HahYuhDooin?

Don McIntyre's blog. See www.donmcintyre.com

3/18/2012

A candle isn't flawed just because it isn't the sun

Yes, sometimes we can rightfully complain about people that they are not as [pick your judgement] as they should be:

Successful
Loving
Strong
Teachable
Compassionate
Good
Responsible
Trustworthy
Masculine / Feminine
Optimistic
Healing
Discerning
Forgiving
Supportive

But here is one of those uncomfortable but unavoidable situations where there is simply no valid solution except the one that is only available in the Bible (rightly interpreted). And here it is:

Humanity, and certainly any one specific individual or group, is simply not capable in any sense of providing all the legitimate things that a person longs for:

Satisfying Success without Destructive Ambition
Boundless Love without Denial
Strength without Egoism
Teachability without Foolishness
Compassion without Enabling
Goodness without Self-Righteousness
Responsibility without Manipulation
Absolute Trustworthiness
Gender Balance without Gender Confusion
Hope without Naiveté
Psychological Healing without Repression
Necessary Criticism without Discouragement
Forgiveness without Indulgence
Social Support without Rivalry

Many arguments and ill feelings arise from expecting things from people of which human nature is simply incapable. It's a kind of atheism. Not only is humanity not capable of providing such things. Humanity was not made to provide such things - only flawed and fragmented hints of them. Even all of us together, at our very best, will leave the deepest and most essential needs of people unmet.

Either there is a God who intends to fill the gap, or there is an incredible futility to human longing. The only other option, really, is to try to eliminate the longing.