When We Find Truth, We Get Beauty Too April 11, 2008
Posted by Anya in : I won't keep things purposely vague , trackbackThis post may be a little disjointed, because I’m working on my evaluation on The (not so) Great Gatsby. Bear with me.
Nick ends the book disillusioned. But being disillusioned is not the same thing as knowing the truth — obviously not, in Nick’s case. He did not find what he wanted in the East, but only corruption, so he returns to the Mid-West. However, he misses the point and falls into the same trap which Gatsby fell into — thinking that the further we go into the future, the more we find ourselves trapped in the past. In fact, Nick takes it one step further than Gatsby. Gatsby tried to regain the past; Nick thinks it is inevitable. The Great Gatsby ends with Nick saying,
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning –
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
The poor fellow doesn’t even realize that there could be a purpose to the past as well as the future. He’s stuck in Ecclesiastes 1, seeing everything as going meaninglessly around and around, and does not get to move into Ecclesiastes 12, to know that God will judge and that this gives us a purpose for living in remembrance of our Creator.
Anyway. I could rant at some length about The Great Gatsby, but I just wanted to use that to kick off this post. Because I pity Nick. He doesn’t get to end very happily, at least as far as this book ends — in fact, none of the characters do. I was thinking about this and realized that this is really not how I want anyone whom I know to end.
I don’t want my friends to buy into all the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” of this world (Colossians 2:8), but neither do I want them to be eternally wandering around without answers. I want them to know that there is truth, and that we can know it. Real truth is found in God Who became a man, came down to earth and actually lived here and died here and really took the punishment for our sins and gave us His righteousness. This isn’t some vague philosophy that you have to go to grad school to understand. It’s something which John was able to write of, saying,
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship… By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. [I John 1:1-3a, 3:19-20]
If everyone I know understands that, knows the truth about the Word of Life and believes it, then I’m not too worried for them.
The hardness of it comes because I have been called to live out this truth in my own life. That’s not an easy thing to do in a postmodern culture, which says that the only absolute is that there are no absolutes. (Maybe it would be easier to deal with if the very premises of postmodernism didn’t give me such a blinding headache, but I don’t have that luxury.)
But the goodness comes in there too — in how we live the truth.
And yesterday I got to see again part of the reason that God calls us, as Christians, together into the church. To keep pointing each other to Him, to His purpose, to His will — and to keep helping each other. Paul wrote, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (I Thessalonians 5:11) Everything from several extraordinarily goofy moments on IM to a real “conspiracy” plot in encouraging a friend from youth group reminded me that God is good, and that He is faithful.
As Mr. Tangentry pointed out yesterday, it was — and is — a great day, the kind of day which brings us to tell people how good God is. And thinking about that now has Sanctus Real’s redo of the U2 song Beautiful Day going in my head.
It’s a beautiful day, the sky falls
And you feel like it’s a beautiful day
It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away…
After the flood all the colours came out
It was a beautiful day
A beautiful day
Don’t let it get away…
…still, the joy would be worth the pain — if, indeed, they went together. If there were a choice — and he suspected there was — a choice between, on the one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths. [A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken]
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