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E.
B. White: “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were
merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn
between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. That
makes it hard to plan the day.” It surely does, does it not? It does because these two
desires are all too often, if not polar opposites, certainly contradictory. When
we enjoy what the world has to offer, we do not necessarily improve the world,
make it better for everyone. In fact, in our enjoyment of the world we often do
more harm than good. That is not a political observation but a proven and
scientific fact. In our enjoyment of Mother Nature we have often destroyed much
of what She has to offer for our enjoyment. On the other hand, working to improve the
world does not necessarily bring with it much joy. It takes hard work to clean
streams, purify the environment and eradicate poverty, and takes even more in
the way of personal sacrifice. As White suggests, working to improve the world
takes work on a personal level, which means sacrifice, which means living with
less. Less may indeed be more and, in fact, it truly is. But once we have gotten
used to more, it is neither easy nor pleasurable to try to live with less. It is
often a real pain. Environmental issues
aside, so it is, it seems, with all of life, especially our lives as Christians.
God created this world for our enjoyment and pleasure. God gave it to us to take
care of and use well, certainly not to misuse or abuse. God also gave us the
life we have, our personal lives, to enjoy. God did not create us to live in
pain, to suffer and be miserable. Yet, often the pain and suffering that comes
our way is the direct result of abusing or misusing the very life we have: our
bodies, our minds, our beings. We are torn between work
and play. We would love to make our work into play, or at least come to the
point where we really enjoy what we are doing. On the other hand we never have
the desire to make our play into some form of work. Likewise, doing good is
always pleasurable but it is also often painful, sometimes physically painful.
We are often torn between doing a good deed that involves some pain, and not
doing it in order to save ourselves the physical pain involved. Think Jesus on
the cross. Loving who we are, loving
our vocation, our calling, makes the living out of that calling enjoyable even
when it is difficult and painful. But not always; and that is the crux of the
problem. That is, as the word means, the cross we choose to bear. If we could
plan our day, we would love to make sure that all we say and do builds up and
does not tear down. If we could remove any pain and suffering involved, we would
love to do that as well. But we can do neither, not totally, and, given our
sinfulness, not always. And so we rise in the morning knowing, as we plan our
day, there will be crosses to bear, choices to be made, and that often we will
be torn between two loves.
WJP |