Lenten Reflection 14, I Gotta Get Over Myself

This painting by William Blake depicts the time Job got a little talking-to from God:

“Then, from the midst of a whirlwind, the Lord gave Job his answer: Here is one that must ever be clouding the truth of things with words ill considered! 3 Strip, then, and enter the lists;it is my turn to ask questions now, thine to answer them. From what vantage-point wast thou watching, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, whence comes this sure knowledge of thine? Tell me, since thou art so wise, was it thou or I designed earth’s plan, measuring it out with the line? How came its base to stand so firm; who laid its corner-stone? To me, that day, all the morning stars sang together, all the powers of heaven uttered their joyful praise. Was it thou or I shut in the sea behind bars? No sooner had it broken forth from the womb than I dressed it in swaddling-clothes of dark mist, set it within bounds of my own choosing, made fast with bolt and bar; Thus far thou shalt come, said I, and no further; here let thy swelling waves spend their force.” (Job 38:1-11)

When God confronts us with his Infinity, my problems seem small and my capabilities seem smaller. Some people say it’s impossible for God, as Luke tells us, to take every hair on our head into His reckoning. But to disbelieve it is to think small. The number of hairs on every head of every person who ever lived and ever will live is still an infinitely small fraction of the Infinity of God.

Only by forgetting (or ignoring) how big God is can I think myself big. Big enough to solve my own problems. Big enough to understand knowledge from the tree of good and evil.

Some scoff at athletes who thank God for their amazing achievements on the playing field, but actually these great athletes are highly perceptive realists. They have gotten over themselves.

Reflection

How was I humble today? How was I proud?