Bob evidently does NOT think it appropriate to pray for is the healing of one’s own sickness, or even the sickness of others. (Now, I believe I could stop and find a passage or two in Bob’s own writing that seem to conflict with this. For example, I recall him being very impressed by a person he knew or met who was a complete unbeliever until he was visited by and evidently healed by the spirit of Jesus while waiting for death in a hospital bed. But I’m going to pass on that and some other examples in favor of a different point.) I personally believe, and have said several times in this trialogue, that Jesus healed people. And in fact, it is a very central theme in the Bible. So I would like to ask Bob a simple and direct question: does he or does he not believe that Jesus healed people? Dammit, I want a simple yes or no to this question.

But beyond that, when I look at that list of what it is proper to pray for, they mostly seem to indicate that prayer is simply a way to “soothe” ourselves, put our minds into a reverent mode, etc. Really, Bob, is that all you think prayer is good for? Steve and I have been asking Bob to answer the question as to whether prayer has any effect. Evidently, Bob’s answer is mostly “yeah, it makes us feel better.” Well dang, Bob, that is EXACTLY THE SAME ANSWER THAT ATHEISTS GIVE!

Now, Bob does not rule out some ”psychological intervention” in the form of “inspiration,” “courage,” and “insight.” But, Bob, are you ruling out any kind of physical change or changes in our “fortunes”, by which I mean the opportunities presented to us along life’s way (such as, for simple examples, what jobs we might be offered, what potential marital partners we might meet, or whether two other guys might ask you to participate in a trialogue)? And how do your previously expressed ideas and interest in “serendipity” fit into that?

Moving on, there are actually a number of things Bob satirizes about me in his piece, but which don’t affect me with any power of satire because in fact they are pretty accurate. For example, here is one of Bob’s quotes attributed to me, but with certain phrases left out:

"Things are just the way that they are supposed to be. Everything that happens, happens for good reason. … You see, we’re all here to learn, and what you don’t realize is that the quarterback is learning from each sack. He’s learning that he needs to release the ball sooner or get quicker feet. By the way, he’s also learning that you better not put too much damn trust in your left tackle.”

That in fact is a pretty fair description of how I feel (at least, considering that it is coming from someone trying to satirize). Of course I have left out Bob’s assertion that I think the quarterback “wants” to be sacked. However, if Bob could change that to “needs,” I might even let that pass.

For the umpteenth time, I say to Bob that not only is his God too small, but his (and this may in fact apply to Steve as well) whole attitude toward life is far too limited for me. Bob evidently clings to the idea that we live only one life. Further, he clings to the idea that when it’s over, a sort of bodiless Bob will still be there, his personality still basically unchanged and quite recognizable as such. For the umpteenth time I say that if Bob (and Steve) could entertain seriously for one minute the concepts of rebirth and karma, a great deal of what bothers him about the vicissitudes of life would make sense “LOGICALLY.”

As Bob notes, his hero Hick “sees God’s purpose as soul-making, a moral and character-fashioning which takes place not ‘by natural and inevitable evolution, but through a hazardous adventure in individual freedom.’”  Wow, well said, and I COULDN’T AGREE MORE.  But it seems to me that this description of things agrees far more readily with my own attitudes than with Bob’s. Okay, here’s my own attempt at a little analogy: when I was in basic training every soldier spent a number of days negotiating big obstacle courses. Some of these were pretty complicated affairs, with deadly barbed wire to crawl over and under, deafening explosives that would be set off (in the protection of sandbags) if you wandered too close to them, water hazards that looked easy but in fact were full of sucking mud like quicksand, trap doors in solid looking places, things to climb over that started moving once you were on ‘em, live machine gun rounds flying over your head that could actually kill you if you were stupid enough to stand up, etc., etc.

Getting through such courses had the effect of preparing a soldier for real situations in Viet Nam that would be even worse, and also building courage and skills. Well, I think frankly that life has much in common with those obstacle courses (though obviously there are also experiences (thank GOD!) featuring lovely women, delightful children, fortunes to be made, sports cars to drive, etc., etc.). But for me to deny that God is behind all kinds of experiences in my life would be like saying the Army had nothing to do with constructing those obstacles, and in fact the whole obstacle course. Believe me, the Army was one hell of an intervention in MY life, and I was only a weekend warrior.

My analogy is limited, of course (though not as bad as Bob’s ((grin))). This obstacle / pleasure / learning / soul-making course that we find ourselves in is a fluid, constantly changing thing involving about 6 billion other people at every moment, and a lot of the pleasures and tragedies seem to come from them. But that is all part of God’s genius, letting other people (and wars and loving relationships and accidents and career successes and diseases and pets and hurricanes and symphonies and terrorists and great works of literature and elections and riots and mom’s apple pie and a million other things) do His work of soul making, through a continuous, interactive, karmic reaping and sowing.  And in fact, much or all of what befalls us is a consequence of our own activities and decisions involving our free will, but these consequences are delivered to us through one heck of a complex, God-designed "system."  And it is obvious to me that not only are we as individuals reaping what we sow, but so are our nations and humanity as a whole.  A perfect example (if indeed it turns out to be true) is global warming.  Another example:  No, Bob, I don't think God specifically intervened to punish us with a Hitler. But it may very well be that we reaped a Hitler because we sowed seeds of looking away for too long while we allowed Hitler to sow his own seeds of anti-semitism.   And God did not intervene to prevent a holocaust because we did not intervene to prevent a Hitler.

And I just don’t see how Bob can say (along with his buddy Hick or whoever) that he believes life is for “soul making” and yet think God is not providing both the positive and negative experiences that in fact “make” souls. (Can you imagine a child having nothing but enjoyable experiences in his life....what kind of child he would turn out to be?)  Those obstacle courses I mentioned were for “soldier-making” and they were full indeed of interventions by the Army. Life is for soul-making, and it is full indeed of interventions by God.

I’m going to close by adding a download function for two songs I have written recently. (As you probably know, I am having a ball in retirement making music with my digital home recording “studio” and entering songs in various music competitions.) I’m not putting these tunes here because I think they are great musical pieces deserving of your admiration -- they are just the results of a hobby I enjoy. But I am greatly struck that I should right now be finishing up these two pieces which just seem to have such relevance to this discussion. (Is it serendipity, Bob?)  The first is a country/folk sort of tune called “Walk a Mile” that is saying (as I did early in this piece) that we don’t know jack about the meaning of life, but given that, we should honor those closest to us. The second is a blues-rock tune about reaping and sowing, that might serve as a warning to the privileged and high-born.

     "Walk a Mile":          Download 192_milefinl.mp3

      "Reap what You Sow" :          Download 192_sowmstr2.mp3