Update on 2-28-10: When this was originally posted, the background color of my blog was black.
Incidently, I decided on the dark background and white text because it symbolically represents illumination at night :-) I am a night owl and do most of my reading and thinking at night. I only hope it is not difficult for anyone's eyes.
NKJ Psalm 119:148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.
I enjoy the quiet. Everyone is asleep and the noise is minimal. I recall a passage in C. S. Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters where one of the demons, Wormwood perhaps, sings for joy at the thought of all the chaotic noise. Can you imagine in the premodern days when the stars were out and the technological noises of today did not exist?! In the Dallas/Fort Worth area, there is ALOT of noise and light pollution. It tends to ruin opportunities for quiet meditation and reflection on God's greatness. Due to all the lights, one can't look up at the sky and marvel at all the stars bearing witness to God's glory. The noise and other distractions draw our attention away from transcendent ponderings, and bring our minds to the horizontal and secular. I do not mean to make a strong sacred/secular dichotomy here, but I trust that the reader gets my point. The transcendent is crowded out by noises and diversions. Thomas Morris remarks in his book Making Sense of it All:
How do people manage to ignore the deepest and most important questions of life and death? Why don’t people worry more about what this life, with all its problems, is all about? To these questions Pascal has an intriguing answer. People manage to put on the blinders, to avert their gaze from these ultimate issues, and to avoid facing their utter hopelessness by means of diversion.
I would encourage people to pick up Pascal's book Pensees and consider what he has to say about diversion. What I have said above is that there is a sense in which modernity, with all of it's glittering distractions, crowds out the transcendent by means of noises and lights. I find the night time to be best for me to engage in theological reflection. I guess that is also the case because I work in the evenings at UPS :-)
For an interesting read on diversion and the Christian life, go here:
2 comments:
I am impressed with your thoughts on distractions. I myself find it difficult to keep from being distracted by "the cares of this world." As I read your blog I wondered how you manage relationships since you work in the evenings and study at night? I have read some of the "Penses" but not all. Are you aware of how Pascal navigated his relationships with his friends after he became a Christian? To what extent did he involve himself in the world without becoming a part of it? The reason why I ask is because I see the temptation to distance myself from people and relationships (namely those who are distracted) in order to align myself with this view!
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for your comments. I cannot claim to have the balance on relationships. Since I am still single and without any children, I find my life to be mostly solitary. I used to be able to spend alot of time with believing friends, but since they are now married we do not talk much. Being single and working in the evenings complicates things. Clearly I need to work harder at keeping in contact with friends and establishing regular face to face fellowship with others.
I am not aware of Pascal's relationships. That would make an interesting study. Just after my conversion, I withdrew from the world and had a fundamentalist attitude. After I matured, I was able to participate more in the culture without compromising. I also learned how to speak more tactfully with unbelievers. It is indeed a difficult balancing act to be both in the world and not of it.
Aristotle, in his book on Ethics, observes that in order to straighten a stick, one may need to bend it in the opposite direction. In order to live virtuously, there may be times of overreaction that occurs. After my conversion I tended to withdraw from culture, but now I find myself reacting to fundamentalist attitudes in the church. I don't even listen to Christian music all that much. I may be in another stage of overreaction. I don't want to be socially awkward, but I do want to live Christlike. I find that many Christians who are so immersed in the Christian subculture are socially awkward. They don't even know how to talk to your average unbeliever. They don't even know about popular music and movies etc. There is a sense in which I can now look at the church and understand how the world looks at it. I see some of the reasons for their lack of interest. Church is boring quite frankly. Few people are really interacting with any depth of thought. It gets disillusioning at times. One needs to be among seminarians in order to dialogue about theology because the average church member has no idea what they believe, or why they believe it.
Most of my contact with unbelievers is at work. I am able to talk with unbelievers in a way that they can understand. I can relate to them culturally. I can laugh and have a good time with them without compromise. However, outside of work there is very little involvement. I also tend to be isolated and solitary. I almost feel like a monk :-) Because I speak on a regular basis with people online, I think the solitary life is just indicative of modernism with it's fragmenting effect. People try to get good theological conversatin online these days. Sometimes it happens and is very beneficial, but it falls short of the biblical ideal of face to face fellowship in Christ.
One of the other reasons why I am rather solitary is because it costs to go out, and there are risks, such as drunk drivers and other problems. I would rather just stay home and stay safe. I do have a roommate who is a graduate of Criswell College. We are able to talk about theology and life sometimes, but not enough. He's out with his woman this evening :-) When he's at home, he's on the couch relaxing and watching TV or doing work on his computer.
The bottom line is that I cannot claim to have the balance you are stiving for. If I am erring, it is on the side of being too solitary in order to enjoy quiet contemplation. I do not enjoy extended times of small talk. It's boring and mostly worthless. Anway, I hope you are doing better than I am on this. If God gives you some insight, feel free to share it with me :-)
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