I have
wondered about a title for this, what I hope will be one of my more significant
essays. I have thought of ‘Life Lived’; ‘The
Agony and the Ecstasy’; ‘The Measure of Our Creation’ and other such
titles. What I have settled upon is ‘The
Human Experience,’ which, I believe, incorporates all of what I want us to
think about today. (The title is
comprehensive; the treatment of a little essay on a big subject will, alas, not
be. But our personal pursuit of
understanding is unlimited; it is up to us.)
I think that
when one comes to an understanding or appreciation that ‘there must needs be an
opposition in all things’ and that there is ‘a pattern in all things’ is when
human enlightenment begins to occur. I further
believe that the process of learning these things is an important part of a
‘core curriculum’ of a mature life.
One of my
favorite university teachers and authors, the late Stephen R. Covey, has
written that for a person who has been privileged to live a long, and by our
standards fairly normal life, that life might well be defined by the
fulfillment of what became his four (or five) ‘L’s’: “to Live, to Learn, to
Love, and to Leave a Legacy.” I do not dispute that breakdown, and it should be
deeply pondered, but I do think the list should be considerably expanded.
I believe
that the generally universal human experience will necessarily include, in
addition, or by extension, such things as suggested by the title of author
Irving Stone’s great biographical novel of Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy.
The human experience of a full life will include both—agony of a
physical or spiritual or psychical nature—perhaps endured many times, and
ecstasy—a fullness of joy perhaps experienced only a few times even in a long
lifetime. But virtually all will
experience these extremes. Our response
to pleasure and pain seem necessary to a mature life. Acceptance-rejection; creation-failure;
victory-defeat, the pretentions of pride-the hurt of humility, the list goes on
and on.
There are
many such dichotomies. Let me suggest a
few of what I believe are a few of the most important life lessons that may not
often be considered.
I believe
that the intended human experience will include a time of living ‘under
obedience,’ or at least counsel: external submission either imposed—as, for
example, by parents or teachers; by training or organizational rules; by
medical order or necessity; or by religious covenant. Or the obedience may be more internal-- to
self-discipline by obedience to conscience or perceived moral principles. It may also be of a more optional nature--
the self-obedience may be a part of a desire to achieve excellence in some
field. Submission or obedience should
not be blind acquiescence, but rather confident faith in an end-directed
attitude of hope and accomplishment.
The full
human experience will include times of deprivation and of satiety. To be poor at some time in every life may be
necessary as much as to be rich may be desired.
To come to be satisfied with our lot in life or to be at peace may be
better than either.
I believe
that hard work—physical, mental or probably both is important to engage in as
long as possible. In fact it became a divinely-dictated necessity very shortly
after the beginning of human experience on this planet if you believe, as I do,
the Adam and Eve analogue or antecedent.
Hard work is a discipline as important as the food we eat. I don’t think
that retirement as practiced by just rocking on the porch or playing golf or
cards every day or lying on the beach, or the like, is a productive or
acceptable way to live out one’s last days (or even childhood, or adolescent
days) on earth.
Fear and
deliverance, recognition of our own weakness, hopelessness and redemption are huge parts of the human
experience. Perspective and appreciation
for the role of our Redeemer is a critically important learning.
To expand on
Covey’s imperative of ‘Love,’ which, I believe is the same as the scriptural
imperative of the principle of ‘charity’ in all its breadth and depth, I
believe that all lives were meant to enjoy this quintessential human
experience. To love and be loved is to
be sought for, because not only is God ‘love’ and He desires us to be like Him,
He meant for His children to be endued with and saturated with and expressive
of love because it is the engine that drives the world. We should try to make a difference for the
good in another person’s life, and by doing so our own life will be enriched by
its reciprocal. To give happiness and
security to another person produces its own reward for ourselves.
A subset of
love is sexual expression. Appropriate
and natural, unforced and unregretted sexual expression within the bounds that
our Lord has set is an important life experience—a creative and satisfying and
sustaining experience—that marriage can provide for a man and woman. To be a parent as an outgrowth of love and sexual expression is certainly an important part, I believe, of the human experience.
To restate,
we need to understand the bitter and the sweet, the good and the bad, the
desirable and the undesirable, either directly or by learning through the
teachings or experiences of others. By
being teachable we can learn vicariously without actually suffering some of the
negative which must be learned, one way or the other, by ourselves.
On a related
vein, I think it is a desecration of life to do anything to one’s body or mind
or spirit (or do it to anyone else’s for that matter) that compromises or harms
it intentionally or by neglect. And I
believe our stewardship extends to the planet itself.
It should be
noted that not one of the things mentioned above could not or will not be done—maybe
not willingly or by desire, but necessarily—by our own actions or by being
acted upon, in some life-stage by virtually everyone. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you”
(1 Peter 4:12). It takes cutting and
grinding and polishing to make a diamond a gem.
There are
more ingredients to a life fully lived, but this is a start, and I invite the
reader to seriously explore them. Great
art, music, literature, philosophy, and true religion is out there to give
direction, example, and answers.
Neither affluence
nor deprivation, gender, race, or place of origin, education or natural gifts,
geography or anything else I could think of should make a difference in our
attitude toward our life circumstances.
No one will have an equal opportunity or equal challenges or will be dealt
the same deck of cards: but we can all make the most of what we’ve been
given. There are numerous examples of
exemplary people who are blind, deaf, poor, imprisoned, maimed, deprived,
misunderstood or persecuted who have enriched their own lives and, by their
example, the lives of innumerable others. They have thus ‘met the measure of their own
creation’ and can/will have joy as much as those who might live what we view as
a ‘charmed’ life. In reality, even the
perceived ‘charmed’ will also experience all of the bitter as well as the sweet
as the rest of us. The rain (and hail)
fall on the just as well as on the unjust. And it's not over until it's over.
There is,
indeed and by necessity, an opposition in all things—and we should not bemoan
it. It is, as my first wife wisely said
not long before she died, “the small print” in the contract for our turn on
earth.
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