It’s the old joke… ‘On the one hand I’ve broken my finger; on the other hand, I’m fine.’
Former NFL player and NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, who worked on the space shuttle Atlantis, says:
‘On the one hand we possessed the technical savvy to create vehicles and satellites capable of reaching distant regions of the heavens. On the other hand, we still haven’t figured out the solutions to some very basic questions on Earth, such as how to keep everyone of God’s children safe, fed and warm.’
Yesterday I played chess with my friend Roy. I enjoy the reasoning… If I do that then he will/may do that, then I can do that…
We talked about a desperately sad family situation … a forty-six-year-old man who’s died unexpectedly leaving a partner, wedding plans, and a baby son.
On the one hand we were playing a game dependent on logic; on the other hand we were recognising that real life often defies logic.
Our Lent course this morning reminded of Jesus’ words: ‘Let your light shine before others…’
On the one hand the world’s a dark place; on the other hand Jesus says, ‘I am the light of the world’. On the one hand Jesus is the light of the world; on the other hand he says ‘you are the light of the world’.
Richard Rohr describes older, wise men, elders, as ‘grand fathers’:
‘The grand father no longer needs the luxury of utterly clear principles to assure him of each decision… his beliefs have less to do with unarguable conclusions than scary encounters with life and the living God. He has come to realise that spiritual growth is not so much learning, as it is unlearning, a radical openness to truth no matter what the consequences or where it leads.’
On the one hand the grand father has spent his life learning; on the other hand, his wisdom comes from unlearning. On the one hand I… On the other hand, I…
malcolmsmusings.org 