Between a rock and a hard place

I did Engineering at Uni and, on the whole, it was a bit boring. Most boring of them all was Thermodynamics - tedious, tedious, tedious (and a bad jumper every lecture by the man at the front as I recall). It was the ultimate irony, therefore, that the bit of my course that I came to use the most in my pre-ordination career was, you guessed it, thermodynamics.

With hindsight I would have done something different - not sure what, even if it mattered.

I went to Theological College for a very different reason - because I was excited about the possibilities of being involved in the Kingdom of God, but now that seems to be the hardest thing to actually be engaged with.

Continue to work to find the Kingdom coming into being, even if it is hardly discernible, or go native and settle for "moving the Church on a little"...

So, hello Rock. Greetings Hard Place.

Was I naive to expect different?

Comments

[Nigel G]

Are not thermodynamics and the Kingdom of God as expressed in reflection on earth by Christendom both governed by the second law of thermodynamics?

So that the sad decline over time to disorder and low energy, due to entropy and sin,is unavoidable and cannot be reversed UNLESS there is the creative inrush powered by the energy and order of God's creativity expressed in the Holy Spirit and the victory at the Cross.

I recall our thermodynamics lecturer told us men had lived happy and contented lives without understanding entropy and therefore we were not to worry if we found ourselves in the same place. But not to worry is not to seek or to gain any wisdom.

It will always be the rock and the hard place until we repeat the surrender, defeated in ourselves,to the grace of God. I say this as somebody who knows they do not have the answers and struggles with rocks and hard places all the time, but have met Jesus who does have the answers but oddly tells us to work them out for ourselves. Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part seems to say it better in music better than words can. Both tender and peaceful but painful striving and longing at the same time.