Thinkaloud | The best of times

… a most difficult concept … to comprehend

“I

t was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

The first paragraph of Charles Dickens’ novel of the French revolution, A Tale of Two Cities, captures the contradictory state of human life. The path is not smooth. There are imperceptible turns in the road which, upon looking back, have had enormous consequences. And yet, that is not the whole story; we are not the only players in the pageant of life. As Shakespeare wrote, “There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”  In other words, we do not have the final say about our lives; absolute freedom is not ours.

This is a most difficult concept for modern, self-willed persons to comprehend. Such people are used to having their own way and firmly believe that they are the final arbiters of their destiny.  Yet even as they scoff at the idea that God the Creator determines the limits of their time on earth, they know that even a hundred years is not long enough to meet the glorious challenges that life brings. There are many things to be done: songs to be sung, poems to be written, problems to be solved, people to know – and life is so short!

The best response to this realization is not panic, nor is it a flurry of frantic activity that leads to burnout and a host of other personal difficulties. No, the best response is to recognize our limits, as well as to explore the relationship that God offers to us individually. Our limits are obvious to those who have eyes to recognize them. The difficulty is in accepting the idea that the Creator and Sustainer of all things wishes to have a personal relationship with us. This, of course, is for our benefit, for our personal growth, and so that we might live our fleeting lives on this earth in the best way possible – for us and for posterity.

God comes to people in unexpected ways. Only those who have tasted the fruit of obedience to Him have the wisdom to recognize this, and then to pass on to the rest of us what they have learned. The mystics write and sing about such encounters, such nuggets of true insight, and the rest of us are grateful that they have shared the results of their encounter with the living One.

Such a God-intoxicated Christian was Lucy Booth-Hellberg who wrote, out of a time of trial and extreme difficulty, words of such clear insight that they have encouraged countless pilgrims on the Christian way.

If all were easy, if all were bright,
Where would the cross be, and where the fight?
But in the hardness, God gives to you
Chances of proving that you are true.

Do we accept this as true? Are we convinced that this poet has passed on to us wayfarers some wisdom that we sorely need? And when the tough times come, when we are living in the contradictory world so eloquently described by Dickens, when the hardness of the way is pressing us beyond measure, are we able to say, “Yes indeed, this is the best of times, because it is the time in which He has placed us – and His grace is sufficient?”

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of theRubicon series called Resurrected Writers.

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