L23: Theme

I stopped believing in over-arching grand narrative a long time ago. For some people (C.S. Lewis), that's a very unchristian (but not the book) thing to do. Well, I guess I should restate that. I stopped believing in the necessity of Grand Narrative a long time ago. I do know God has a purpose and goal and work everything out for the good and all of history is tending toward his ultimate end reality and all of that. But I don't think we can break that down, at least not on this side of eternity, as much as we would like to. I think it's God's narrative, necessarily, and we can, at best, work within our role and hope to realize what it all means on the other side of here.

So maybe I do believe in grand narrative. But I don't believe in pursuing it, I don't believe in a priori fitting it all together and coming up with what meant what, before we reach the end. That's basically like mapping out a plot (an exercise I don't really believe in either, but it's done "successfully" in many lower-tier English classes all of the time, and probably in even the higher ones at Hillsdale...) before you've finished the book. At best, it's conjecture, and I'd argue it's mostly immoral.

God calls us to abide in him, and part of that is not knowing what's next. "you will hear, to your right and to your left, this is the way, walk in it." To me, that doesn't sound like we can fit it all together on our own before we see where we end up. I've tried that a lot in my life, and I can construct quite the interesting sequence of events, none of them accidental, that get me to where I am today, and it would be, well, interesting to see...but to draw conclusions about the future from it not only often fails, but it is an exercise in small faith. The honest truth is, I can't tell where I'm headed, just by where I've been. But I can tell by where I am, from where I've been, God's got it under control, no matter what.

-Zack

"The low moon helps me sing"
-Feist