Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Here Comes the Sun

"It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance...

"The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.

"The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

"But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them."

G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

This is filed under Quotations.


5 comments:

Fiona L Cooper said...

I love the picture of God with an enormous, joyful smile on his face, saying, "do it again!" to the sun. Hmm. I think we spend too much time thinking about how ancient God is and tend to attribute to him feelings of boredom as we imagine a very old human to have at seeing history repeat itself. We need to remember how very young God is, in his excitement and joy at life. We might find more joy ourselves if we did?

More random thoughts from me to you!

Marti said...

Hey Fiona! Yes, it is a good image... and Chesterton's next line is this:

"It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

I'm still thinking a lot about joy, and how to find it, cultivate it, protect it. Mike Mason says we have to fight for it, have to love the battle.

Anonymous said...

Just yesterday I went looking for this book so I could read it. I think DaRonn has it in his office. I have only heard great things about it.

The pictures you chose to accompany this excerpt are perfect.

Marti said...

A - I was thinking in pictures first, and it brought the quote to mind.

Warning: Orthodoxy can be a bit overwhelming. Read the intro, then skip to the chapter called "The Ethics of Elfland." Then, if you're hooked, go back and start with chapter one.

Fiona L Cooper said...

John Piper would agree that we have to fight for joy... I read his book "When I don't desire God" last year and it encouraged me to really seek joy, that it is possible to live a joy-filled life.

It is indeed far easier to give into negative emotions, but I am attempting to "fight for joy" that is, when I remember that I've decided to do that...

Because it's so hard, it makes me think that it's probably something God really wants us to find, and the devil knows this and puts obstacles in our way...

All the more reason to stick at it, eh?

I'm not quite so sure about "loving the battle" How's that supposed to work? Can you really enjoy the fight? Well, I suppose you'd have to find joy in it in order to want to continue...?