666, The Number of The Post

"The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.
What is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity...A man loses power when he pities. Through pity that drain upon strength which suffering works is multiplied a thousandfold. Suffering is made contagious by pity; under certain circumstances it may lead to a total sacrifice of life and living energy—a loss out of all proportion to the magnitude of the cause (—the case of the death of the Nazarene)." Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ

Who surmised that this day would come...the 666th blog posting of bierkergaard. 6 is the number for man in the Bible...a created being, sinful too, never a whole 7 on his own. Perpetually incomplete. Working, working...trying to add that 1 for Deity which can only come from the Lord Himself. Our adding is subtracting, if one thinks about it sum/some.

Works righteousness is so soul subtracting. Our works are never enough. 

Thus, it seemed appropriate to reflect upon Nietzsche and his last work The Anti-Christ, ironically penned when Nietzsche was physically quite ill and traveled widely searching for a cure. Quite manic and mad, not to mention mendacious. One can traverse the world for a balm of healing and a cessation of pain and an increase to power, and only come to find that the journey itself has exhausted one more and ushered in death even more hastily. God is not mocked. Verily, verily. Go to Golgotha if you want rest, not Gotham or any other City of Man. Poor pathetic and proud Nietzsche. Professing to be strong, he became weak. Dachau for you...

Speaking of irony, by outward appearance, people might perceive me as strong. 6' 8", 240 pounds, have a Ph.D., work in a demanding job with high school students, penning a book about the college transition. Truth be told, as noted in previous blogs, I am a weak man. I have mild cerebral palsy, a bad knee, no functioning eyesight in my left eye, a heart murmur, acne scars on the face, a broken right hand, a limp left wrist that has been broken twice, pigeon-toed, no sense of direction, etc. A peculiar and paradoxical combination of strength and weakness. Uberman and Everyman. A mess of a man, really. God has had pity on me and shown me grace.

The bedeviling aspects of weakness is that although we may be able to envision a life without them, we cannot actually avoid not experiencing them. That conflict, to one degree or another, imprisons all of us in our humanity. We want to be gods and then reality comes and chops us down to size...the axe of the actual versus the fiction of personal fantasy. Those who get too big for their britches get wedgies by the bully of life, ripping our boxers of pride to shreds and rags. Then, having it thrown back in our face. Death is our common destination.

How true of God to use our weakness to bring us to Himself whereas our powers more often move us in the direction of the demonic. Be thankful for what hurts, for within it causes us to seek Christ. You are welcome to His City of Pity, find your rest and succour for what ails you.

2nd Cor 12:9

And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.