Being “In” Not “Of”
As the duration of daylight draws down and the nights lengthen, I am finding peace in this reliable process of life. I’ve read that in ancient cultures these cycles of seasons gave way to the belief in reincarnation and the powerlessness of oneself. This is why it is so important that God is above nature. When we follow a God not bound by these cycles and systems of life, we are free from those systems ourselves, for we follow something higher.
Still, many people find themselves discouraged by the increasing darkness. Bound so tightly to the world around them, many will sink into seasonal depression. I am not saying this is not a real occurrence. I have experienced it before in times past. Yet, I might ask those most deeply affected, “What is one supposed to do when one is bound in such a way to the cycles of this earth?” It seems to me the most natural answer is “Nothing at all, for there is no point.” To be subjected to the rhythms of nature is to be without recourse to change.
I am not bound by these patterns but comforted by their signaled opportunity to change and grow in myself. If the seasons can change, then why can’t I? Obviously, summer habits are a losing game in a winter wonderland. One cannot change the world by ignoring it. To live outside the world is to grow dead on the vine. It is only as part of life that we can have any impact on it. To be “of “the world seems rather the problem I started with, unable to escape the forces of nature around you. To be “in the world, but not of the world” (that old Christian insistence) seems the only practical thing.
This idea too is somewhat old. It melds well with stoic philosophers’ insistence that you cannot always change your circumstances, but you can change your reaction to those circumstances. Though not a bad point, it is not exactly the same thing. For stoic philosophy deals more with your feels about the world and I believe the Christian axiom has more to do with your actions (sprung from the heart) within this world, regardless of the worldly consequences to which they may lead.
Consider the tale of early Christians described in Massey H. Shepherd, Jr’s The Worship of the Church. In the early part of the book, he is giving accounts from an interrogator of Christians during Christian persecution in the Roman empire. It is clear the interrogator is trying to warn them of the consequences, before he asks about their participation in the Eucharist (i.e., Holy Communion). Despite the warning, despite the consequences, person after person replies, “I am a Christian”, fearlessly forfeiting their life for their faith with an admirable ease.
To those without faith this will likely seem a waste, but I encourage you to consider that this is a time when the church continued to grow. Why? Because the Christians of that time visibly believed what they said they believed. They cared not for their life in this world, but for the promise of eternal life for all who do believe.
I think we can actually live in this same spirit. I believe we can do so by the way we act out our lives and by the way we act in this world. What would you do differently if you lived in your own hope and belief, regardless of the consequences? How would you change the way you use your time? Who would you spend more time with? Which things would you do more of, and which things would you do instead?
I claim no perfection on this or any other front, but this Substack was actually my attempt to follow this supposition. I believe strongly that a new era is dawning and that another is dying away. A feature of what has been is that decisions were made and positions taken based on what one was against. There is a utility there. Not only in the big things (like the fact that murder is and must be wrong), but in the small things too (like not knowing where you want to eat but being sure where you do not want to eat). Utility is good but it is not something you can live for. We are creatures that need meaning and purpose and you cannot find it in a negative, or at least not for long.
To live in the negative seems to me the language of a dead or dying age. What is the fate of a fruit tree that never produces fruit? It may live, but not in fullness of its purpose and without fruits that produce seeds, even its memory will eventually pass away.
When I started this, I thought it was better to do a good thing badly, than to not do the thing at all. I have no formal training in this kind of writing. It may be terrible, and I am sure some (especially early articles) were, but what I was trying to do is good.
What I was trying to do was to provide a positive vision. To talk about meaning and purpose in a way that resonates and invigorates the soul, so that it rippled out into every area of life, even to the lives around us. By trying to do this with as little hesitation as I could muster, I was trying to live in the world, without being bound by it.
Let me try to explain it a different way by using the last scene in the play Our Town by Thorton Wilder. To this day it is one of my favorite plays. Like the prophets spoke the truth long ago that the people themselves could not see, so I believe the best art shows us the truth about yourselves and this world that we otherwise could never have seen.
In the final scene Emily Gibbs has died and is in the cemetery[i]. She finds she can go back and live the moments of her life again. At first, she is so happy, but then, in death, she realizes the things we take for granted in this life. All the moments that are so precious and so sacred. The deeper connection we have to one another, that we cannot be given real voice until it is too late. Now that Emily sees them, and even in death is pained. There is nothing she can do to be able to live in the fullness of those moments, for her only chance is already gone.
These are the moments that actually surround our day-to-day lives. But as long as we are bound by the dictates of the world, we will never be able to live into the completeness they hold. Yet, therein lies the good news, we do not need to be bound by the dictates of this world. We can be in the world and not of it. Maybe not at every moment, but at many. For the choice is ours. We can choose how we want to live. What choice will you make?
