Virginia Tech

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. -- John Donne

Roots

Me, age 3

 

The Good Life, Revisited

The class: Philosophy Capstone Seminar
The prompt: Expand on your conception of the good life, discuss your career goals, and explain how the second relates to the first.

Elizabeth Ewing
PL462
4 December 2006
Faith, Work, and Music

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
–James 3:13

If, years from now, I recall just one thing from our semester-long exploration the world of work, it will undoubtedly be this: that engaging in meaningful and satisfying work is one of the most basic elements of living a meaningful and satisfying life. This realization has prompted me not only to consider my future career prospects more realistically and earnestly than had been my previous habit, but also to contemplate the source of the interconnectivity between working well and living well. As I pursued the genesis of this connection on the pages of the Bible, I discovered wisdom about the role of work that spoke both to the generality of the human condition and the particulars of my own life.

The first reason that good work is a vital component of my conception of the good life is that, from a biblical perspective, the inclination to work hard (and to enjoy our work) is part of our God-given nature. It is, in essence, woven into our very being. As I struggle to live this out in my own life and work, I must first consider the character of God Himself, in whose image humanity was created. Scripture reveals an exciting truth: God is a worker! The entirety of creation was brought forth ex nihilo by the labor of the Almighty. Genesis 2:2 spells out in no uncertain terms the correlation between God’s creative acts and the idea of work: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” The Hebrew word for work used here, mala’kah, means ”occupation, work, business, or workmanship.” This creative occupation of God is found to be a praiseworthy pursuit by the author of Psalm 8, who says, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?[1]”

When I couple this conception of God with the belief that humanity was created in His image, I see how God’s divine work ethic becomes the basis of my own. I, along with the rest of humanity, was created by God’s work in order to do God’s work. This is enumerated in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”[2]

A second reason that good work is an indispensable part of my conception of the good life is that in order to walk consistently in my faith, any job or career I undertake must be a coherent and active part of my Christian life as a whole. The notion of a sacred / secular distinction – that some aspects of my life might fall under the category of service to Christ while others are simply everyday drudgery – runs counter to everything I understand about wholehearted discipleship. To avoid the compartmentalization of my convictions, I must approach work in such a way that it is always an expression of, and therefore never in competition with, my love for the Lord. Neither should a job be viewed as a necessary evil which pays the bills but ultimately drains time and energy from one’s “true” spiritual activity.

Some might assume that in order to sustain this marriage of work and worship, a career in formal ministry is required. However, I assert that the capacity to honor and serve God exists in almost any career, contingent upon one’s desires and intentions. For me, the definitive passage on this matter, as well as the key to carrying it out successfully, is Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” A menial laborer who truly understands this verse will accomplish more for the Kingdom of Heaven than an ordained minister who approaches his work with a secular mindset.

A third point at which good work and good life intersect is through the idea of stewardship. It is my understanding from scripture that God gives us all specific strengths and talents not just for our own enjoyment and blessing, but in order that we might be better equipped to carry out the work He apportions for us. Appropriately, a good career for me will be one in which as many of my abilities as possible are fully engaged. My desire is to make the fullest use of my gifts in order to accomplish more fully the purposes for which they were given. I understand that I have been entrusted with talents as a product of God’s grace rather than my own merit[3]. I also understand that I am expected and required to put these talents to good use in God’s service, and that even the fruits of my labor are not truly mine, but His. The more I meditate on the fact that I can lay no claim either to the means or ends of my labor, the more I am motivated by the awareness that my work is part of something bigger and more important than myself. Jesus’ parables concerning stewardship also indicate that a faithful handling of what has been given to us will not go unrewarded, either in this life or the next[4].

Now that my views concerning the underlying principles of good work have been duly established, it is high time to delve into more specific issues concerning my career goals. The list of career options I have considered at various points in my life is extensive and rather jumbled. My aspirations were first to be an artist (circa age four), then went on to include paleontologist, doctor, lawyer, lexographer, politician, Air Force officer, poet, engineer, and novelist. In the midst of this plethora of alternatives, however, music has always been my most constant passion, and the nearest to my heart.

Unquestionably, music has played and will continue to play a central role in my conception of the good life. The only question is the extent to which that role will be professional as well as personal. One reason why I plan to pursue music on the professional level is to gain access to a musical community. Sharing music with those who understand and appreciate it as much as I do provides an important part of my overall musical experience. The ability to receive critical feedback and instruction, as well as to collaborate with other musicians on individual projects, is important as well. Additionally, my experiences performing as a member of larger ensembles have, in rare moments of musical self-forgetfulness, shown me a picture of unity in purpose and skill that is unmatched by any other discipline.

The creation of music (and creativity in general) is vital to my good life for another very specific reason: it acts as a shadow, a microcosm of sorts, of God’s relationship with His own creation. When I work hard to compose a piece of music, to realize as best I can some melody that insists on running through my head, the finished product awakens in me feelings of affection, approval – even a maternal sort of pride. This happens even in instances when I am well aware that the quality of the music is substandard; the source of my affinity has very little to do with the caliber of the product. Rather, it is seated in the fact that I made it and that it is the fruit of my labor. The late Pope John Paul II expressed this idea in words far more eloquent than my own in his 1999 “Letter to Artists:”

"None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often in your eyes when—like the artists of every age—captivated by the hidden power of sounds and words, colours and shapes, you have admired the work of your inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God, the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you."

The creation of music becomes an intensely personal tool of worship when, as I delight in the music I’ve made, I recall how much more intensely and perfectly God must delight in me – not because I am particularly delightful or meriting (far from it), but simply and solely on account of the fact that He made me, and that I am the deliberate and cherished work of divine hands[5].

For me, the exploration of the good life, and the role of good work therein, ultimately takes the form of an exercise in means and ends. Ideally, a talent and passion for music will serve as the basis for good work in this area, and the experience of that good work in turn acts as an important tool for living a good life. However, while many of the philosophers we studied in this course might identify the value of living a good life as an axiom, I believe that the good life is only the penultimate link in the chain. A life well-lived, characterized by love and integrity, godliness and devotion, worship and joy, is a means to an even greater end – indeed the greatest end of all: the manifestation of the glory of God.

My prayer is this: that You, O Lord
(The Muse of all my crafted phrase)
Might sift through these unwieldy words
And glean from them a heart of praise.

Endnotes:
[1] Consider also Psalm 92:4-5: For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts!
[2] The matter is, of course, complicated greatly by The Fall. What was once intended to be a pure source of delight and fulfillment, when cursed by God, was mingled with strife, frustration, and sorrow. In my mind, the fact that the cursing of work was deemed a just recompense for original sin speaks to its centrality in human existence.
[3] 1 Corinthians 4:7: For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
[4] Matthew 25:23: 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' Luke 16:10: Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
[5] Psalm 139:13-14: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

As Through a Glass, Darkly

The class: Philosophy Capstone Seminar
The prompt: give a personal definition of the Good Life

Elizabeth Ewing
PL462
6 October 2006
As Through a Glass, Darkly[1]

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”[2]

“The world recedes; it disappears! / Heav'n opens on my eyes! my ears / With sounds seraphic ring! / Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! / O Grave! where is thy victory? / O Death! where is thy sting?”[3]

What is the Good Life? Before I can answer this question, there is something you should know about me. Three years ago, I gave my life away. I signed over my right to Self, with all the privileges and responsibilities therein. I am now a bondservant of righteousness[4] and the property of Another. In light of this, the decisions that determine the course of my future aren’t really mine to make. In fact, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”[5] Appropriately, I assert that His definition of the Good Life stands in lieu of my own, and as such, my exploration of this topic will refer often to the Bible.

Coming to terms with the fact that I am not my own and struggling to live accordingly has been a defining characteristic of these last three years. Many of my dreams and desires have been given up along the way, and many more will doubtless follow suit before God has finished with me. But pity me not – God has offered me a life far richer, far harder, far less comfortable and far more glorious than any that my own ambition could have forged. However, as the divergence between the life I would choose for myself and the life Christ has called me to live becomes more obviously pronounced, there is a truth which becomes proportionately difficult to deny: if the Biblical account of heaven is not factually true, then it is to my very great detriment that I live as if it were[6]. I am, in a very real way, gambling the whole of my time on earth – its very nature and quality – on the supposition that the Good Life isn’t this life at all.

The substance of Biblical Christian living represents a radical departure from conventional (humanist) thought. Simply put, it is my grave responsibility and great joy to consider my earthly life as forfeit to the service of the Gospel[7]. I am called to practice a consistent denial of my flesh, and to declare as Paul did, “I die daily.”[8] I am called to exhibit a singleness and wholeheartedness of devotion, acknowledging that “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God,”[9] and recognizing that I love Him too little when I love some other thing together with Him, loving it not on account of Him[10]. I am called to love sacrificially, even to the point of death – a principle which was illustrated definitively and undeniably as Christ hung on the cross. In fact, Christ has much to say on the cost of discipleship. As recorded in Matthew 16:24-26, He says “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

Lest my account of my Christian life thus far seem at all grim or Stoic, permit me to speak now about joy. Not the vapid comfort spoken of by Lucretius, nor even the lofty, self-wrought happiness set forth by Russel, but joy, vibrant and real, immovable and soul-deep, abundant in the midst of lack, abiding in the face of sorrow, and undaunted in the presence of opposition. Lucretius asserts that “the requirements of our bodily nature are few indeed, no more than is necessary to banish pain, and also to spread out many pleasures for ourselves.[11]” However, Jesus appeals to a higher nature when He presents sorrow, rejection and poverty as causes for rejoicing.[12] Consider the structure of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (emphasis added). No value is ascribed to persecution, poverty, or sorrow in and of themselves; Christians are not called to be ascetics[13]. Rather, in experiencing these things we gain access to spiritual treasures, the joy of which vastly overshadows the pain required to obtain them. Satisfaction of “the requirements of our bodily nature” ought only to be denied if a truer, more lasting satisfaction is the result. In a broader and yet more personal sense, I ought only to forsake the pursuit of a self-centered, comfortable life, choosing instead to live as a “sojourner and exile,” if I am convinced that in doing so I manifest my eternal citizenship in a Kingdom compared to which all the enchantments of this world are but cheap and glittering artifice[14].

Faith in the reality and supremacy of the life to come, that life which is promised to me by Christ and purchased for me at the cost of His blood, is the very substance of the joy that is to be found in this life. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). When one’s longing for heaven transcends the realm of hope and becomes certainty of what we do not see, immediate joy is the result. When a mother whose son serves overseas in a war zone is informed that he has been discharged and is returning home, she need not wait until he walks through the door in order for her heart to leap in celebration. Receiving the good news, even if it has not yet fully come to pass, is sufficient for her joy. And yet her joy will certainly be even greater when her son really does walk through the door. So it is for the life of a Christian. According to C.S. Lewis, "The very nature of Joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting." The definitive word on this matter is given in 1 Peter 1:8-9: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”[15] Surely the echo of heavenly joy, the ring of “sounds seraphic,” travels backward as well as forward across the soundscape of eternity. Another poignant illustration of this is found in Genesis 29. Jacob, hopelessly in love with Rachel, agrees to work for her father for seven years in order to procure her hand in marriage. Verse 20: “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” When my days on earth have ended, I hope to have lived in such a way that others can say of my life: “So Liz served sixty years for Christ, and they seemed to her but a few days because of the love she had for Him.”[16]

In summation, the Good Life, for me and for all who call on the name of the Lord, is one which strains forward to catch the first glimpse of heaven’s dawn on the horizon. It is one built wholly on the bedrock of God’s promises. It is one which, when ended, has merited the commendation of the Lord Himself: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”[17] Eternally speaking, the Good Life is that life in which the whole of my desire is slaked to its uttermost and beyond by God Himself. Indeed, I will settle for nothing less, since God has promised even more than this: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”[18] “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”[19]

“And as [Aslan] spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”[20]


Endnotes:
[1] 1 Corinthians 13:12 “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
[2] From the journals of Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador. He was martyred seven years later.
[3] Alexander Pope, “The Dying Christian to his Soul”
[4] Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
[5] Galatians 2:19-20 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
[6] Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 15:19: “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
[7] The definitive scripture on this matter is Philippians 3: 7-14: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
[8] 1 Corinthians 15:31
[9] James 4:4
[10] Modified from Augustine’s Confession, Chapter XXIX
[11] Book Two, “On the Order of Things”
[12] Matthew 5:3-12: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
[13] Colossians 2:20-23 “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things that all perish as they are used)--according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”
[14] In speaking of the faithful Israelites of the Old Testament, the author of Hebrews has this to say (11:13-16): “All these people … did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
[15] The passage in its entirety reads thusly: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
[16] Yet, unlike Jacob and Rachel, I do not earn Christ, but rather, Christ has earned me. “Let the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering!” – Moravian missionaries, circa 1732
[17] Matthew 25:21
[18] Ephesians 3:20-21
[19] 1 Corinthians 2:9
[20] C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

The wrong side of a sunrise

Haiku, part two:

Hours drain away

Morning comes like a gunshot

I'm still not finished.

With surprising force,

Mountain Dew number seven

finally hits home.

I solemnly swear:

Never again will I slack!

I mean it this time.

No need to refrigerate!

My favorite part is the skull in the background. 

Myself, arch-traitor to myself

In honor of my first all-nighter so far this fall, I took a break from the due-in-seven-hours mania to pen this precious bit of haiku goodness:

Easy Cheese on Ritz
Impeded by shaking hands ...
No more Dew this night.

Brownie points to anyone who knows where the title of this post came from. It seemed particularly appropriate, given the situation.

An Evening Prayer

To the God whose arms forged the roots of the world
To the God whose shoulders support a once-wayward lamb
To the God whose ears strain for my every whispered prayer
To the God whose eyes search for ways to bless me
To the God whose voice rebukes the waves of my worry
To the God whose heart burned with love for me even when I reviled him
To the God whose blood was traded for my pardon
To the God whose back was furrowed by obedience
To the God whose body was broken for me and for many
To the God whose side flowed with the currency of salvation
To the God whose hands stretched out to receive the nails that secured my freedom
To the God whose spirit became my own, now and forever more:

Thank you for my life.

All Creatures Great and Small

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Revelation 4:11

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. Colossians 1:16

Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you. Psalm 119:91

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Phillipians 4:6

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 4:4

All things created by God are good.
All things were created by him and for him.
All things serve him.
In all things offer prayer with thanksgiving.

All things.

I love animals very much. Most animals, anyway. The company of a pet offers a blessed respite from complicated human relationships without retreating to complete solitude. So does the company of God. The latest addition to my personal wildlife reserve was a handful of tadpoles scooped out of a muddy puddle at our Nebraska ranch. Now they reside in a complicated little habitat I built inside a plastic box, and over the past few weeks I've watched with childlike awe as, one by one, their bodies changed and little amphibian arms and legs materialized out of nowhere. Now almost all of them are fully toads, less than half an inch long. They can't live in their little box forever, but I'm afraid to let them go. I'm not sure they'll survive here in a different climate.

Last night, I was up (very) late reading in bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed something dark moving across the floor. Steeling myself to see any number of animals that I don't love so much, including a scorpion, I was instead surprised to see one of my little toads floundering on the carpet. Feeling a real compassion for my miniature pet, I moved quickly to scoop him up and return him to his home. Back in bed, I was anxious about which would be more dangerous -- keeping them captive or releasing them to unknown dangers. So I prayed to my God, asking him to keep them from escaping the rest of the night and to find a safe home for them soon. Then it hit me that in a world tearing itself apart with sin and violence, where human lives are lost senselessly and human souls are lost eternally, I was laying in bed praying for the safety of seven tiny toads. How self-consumed and ignorant of reality! How tiny was the scope of my concern!

But deep inside me, something quelled my harsh rebuke. It told me that if my pets were important enough to cause me worry, then it was important enough to tell God about. It reminded me that God is the God of the small and simple as well as of the great and dramatic, and that by all things and in all things he is honored by his creatures. All of them. I felt that as long as my heart was burdened by the things of God, be it sin or salvation or service or sorrow, then it was okay to care about toads -- because God cares about them.

With my heart at peace, I went to sleep at last.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.