Go, go, go

Just admiring again my favorite poet so far...T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets is a great way to spend some time pondering. Check out the opening of the collection:

(From Burnt Norton, the first of the four)


I.

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.


Whew. "Human kind cannot bear very much reality." Serious. I just spent the morning wrestling with Luke 10-11, and Leviticus 16-19. The law, lawyers, Pharisees, "Woe to you," and Jesus. It makes my head hurt, and draws up tears in my eyes, to let the reality of the gospel and God's righteousness and the requirements and grace all work together in the stew of wisdom. The Word is True from surface to depth. We like to be able to grasp with our minds, but sometimes Faith requires faith. Imagine.

Could it be that, like the Matrix, we are living in a reality easier than waking up? Even the way we tuck a Bible under our arm and go about our lives - could it be that we've decided not to take in the part that knocks us off our feet onto our faces, sweating blood? Jesus was put on trial by the religious leaders, called to make defense of his perfecting fulfilling the will of God. Luke 12:11, a warning for us: "Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrate and authorities, do not worry about how or what your should answer, or what you should say..." It was not Jesus v. the World - it was the religious, religious establishment and leaders. He told us to not worry about what to say or how to defend ourselves when the self-proclaimed righteous came against those who would be doers of the word, rather than hearers and quoters and finger-pointers, and judges, those concerned with convincing everyone how right they are, and how wrong those who don't do like they do are. Dude, let's be like Jesus. Do what HE did, think like HE thought.

I have so many thoughts about what I read today - it's too much to lay out here. I tried to get it out in my journal, but it's pretty disheveled. But I figure it's got to rub a little to change anything. I pray I will never be unaffected by what I read in the Word. I want to be fired up. I want to get stirred up by what I read. I want to keep pursuing.

Philippians 3

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame and —who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.