the quotable princess bride #3

Irene Cahen D'Anvers by Renoir

"Life is pain . . . Anybody that says different is selling something."

Look, that's a bit too dark even for me, but you know, life does carry a great deal of pain. In the pampered world of American suburbia it's easy to pretend that it doesn't-- or that it's not supposed to-- that pain is something extraordinary, to be surprised at, bewailed, and forgotten as soon as possible.

The Bible says, though, that creation groans under the curse. Creation includes us. It includes mosquitoes and influenza and lying politicians and abusive husbands and torture chambers. That's what sin does: it makes a mess. Pain deserves bewailing, and if God gives us a way we should heal creation's wounds, but we shouldn't be shocked when things fall apart.

Though I don't believe in rubbing my child's face in evil, I don't want her to believe that a basket of kittens and sunbursts ought to await her around every corner, either. Here is an interesting read along those lines: "Must Every Kid's Movie Reinforce the Cult of Self-Esteem?"

the quotable princess bride #2

Young Mother by Renoir

"Love is many things, none of them logical."

Not to say that love entirely excludes rationality or knowledge. I love God because I know that He is glorious and gracious. I love my parents because it makes sense to cherish and honor people who have put their lives on the figurative altar for me and five other mewling offspring. But it's not like I actually consult a logic textbook before I allow myself to feel love. It simply . . . happens. Naturally. Humans are made to love, and more often than not, it wells up without any particular "reason."

That was most evident when I fell in love with my husband and when I realized that I absolutely adored my child. In the first case, after a long summer of just-friendship, I blinked one evening and suddenly wanted nothing except to marry Jared. In the second case, after three weeks of dragging my weary post-partum self around and wishing that Ellie wouldn't cry so much, I woke up one morning and could not wait to get that baby out of her crib.

What happened? Love did. It's still happening. In hard times, intentional choice and careful reasoning are great aids to love, bolstering it when the fire flickers-- but in the end I think that it comes from God, and that at its best it goes beyond our logic to a place unreachable without Him.

the quotable princess bride #1

Last month I reread William Goldman's The Princess Bride. (If you've never had the pleasure, you should know that the book's more cynical than the movie, but also far more clever.) Amidst my laughter, I found myself dog-earing pages to mark particularly good lines.

Then I thought that I should share them with the rest of the world. So here is the first.

---

Jeanne Samary by Renoir

"Isn't it awful what we'll do in this world to be wanted?"

At various times I've lived in fear of being unwanted. I would worry that nobody liked me, that people didn't approve of me.

That fear shaped my mannerisms as I interacted with others. Often I faked my way through, smiling big when I thought I should, laughing at jokes I didn't get, faking interest in the conversation when I actually thought it was stupid. Afterwards I would feel strange, knowing I had put on a "face" for the world. It was unsatisfactory. Awful, as Goldman frankly says.

This still happens but I am more aware of it. I am trying instead to listen to the people who encourage me, and to believe them-- to believe that they really do enjoy my company and really do want to be my friend. Which means that I don't have to impress them, to make them want to have me around. I can stop squeezing into uncomfortable masks, masks that I think will be more acceptable or popular.

I can just be me. It's a far happier way to live.

for it is God who works in you

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. . .

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

-Philippians 2:1-4, 12-13

I've found a certain danger in praying "God, help me to be kind/courageous/otherwise holy." That prayer,  can serve as an excuse. Because then I figure . . . well. I've put in my request, so now I'll wait until I feel kind or courageous or otherwise holy. And only then, will I do what God has asked me to do.

flame tulip by coopisthehighroller

That approach paints me as someone who needs a magical jump-start every time I'm to do anything righteous. As a child of God I've been spiritually resurrected, given a heart of flesh, and empowered by the third person of the Trinity who now dwells within me, so in fact, I can obey God right now!

We also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?
-Galatians 4:3-9

The Galatians think they are still enslaved to sin and need to find some clever way to break its chains, when Christ has broken them forever. The new life you received through salvation is more than sufficient, Paul says. Stop downplaying the power of the cross and trying to reach new heights of spiritual ability on your own. There are no greater heights than knowing Christ. There is no greater ability than that of Christ Himself, and He has given us His own Spirit.
 
Of course this is vastly different from "believing in your best self." The obedience we now perform is done through the Spirit's strength, not ours. Because of that, it's a more hopeful obedience. It is done in confidence rather than fear.

If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh . . . For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!"
-Romans 8:10-15

I think of the woman caught in adultery, and how Jesus said to her, go . . . and sin no more. She might have wondered how she could obey that command. Wasn't sin her identity? Wasn't it her occupation from birth? I wonder if she came back to Him, later, and asked him to explain.

If she did, I imagine He would simply have replied, "I will be with you."

these are but the outskirts of his ways

He stretches out the north over the void

and hangs the earth on nothing.

He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not split open under them.

He covers the face of the full moon

and spreads over it his cloud.

He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble

and are astounded at his rebuke . . .

image credit: New Scientist

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?

-Job 26:7-14