My father-in-law is a quantum physicist from Russia. My mother is a mental health counselor from Butte, Montana. The conversations between those diverse backgrounds are always interesting, often deep and sometimes unintentionally hilarious.
This Sunday was my son's baptism. Each new memory brings back a dozen old ones and my mom asked my inlaws about raising their children. She asked my father-in-law whether it seemed like only a short time ago that he was a student at Moscow University with a young baby of his own.
My father-in-law looked at her a little quizzically and then stated, "I don't understand time."
From anyone else, this would have been a throwaway statement. If I'd said it, the most obvious response would be "Uhh, you messed up the words to that old Hootie and the Blowfish song - again."
However, it's a little different when a quantum physicist makes a statement about human beings' inability to understand the basic nature of time. Since Einstein, physicists have realized that time changes, speeding up or slowing down depending on how fast one thing is moving relative to something else. Scientists also know that time curves, the fabric of time-space to be more specific. But the most honest physicists, like my father-in-law, won't hesitate to state that human beings have only begun to understand the nature of time.Scratching the surface might even be overestimating how far we've come in unraveling those mysteries.
The Bible supports with the physicists' complex view of time. In Psalm 90, Moses wrote that "A thousand years... are merely a yesterday" in the eyes of the Lord. Saint Peter further described that "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day." 2 Peter 3:8
Yet, the complex changing nature of time is not a valid excuse for me to pick my kids up from daycare after 5:30 p.m. Closing time is closing time and each minute after that costs a dollar. The obscurity of time does not prevent millions of people around the globe from tuning in at exactly the right moment to watch the opening kick off on Super Bowl Sunday.
Human beings have figured out how to navigate through the unknowable characteristics of time enough to rely on it to guide the tasks that we need. My alarm clock may not be reliable within a certain range of a massively dense cosmic black hole, but it does just fine on my night stand.
We are faced with a similar challenge in facing the complex, obscurity of the Divine. It is impossible for human beings to fully understand spiritual mysteries. It is an intellectual realm beyond our grasp - by design. We can see the outlines of the deeper truths, but the mind of God eludes our comprehension.
In our faith life, we come across Bible passages that grind against each other. Religious leaders more human than divine. Dogma that offends reason and reason that disappears in the face of the largest questions like dew under a rising sun.
There are no easy answers to these spiritual questions. The beauty of faith depends upon that obscurity; but humility, prayer and love are powerful sign posts and no one becomes lost while following them.
This Sunday was my son's baptism. Each new memory brings back a dozen old ones and my mom asked my inlaws about raising their children. She asked my father-in-law whether it seemed like only a short time ago that he was a student at Moscow University with a young baby of his own.
My father-in-law looked at her a little quizzically and then stated, "I don't understand time."
From anyone else, this would have been a throwaway statement. If I'd said it, the most obvious response would be "Uhh, you messed up the words to that old Hootie and the Blowfish song - again."
[Gratuitous Hootie and the Blowfish Video]
However, it's a little different when a quantum physicist makes a statement about human beings' inability to understand the basic nature of time. Since Einstein, physicists have realized that time changes, speeding up or slowing down depending on how fast one thing is moving relative to something else. Scientists also know that time curves, the fabric of time-space to be more specific. But the most honest physicists, like my father-in-law, won't hesitate to state that human beings have only begun to understand the nature of time.Scratching the surface might even be overestimating how far we've come in unraveling those mysteries.
The Bible supports with the physicists' complex view of time. In Psalm 90, Moses wrote that "A thousand years... are merely a yesterday" in the eyes of the Lord. Saint Peter further described that "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day." 2 Peter 3:8
Yet, the complex changing nature of time is not a valid excuse for me to pick my kids up from daycare after 5:30 p.m. Closing time is closing time and each minute after that costs a dollar. The obscurity of time does not prevent millions of people around the globe from tuning in at exactly the right moment to watch the opening kick off on Super Bowl Sunday.
Human beings have figured out how to navigate through the unknowable characteristics of time enough to rely on it to guide the tasks that we need. My alarm clock may not be reliable within a certain range of a massively dense cosmic black hole, but it does just fine on my night stand.
We are faced with a similar challenge in facing the complex, obscurity of the Divine. It is impossible for human beings to fully understand spiritual mysteries. It is an intellectual realm beyond our grasp - by design. We can see the outlines of the deeper truths, but the mind of God eludes our comprehension.
In our faith life, we come across Bible passages that grind against each other. Religious leaders more human than divine. Dogma that offends reason and reason that disappears in the face of the largest questions like dew under a rising sun.
- How can we prevent the complexities, obscurities and contradictions of our faith from becoming a barrier to our spiritual development?
- How can we take the complexities, obscurities and contradictions of our faith and use them as the foundation for our spiritual life?
There are no easy answers to these spiritual questions. The beauty of faith depends upon that obscurity; but humility, prayer and love are powerful sign posts and no one becomes lost while following them.
No comments:
Post a Comment