. . .As for you, Morrel, this is the whole secret of my behavior towards you: there is neither happiness nor misfortune in this world, there is merely the comparison between one state and another, nothing more. Only someone who has suffered the deeper misfortune is capable of experiencing the heights of felicity. Maximilien, you must needs have wished to die, to know how good it is to live.
So, do live and be happy, children dear to my heart, and never forget that, until the day when God deigns to unveil the future to mankind, all human wisdom is contained in these two words: 'wait' and 'hope'!
Your friend
Edmond Dantes
Count of Monte Cristo. *
The Christian faith is at once a remembrance of things past and a preparation for things future. For the believer there really is no separation of the two for we are called to build our hope for tomorrow on that which we know has happened in a thousand yesterdays. Biblical study is, at least at the outset, a study of historical events - this we believe to be the work of God Almighty. From early on, the Israelites were instructed to commemorate such divine works through feasts and festivals and other religious observances otherwise out-of-the-norm for their daily activities.
Even today the church follows a liturgical calendar to mark important historical events (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Organ & Tissue Donor Sunday. . .um, that last one might just be the UMC). Even churches that turn their noses up at liturgical practices still seem to find a way to celebrate the "major" days as well as fit in the offering, sermon, candle-lighting, fifth-Sunday communion, etc. into the same slots during the same services on the same days.
Sunday ritual notwithstanding (I'll save that discussion for a future blog), it is important that adherents to the Christian faith remember God's activity in the past that it may serve as a foundation for our future. Dumas' words are very captivating and I think he does well (through Dantes) to capture the human condition in 'wait' and 'hope.' It is the inherent nature of humanity to wait and hope yet many do not have a basis for their hope. Think of the postmodern production Waiting for Godot. The play is (author's plot summary) a bunch of long drawn-out discussions that occur while waiting for a character (Godot) that never appears. That's it. For those who would like to be more entertained with the same overall plot premise, I suggest Waiting for Guffman. . .he never shows up either, but it's funnier.
"But now, LORD, what do I look for?
My hope is in you." **
Indeed, we are waiting and hoping for something. . .but what? This is where the message of faith and deliverance can be so effective and powerful. In Christ we are given a reason to wait and a foundation for hope. In Christ the things of this world make sense and then fade away. All of this begins with our understanding of our biblical past and our abiblity to dangerously live. Unlike our unfortunate fellow travelers who never get to see Godot or Guffman, we know for certain God comes to those who wait and hope in him.
"Wait for it!" ***
*Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (London: Penguin, 1996), 1077.
**Psalm 39:7
***Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly, 4077 M*A*S*H
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