March 27, 2013
Complicated
I’ve noticed that
when politicians or interviewees are asked a simple question, rather than
giving a straight forward answer, more often than not they say, “Well, it’s really a little more complicated
than that.” I’m somewhat offended by such a response. Now, I get it that
the questioner may not have all the facts or information and that more time may
be needed to explain the situation than what is allotted for response. However,
saying that an issue is complicated not only connotes that those asking the
question lack the where-with-all to understand the situation, but it also
leaves the question unanswered. Jesus responded to almost all the questions
that were directed to Him, even those questions asked by the chief priests and
Pharisees that were set as a trap. In a hypothetical, Peter asked Jesus if
forgiving his brother up to seven times was enough (Matt 8:21). I’m trying to
imagine the Lord saying, ‘Well Peter,
it’s really a little more complicated than that.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Your topic draws near to one of my favorite expressions, “Life is complicated.” The more you think about it, the more complication you realize. Situations usually have multiple actors. Each actor has not only a relationship of some sort with every other actor in the situation (maybe as insignificant as merely sharing physical proximity,) but also has very close relationships with others who often are effected by actions of this situation in which they’re not even present. Sometimes the secondary effect is delivered through changes to the actor, sometimes it makes a cause effecting a different situation directly involving that other person. That’s just a glimpse at the complexity of relationships touched by a situation. Along with actors come intentions and purposes for the situation, intentions of being effected by the situation, intentions of effecting the situation, and of effecting other actors, to name just a few. And in each actor is an extremely complex system of thoughts and feelings forming attitudes and principles and ambitions making a sort of innate coherence of the actions he’s going to take in a situation developing from actions of others being equally coherent to their inner natures as well. And every inner nature thusly involved in a situation is deeply personal and rightly important to that actor, and should be to the others as well, and to some, would be if known, while other actors could care less. And this is all just a smidgeon of one kind of complexity involved in what may even be a very simple situation. Now, to identify and analyze the moral and principle sets guiding the interplay of actions, feelings, and thoughts in a situation and identifying which effect comes from which actor and why and how is pretty much what convinces the overwhelming majority of folks to not only turn away from philosophy, but to snicker at it and religion, too. Life is very complex.
-----But one of many things that have irreversibly convinced me of not only God's existence, but also of His identity is that the set of moral principles and life purposes presented in the Word of God always constructs from the facts of a situation what I call nodal points of identity. These are sets of facts interrelated to a fundamental nature of a situation which are like hooks that chain situations together into a particular coherence. A loving God would not leave His hapless creatures bobbing around in a sea of situations completely devoid of cohesion. Abandoning all complex explanation of how, the nodal points chaining situations into the will of God form around the two very fundamental concepts of truth and love. Your patience and focus will always find within the way things really are (truth) the means to do as much good as possible to everything involved (love.) These nodal points greatly simplify life’s complexity for your decisions, then add the gravy of also indicating where in each situation Christ is being for your safety a small cleft in the rock.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment