Deal with these 5 truths, then your life will make sense
by Stephan Joubert
We urgently need a second naivety. Our disillusionments with life’s painful certainties and uncertainties should give birth to a second naivety which, in the language of Paul Ricoeur (The Symbolism of Evil, 1967), is built on a thoughtful, wise way of life. This only happens if we swim through the river of complexity, pain and disillusionment to the other side where we can make peace with uncertainty, and especially with God. Then, like children, we can again get excited about a fresh, thoughtful faith in Him.
Who knows, maybe we should encounter a sort of initiation process with Richard Rohr (Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation, 2004) to help us die to ourselves so we can start living for God. Both women and men need to make a deliberate life-choice to undergo a season of loss and parting enroute to waters of peace.
Richard Rohr identifies five statements of life–wisdom that we need to master in order to become free of our life–long addiction to ourselves:
1. “Life is hard.” Rohr says that if we haven’t learned to look our pain and loss in the eye, our lives will be increasingly bogged down in bitterness, pursuits of pleasure, and blame–shifting. But when we experience, in the midst of our hardships, that Jesus’ burden is still light and his yoke easy, then a heavenly light switches on for us.
2. “You are not important.” There’s an expiration date on status and a shelf–life for success. Our value in the eyes of society is often minimal. Yet those who are tracking Jesus know that their names are already written up in heaven.
3. “Your life is not about yourself.” At some stage, we’re all banned from the lead role of our lives. That’s why pilgrims on the Lord’s way know that it’s no longer we who live, but Christ in us. He alone is our hope! Then we can start living beyond ourselves.
4. “You are not in control.” Self-help gurus continuously encourage people to take control of their lives. Yet, life is unpredictable. It’s out of control. However, Followers of Jesus know a Heavenly Father that cares for the flowers and the grass of the fields, and never fails to deliver a day’s worth of manna at every today.
5. “You are going to die.” Death is the last stop on this side of the grave. But the hope of Christ’s people is that death’s bluff has already been called. Christ holds the keys of death and hell tightly in his hand.
Amid many Cul de Sac paths filled with disillusion, unemployment, poverty and crime, a quiet path of heavenly simplicity is meandering committedly through life. Wise travelers who realize this quickly change course. Indeed, they know they have discovered that hidden, heavenly treasure in the field.