We Can Only
I admit that I have a sort of love/hate relationship with poetry. I like it when it makes me think; I don’t like it when it makes me feel stupid; for example, for not having a PhD in literature and consequently not knowing the “code.” (Come to think of it, maybe that’s how some people feel about reading Scripture.) Actually, I don’t care if there are some lines that I don’t understand, as long as I can still get the gist of the poem without having to scramble to the local grad school library to look up the name of some obscure Egyptian goddess. I suppose that good poetry, like Scripture, has a little bit of something for everybody.
Yesterday I read this poem, or line from a poem, by W.H. Auden:
We can only
do what it seems to us we were made for, look at
this world with a happy eye,
but from a sober perspective.
I came across this poem in a book I’m reading right now entitled, Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World, by John Stackhouse. Stackhouse encourages Christians to be realistic about the world and about our own lives, as well as seek to do everything we can to follow Christ and further his Kingdom.
“We can only….” All of us are limited people — with limited time, limited personalities, limited abilities and a limited sphere of influence. We can only be “only” people or “only” Christians. Identifying and accepting our limitations as well as our gifts is part of how we can make sure we’re living in God’s will.
“…do what it seems to us we were made for….” A week ago Sharon and I had dinner with a woman who had lived with us at the Next Door (homeless shelter) when we lived in Michigan. She’d telephoned early Sunday morning and asked if we could meet her at a truck stop in Fultonville. She’s been driving a rig for two months now, and loves it. She said, “It feels like this is what I was made for.” I can believe it. Like we said this past Sunday, this whole world is God’s Country, and to make it work he needs truck drivers at least as much as he needs preachers. What were you made for? This is the question we’ll be exploring together next fall. We’re even going to suspend Alpha for a season, so we can give everyone a chance to think and wonder about this question.
“…look at….” What we do in the world, and how we feel about what we do, depends a lot on how we see the world.
“…look at/this world with a happy eye….” God made this world. His fingerprints are all over it. Yeah, it’s damaged goods, but there is a whole lot that is still very good. Do we “look at” whatever is “true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,…excellent or praiseworthy” (Phillipians 4:8)? Are we basically optimistic about the future? Not optimistic based on who we hope will be the next president, or based on God’s secretly replenishing those underground oil resevoirs, but on God’s stated intention to establish his shalom throughout the earth, whatever it takes — even the offering up of his Son. No matter how bad things get — and for the Twelve, the day Jesus was crucified was about as bad as it gets — there is always the resurrection. When the Father raised his Son’s physical body from the dead, he was declaring his intention to renew all things.
“…but from a sober perspective.” Meanwhile the old creation “has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). The image of childbirth is actually a very hopeful image. But there is no denying or candycoating the terrible suffering and sense of meaninglessness that plagues the present order. So we work, rather than just wait. We are midwives in a great struggle, indeed, soldiers in a great battle, the outcome of which has already been determined. So “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; preplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (II Corinthians 4:8,9).
So let us be full of faith, hope and love, my friends, as we continue to play our part in this great adventure of life in God’s Kingdom.
