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.    


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake the Dust: Anis Mojgani

Pslam 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I am not real certain where Anis Mojgani comes from belief-wise. Cats like him tend to be synchrestic spiritually rather than Christ-centered. Yet, this poem captures the spirit of Jesus. What this poem also needs is grace....we shake off sin and mortality and take on Christ and immortality. This is for the fat girls This is for the little brothers For the former prom queen And for the milk crate ball players This is for the school yard wimps And the childhood bullies that tormented them Shake the dust. This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them. This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs, Simply to hold up their children. For the nighttime schoolers And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust. For the two year olds who cann
Read more

White Shoes, White Stones

Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. (ASV) With the white stone mentioned above in the Scripture verse, "And will give him a white stone" it is "Supposed that by the white stone is meant pardon or acquittance, and the evidence of it; and that there is an allusion here to the custom observed by judges in ancient times, who were accustomed to give their suffrages by white and black pebbles; those who gave the former were for absolving the culprit, those who gave the latter were for his condemnation." (Clarke) What has brought about this essay was my purchasing the other day of some very white and new Nike jogging shoes. My old pair of Nike's have been worn down. I was developing serious pain in my feet which is a solid sign that it is t
Read more

Going Rogue: Dare, Risk, Dream

Image
I picked up a bumper sticker at a Pub recently from the Rogue Brewery . On it there are the words: DARE, RISK, DREAM. Typically, the word Rogue is a negative term. I will let you decide if Sarah Palin and her book has made the word less or more so. Initially, I taped the bumper sticker to my computer lap top with the backing still on it in case I wanted to remove it. Just a second ago, I committed fully, and pulled the backing off and affixed it to my Dell. No turning back. Is that not an illustration of how to accomplish great things? We have to stick and commit. If we go taping ourselves to the backs of things, it leads to easier removal but also to tepid efforts. Now, if I take this bumper sticker off the back of my lap top it is going to be a mess...I am all in. Consequences be damned. My summer vacation officially began today at noon (why else would I be blogging at 3:26 am?) and my creed for the summer is DARE, RISK, DREAM. A Kerouac quote to light the fireworks... "Great th
Read more