This world has gone crazy. Please tell me I’m wrong. Over the past half century we have allowed ourselves to be fooled as much by the Emperor’s tailors as all, except for the little boy, did in Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tale. It took a child to speak the truth. The majority these days are still denying it, taking it apart, recreating and redefining it, and believing their own fantasies and falsehoods. As a result our culture extols, exalts and celebrates what is disordered, chaotic, unreal, irrational, immoral and ugly. This is the age of subversion… the age of undermining, pulling down, ripping apart, and cobbling back together random mis-matched parts into any new form, a partiche that exemplifies the senselessness and meaningless that results from the process.

To the left are two sculptures you will find in Wellington, NZ’s picturesque capital city. The first is named “Doo Doos” and is a pile of boulders erected by Peter Kundycki back in 1998, to be found at Moa Point. The second is a steel construction by Guy Ngan, made originally in 1974 and reinstalled in Wakefield Street in 2006. It is named “Geometric Growth”. It appears to defy gravity by not toppling down.

The pile of boulders is simply constructed… just a pile of boulders. Coming upon this on Wellington’s rugged coastline, it does not seem particularly out of place. It is really all rather ordinary. Clearly they were not put there by the forces of Nature, resembling more the tell-tale sign that Man has been there. They are quite a neat and tidy pile of big stones. But the fact that someone put them there could be considered intriguing. Why do that? Being human, we like to look for a meaning. Without knowing the name of this pile of stones our imagination is free to wander. But knowing the name brings one up with a jolt… a dive into the distasteful. This is the developmental level of 2 year olds, but why cause us to focus on excrement? What is the point of that? This is the subversion of normal decency in human expression. Yuk!

Does geometric growth have a way of defying gravity against all appearances? I don’t know that it does. But the second sculpture was created over twenty years earlier than the first so is perhaps less evolved in the ongoing march of postmodernism. It brings home a certain reality. Why doesn’t it simply topple over? It looks as though it ought. But of course we know the real truth… that besides all visual appearances there is an adherence to engineering principles and their solid basis in absolutes. Gravity exists to demonstrate the hypocrisy and lies of postmodernism. One cannot subvert gravity and be immune to the universal effect of it. As an absolute it applies regardless. Engineers know this even when artists try to tell us something different.

Personally I have more antipathy towards the pile of boulders, knowing the “meaning” given them by the sculptor, than I do for the almost toppling boxes. But that is because I am not doing what postmodernists do… interpret all meaning for themselves. Moving on from these two (admittedly rather mild when considering craziness) examples of material culture, what else makes me think this world is crazy? There is much more, and more serious at that.

In music composition there is a preoccupation with sound that is atonal, that is dissociative and jarring, that could be called polystylist as it takes ingredients from simply everywhere, and has a quality of randomness. There is disorder and chaos, unpredictability and unpleasantness. The lyrics of songs are often pointless, repetitious, inane or simply vulgar. Or their themes are of meaninglessness and despair. In theatre and cinema, plays and movies have no point, or the point is subversive, the characters specializing in not relating, or their relationships are dysfunctional, immoral, and the language becomes foul. Note the censor’s warning “contains explicit sex scenes, violence, offensive language” attached to nearly every movie these days.

I find this ugly. There is enough already in this world that is ugly… such as man’s inhumanity to man, the horrors that people must live through under tyrannical governments, in war, in poverty and deprivation, and without aid and relief, in despair without hope. But in our own crazy society of today we seek liberation by throwing ourselves straight into the arms of bondage to falsehood, freedom through the deconstruction of truth, salvation by the transgression and abandonment of moral absolutes. This is absolutely crazy. When are we going to get real - and I mean real? When are we going to accept that this form of social Marxism (for that is what it is) does not work for us? Truth is not socially constructed, defined by “what feels good” or “what works for me”. It is that which corresponds to reality, is universal and absolute, eternal and fixed, revealed not made. I certainly prefer that kind of truth when my life depends on it… such as 35,000 feet above the ground in an aircraft built on sound engineering principles, not those beliefs that simply made the designers feel good at the time, or somehow fulfilled as in the building of a pile of stony doo-doos. Heaven help us!

Joanne Greenberg (born 1932) is an internationally renowned, award-winning Jewish-American author. She wrote a best-selling novel, a semi-autobiographical account of a teenage girl’s 3-year battle with schizophrenia, entitled “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”. After her own battle with mental illness, the author went on to earn a B.A. in anthropology and English from the American University of Colorado.

Joe South wrote the well-known song recorded in 1971 by country singer, Lynn Anderson, with the lyrics that go “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, There’s gotta be a little rain sometimes…”

No one promised us a rose garden. We were all born into an imperfect world, one where people are flawed and things go wrong, where circumstances can go against us, and where heavy burdens can be placed upon us. I grew up with a deaf father and a blind mother. That was hard for each of them. They grew elderly, became ill and dependent, suffering many losses before they eventually died. My own burdens have been very heavy at times. Life can be tough for many of us, almost too tough to go on. Or it can seem meaningless, pointless, senseless. It can be like treading through treacle, getting further and further dragged into it, or like pushing through dense scrub full of thorns that stick in one’s side, that dig in deep and cause pain. And for what end?

What can I say that will help? What antidote is there for despair?

I do know what it is that helps me with those “thorns in the side” - really helps - and it has to do with a particular worldview. I am utterly convinced by the Biblical belief that God is Sovereign and, in the words of the Westminster Confession, that “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass;” and that while our finite minds are incapable of understanding everything He wills, His intentions and purposes are always good and righteous. Always! This is a reflection of His character… His intentions and purposes simply cannot be otherwise. What the world may inflict on us and be seen by us as evil, that God allows it to happen is no condemnation of Him. As the little oyster turns the invading grain of sand into a beautiful pearl, God intends all these things ultimately for our good if we love Him, and our experience of His incredible glory.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Submitting to that belief means I am able to draw upon His grace to continue coping when things would otherwise be intolerable. I also believe that this life here on earth is not the final story, and that faithful Christians are in a process of sanctification that culminates in the conditions of our eternal life after death. I trust in Him implicitly, that there is an over-arching good and righteous purpose in all that happens, and that He is Sovereign, there being no stray molecules in this universe.

This is a Biblical worldview. I find that it makes sense of what would otherwise be totally senseless. I don’t know how much you, my reader, are prepared to believe any of that. I guess it helps only if you are committed to such a belief. But I can tell you that being committed to that belief, to recognizing and accepting the absolute truth of it, does make a world of difference in dealing with the thorns in this life. It is this knowledge which brings hope, real hope based on reality… and then joy.

Romans 8

Today I picked up and began reading, for the first time, the 3-volume set entitled “The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathon Edwards” by Dr John H. Gerstner. That is almost 2,000 pages of information that will surely have my friends over on the British Anglican Mainstream Forum despair of me ever settling down as comfortable “pew fodder” in an Anglican church.

It is true that I am far closer to Geneva than I ever was to Rome, and will not be joining those upset enough by the current goings-on in Anglicanism to swim the Tiber and put their spiritual welfare in the hands of Pope Benedict XVI. Nope, I start too low down the candle and am with the Reformers far more than not.

This possibly dismays my young friend Turgy (Turgonian of Transitus Tiberis and Epigone’s Eloquence), a bright young Dutch student who has recently taken that leap of faith though not out of Anglicanism, and who is hoping I might find the same path as did Cardinal Newman. Turgy is patient, reminding me that the Cardinal certainly took his time. But as much as I appreciate my young friend’s ability to acquire and process knowledge, and his developing understanding of the whys and wherefores of many things, I’m afraid I shall be quite a disappointment to him as I am definitely heading down a different path from the one that both he and Cardinal Newman took. We will compare the scenery and wish each other well, but only if the destination has us meet one day (as I hope it does) will we be able to rest and share the whatevers of our respective journeys at the end of them.

Turgy, you are full of promise and I would equally hope you turn and set out for the Holy Land via Geneva too. Shall I be just as patient too? Whatever, my young friend… I do wish you well.

And I will continue with my 3-volume set and be informed by Dr Gerstner who has to say that…

“Had Edwards become a professional philospher he would occupy many pages in the history of philosophy. Had he become a professional biblical scholar it would be difficult to find his equal and impossible to find his superior. As it was he became a professional philosopher-theologian-evangelist and here he is sui generis.”

There is much to be said for shedding the burden of too many possessions, for de-cluttering one’s life and simplifying things. This is something I have been doing for the past year and it feels good to be treading more lightly on the Earth.

Some months ago a friend discovered a truly lovely blog written by Rachel Meeks who offers “notes and encouragement for a simple and peaceful home”. I have visited it many times now and am adding it to my blogroll. It can also be found by clicking here: Small Notebook.

On a recent visit to the USA we came upon a continuous stream of yard sales, and a great many “antique” barns loaded with STUFF. I have previously mentioned that story here. While we did enjoy looking for really special bargains, we soon felt overwhelmed by the sheer quanitity of it all. Eventually we were STUFFed out. However, it did serve to highlight for us the need to dispense with more of our own unnecessary STUFF back home. And so the de-cluttering process continues.

I seem to have acquired a few collections. Books are wonderful and very hard to let go. I have moved many of them on, but there are also those that will get to stay. I am keeping them within the limits of my bookcase space. As a quilter there is a fabric stash… but it is not nearly as mountainous as that belonging to a friend of mine. She knows who I am speaking of, and she is probably having a rebelliously righteous little chuckle reading this. Of course one must have lots of fabric when one is making lots of quilts! And then there is all that wonderful yarn… pure wool, and the luxury mixes of possum fur, mohair, alpaca, angora and so forth. Not with all my crochet hooks and knitting needles will I get through that in a lifetime, but some Good Causes have helped me out, and I am crocheting afghans (to give away) like they are going out of fashion.

I am impressed by the “notes and encouragement” that Rachel writes and have wanted to give her blog this special mention. There is gold to be found there, real treasure in letting go the burden of carrying what is simply unnecessary for the journey.