Huff Expressions

Will return to this matter of the centrality of Christ in the scheme of history – "His story". At the end of the recent post on that theme I said the bride is composed of sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Of course those sons and daughters must enter a new lineage, becoming joint heirs with Christ, Jesus Himself being the elder brother, the children of Adam become the children of God.

There is far more here than we are aware of, and therefore far more than we can talk about. Nonetheless, a piece of the mystery is in this matter of marriage. History is consummated in a marriage. What does that mean?

It means more than we know, but for starters it has to mean that the idea of marriage is enormously significant, not to be trifled with. It would seem to also say that the filial love which engenders and flows from marriage is at the heart of everything.

Several things underscore or demonstrate this last. The crying need for relationship that is inseparable from life – filial love answers this most fundamentally and comprehensively. Consider the more foundational reality of the nature of God – three persons freely bound in love. What holds that reality together? It is that which we see echoed all around us – that which casts a shadow that we call family love.

Thinking about drudgery again. Chambers is exactly right when he says it is the touchstone of character. The late Richard S. Taylor treats the theme well in his excellent book, The Disciplined Life, from which I plan to copy excerpts in the days ahead. G. K. Chesterton first pricked my mind with the universality of drudgery in his poignant reminder that all jobs are comprised of a great deal of drudgery. I’ll share that in its native poignancy as I see demand reaching fever pitch.

It is normal to want to enjoy what we do, but the drudging is always necessary to the shouting, the exercise always required before performance, the diligent discipline of hours of mental focus essential to any meaningful task. As one Scott Peck observed, life is hard but once we accept that it is hard it becomes much easier. This kind of thing is intrinsic to life and it is as real in raising children as in saving money as in running a business or running the country.

Much like learning to type.

Twenty-two minutes this time.

And BTW my last post was ELEVEN WORDS PER MINUTE. (Celebrate the small victories!)

7:22 “Lord, let me lose everything that I may gain Christ.” A Scriptural prayer? Surely it is — “counting all things but loss…”. So said St. Paul and surely the greatest commandment embodies the same theme, for how could one love with such intensity and completeness without ‘losing’ a great deal?

Why should we want to gain Christ? The answer is found much in what my friend Gerald expounded so well recently. He reminded me that there is a mystery going on here in which all things are ‘caught up’ in Christ; all things find meaning insofar as they are connected to Him; the Father is drawing all things to the Son by the Spirit; a wedding is soon to occur, all of history awaits it, and Christ is the groom.

The bride? Well, the angels probably wonder at this one, as do, I assume, the best and holiest saints. The bride is the Church, the called out ones, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. 7:37