Wonderings--June 15

I wonder why we feel like we have to perfect Christians? Why do we have to understand everything clearly and be able to trace a thought-line from beginning to end theologically? 

Elie Wiesel wrote the following story as the preface to his novel The Gates of the Forest. 

If you are not familiar with Wiesel's work, then I encourage you to find a copy of his seminal work, Night, and read it slowly. But, I caution you, Night is not an easy book to read. The book tells the story of Wiesel's time in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. With heart-piercing details, he tells of what he experienced in that horrible, evil, place. 

In The Gates of the Forest, though he writes these words: 

"When Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw that the Jewish people were threatened by a tragedy, he would go to a particular place in the forest where he lit a fire, recited a particular prayer, and the miracle was accomplished and the misfortune averted.

Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Maggid of Mezrich, had occasion for the same reason to intervene with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say, "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer." Again, the miracle would be accomplished.

Still later, Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say, "I do not know how to light the fire. I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient." It was sufficient, and the miracle was accomplished.

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am unable to light the fire. I do not know the prayer, and I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story, and this must be sufficient." And it was sufficient. For God made us because he loves stories."

Evangelistic perfection is not necessary when we speak about God or seek God in our lives. Instead, a faithful memory, or a faithful story, that is what God seeks from us. Certainly God has come down from heaven into our lives, and in the life of the church, and done extraordinary things. . . great things. . . powerful things. . . things we must remember and share. 

But God has also crept into our lives and answered the deep prayers of our souls. When we are so worn down, bruised, confused, or unsure. God does not ask to us to perfectly remember every detail of scripture. Instead, God asks that we faithfully remember that He is with us.

Perfection is not needed....

Blessings

Derek