[Written for Wheatland Mission Youth Group Book Club]
North Wind is a troublesome character. Reading through the book, she is not exactly God, but more like one of His messengers. (Angel? Death?) That said, her conversation with Diamond about her nature in chapter 8 seems like she is arguing from God's point of view (and not just as one of His messengers). This passage is what I want to discuss here. First, the excerpt:
"Here you are taking care of a poor little boy with one arm,
and there you are sinking a ship with the other. It can't be like you."
"Ah! but which is me? I can't be two mes, you know."
"No. Nobody can be two mes."
"Well, which me is me?"
"Now I must think. There looks to be two."
"Yes. That's the very point.—You can't be knowing the thing you
don't know, can you?"
"No."
"Which me do you know?"
"The kindest, goodest, best me in the world," answered Diamond, clinging
to North Wind.
"Why am I good to you?"
"I don't know."
"Have you ever done anything for me?"
"No."
"Then I must be good to you because I choose to be good to you."
"Yes."
"Why should I choose?"
"Because—because—because you like."
"Why should I like to be good to you?"
"I don't know, except it be because it's good to be good to me."
"That's just it; I am good to you because I like to be good."
"Then why shouldn't you be good to other people as well as to me?"
"That's just what I don't know. Why shouldn't I?"
"I don't know either. Then why shouldn't you?"
"Because I am."
"There it is again," said Diamond. "I don't see that you are. It looks
quite the other thing."
"Well, but listen to me, Diamond. You know the one me, you say, and that
is good."
"Yes."
"Do you know the other me as well?"
"No. I can't. I shouldn't like to."
"There it is. You don't know the other me. You are sure of one of them?"
"Yes."
"And you are sure there can't be two mes?"
"Yes."
"Then the me you don't know must be the same as the me you do know,—else
there would be two mes?"
"Yes."
"Then the other me you don't know must be as kind as the me you do know?"
"Yes."
"Besides, I tell you that it is so, only it doesn't look like it. That I
confess freely. Have you anything more to object?"
"No, no, dear North Wind; I am quite satisfied."
"Then I will tell you something you might object. You might say that the
me you know is like the other me, and that I am cruel all through."
"I know that can't be, because you are so kind."
"But that kindness might be only a pretence for the sake of being more
cruel afterwards."
Diamond clung to her tighter than ever, crying—
"No, no, dear North Wind; I can't believe that. I don't believe it. I
won't believe it. That would kill me. I love you, and you must love me,
else how did I come to love you? How could you know how to put on such a
beautiful face if you did not love me and the rest? No. You may sink as
many ships as you like, and I won't say another word. I can't say I shall
like to see it, you know."
Ok, so apologies for the long passage, but the author, George MacDonald is getting at something important here, and I thought it best to look at the whole thing.
For a long time people have wrestled with the problem of how evil can exist along with a "good" God. (That is, if God is good and all-powerful, then why does He allow X to happen?) You fill in the X with your own question, of course: why did my mother get cancer...why does God allow babies to starve to death...why do innocent children get sexually abused...etc. The name for this problem of why God doesn't step in to stop evil is theodicy, and MacDonald tries to answer it here. I don't know that he does it very well (I don't know that you can do it very well...I think this question...these kinds of questions, make our faith as Christians something meaningful).
North Wind's argument essentially boils down to the following points:
1. Her goodness has been revealed to Diamond, and is something in which he believes.
2. She is good to him because she chooses to be, not because she "owes" it to Diamond.
3. She cannot have two natures. She cannot be both good and evil.
4. When it looks like she is not being good, Diamond has to choose between what he sees, and what he believes (see #1).
These 4 points roughly correspond to 3 key aspects of the Christian life: faith (#1), grace (#2), and human choice (#4).
This is all well and good, but I feel like MacDonald only touches on the problem before resolving it far too easily. (Diamond is apparently too afraid to follow North Wind's suggestion that there is a possibility that her true nature may be cruelty...something that C.S. Lewis takes up in one of my favorite books of his, A Grief Observed, when he asks how do we know God isn't just some "cosmic sadist"?)
Going to leave it there. Hopefully it has made you think. Don't feel like you have to have a great answer for people when they ask how you can be a Christian and believe in a God who lets children suffer. I don't. And I've heard a lot of different answers. This is one of those things where I can't help but feel the question may be more important than any answer we can make. And I think the question becomes especially important if we truly believe that the Kingdom of God is something that we are invited to participate in...not just something that we are waiting for to happen.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Friday, January 3, 2014
At the Back of the North Wind, Chapter 4
[The following is a post written for the Wheatland Mission youth group book club.]
I decided to post this here, instead of making you all read it on Facebook. First, like I said earlier, I remember liking this book more as a kid than I have liked it with this re-reading, but I still think there are some parts that are interesting to discuss, so I will try to do that here.
Chapter 4. Diamond and the Street-sweeper. This chapter reminded me of the Brene Brown TED Talk "On Vulnerability" that I shared on the Facebook page (I think she swears once. Apologies. But it's still worth watching.) To refresh your memory, Diamond goes on his first adventure with North Wind, sees the girl being blown about and looking "so lonely there," and so he asks North Wind to help her.
"Oh! please, North Wind," he cried, "won't you help that little girl?"
"No, Diamond; I mustn't leave my work."
"But why shouldn't you be kind to her?"
"I am kind to her. I am sweeping the wicked smells away."
"But you're kinder to me, dear North Wind. Why shouldn't you be as kind to her as you are to me?"
"There are reasons, Diamond. Everybody can't be done to all the same. Everybody is not ready for the same thing."
"But I don't see why I should be kinder used than she."
"Do you think nothing's to be done but what you can see, Diamond, you silly! It's all right. Of course you can help her if you like. You've got nothing particular to do at this moment; I have."
"Oh! do let me help her, then. But you won't be able to wait, perhaps?"
"No, I can't wait; you must do it yourself. And, mind, the wind will get a hold of you, too."
"Don't you want me to help her, North Wind?"
"Not without having some idea what will happen. If you break down and cry, that won't be much of a help to her, and it will make a goose of little Diamond."
"I want to go," said Diamond. "Only there's just one thing—how am I to get home?"
"If you're anxious about that, perhaps you had better go with me. I am bound to take you home again, if you do."
"There!" cried Diamond, who was still looking after the little girl. "I'm sure the wind will blow her over, and perhaps kill her. Do let me go."
They had been sweeping more slowly along the line of the street. There was a lull in the roaring.
"Well, though I cannot promise to take you home," said North Wind, as she sank nearer and nearer to the tops of the houses, "I can promise you it will be all right in the end. You will get home somehow. Have you made up your mind what to do?"
"Yes; to help the little girl," said Diamond firmly.
This is one of my favorite passages in this book, because I think it is easy to imagine ourselves in Diamond's position--or if you are older, like me, to remember times like this when you wish you had been as courageous (or "whole-hearted," according to Ms. Brown) as Diamond is here.
Really, if you think about it, it makes no sense for Diamond to help out this girl. He doesn't know anything about her situation; he doesn't even know who she is; he has no guarantee of his own safety (getting home); he has been told by North Wind that even though it doesn't look like it, the girl is getting the exact kindness she needs; and to cap it all off there are actually negative consequences for his helping the girl ("the wind will get a hold of you, too"). Of course, one of the great things about Diamond is that he doesn't stop to think very much...at least, not like you and I think. One of the other great things about him is his willingness to help. Now this world is full of all kinds of people who don't think very much and who are over-eager to help...but none of them is very much like Diamond. That's an important thing to realize, even though I can't explain it at length here. I guess what I mean is that these things are not always virtues, although with Diamond they clearly are meant to be.
So Diamond stops. (Why does he stop? To quote a later line: "Now the way most people do when they see anything very miserable is to turn away from the sight and forget it. But Diamond began as usual to try to destroy the misery.") He stops because he knows he should. He doesn't know what he is going to do, he doesn't know how he can help, but he stops anyway. (And, it is worth noting, he even feels bad in the middle of wandering the streets with the girl because, "...he thought he had been no use to her." It turns out he is wrong about this, but at the time he feels like he has failed.)
This is a really important passage because it illustrates, to me, the expectation set on Christians by Matthew 25:31-46. That's the famous sheep and goats passage, and I am always struck by how both groups misinterpret the situations they find themselves in. The sheep don't realize that by helping the people they see in need, they are helping Christ (they have apparently made helping people in need a habit, and they can't even imagine not doing so...they just think they are doing the natural thing in the situation). The goats don't realize that by failing to help the people they see in need, they miss out on helping Christ. (Why don't they help? Probably because they don't know anything about the situations the needy are in: maybe they're in jail because God is teaching them a lesson about obedience...maybe they are naked because God is teaching them a lesson about humility; they don't even know who the needy are, much of the time; they have no guarantee of their own safety; they have been told by their Bibles all sorts of things that they use to get off the hook; and to cap it all off, there are often negative consequences for helping the person.) I don't think it takes much guessing to figure out which side Diamond is on.
So that's my post on chapter 4. And yes, this is me trying to keep it short.
I decided to post this here, instead of making you all read it on Facebook. First, like I said earlier, I remember liking this book more as a kid than I have liked it with this re-reading, but I still think there are some parts that are interesting to discuss, so I will try to do that here.
Chapter 4. Diamond and the Street-sweeper. This chapter reminded me of the Brene Brown TED Talk "On Vulnerability" that I shared on the Facebook page (I think she swears once. Apologies. But it's still worth watching.) To refresh your memory, Diamond goes on his first adventure with North Wind, sees the girl being blown about and looking "so lonely there," and so he asks North Wind to help her.
"Oh! please, North Wind," he cried, "won't you help that little girl?"
"No, Diamond; I mustn't leave my work."
"But why shouldn't you be kind to her?"
"I am kind to her. I am sweeping the wicked smells away."
"But you're kinder to me, dear North Wind. Why shouldn't you be as kind to her as you are to me?"
"There are reasons, Diamond. Everybody can't be done to all the same. Everybody is not ready for the same thing."
"But I don't see why I should be kinder used than she."
"Do you think nothing's to be done but what you can see, Diamond, you silly! It's all right. Of course you can help her if you like. You've got nothing particular to do at this moment; I have."
"Oh! do let me help her, then. But you won't be able to wait, perhaps?"
"No, I can't wait; you must do it yourself. And, mind, the wind will get a hold of you, too."
"Don't you want me to help her, North Wind?"
"Not without having some idea what will happen. If you break down and cry, that won't be much of a help to her, and it will make a goose of little Diamond."
"I want to go," said Diamond. "Only there's just one thing—how am I to get home?"
"If you're anxious about that, perhaps you had better go with me. I am bound to take you home again, if you do."
"There!" cried Diamond, who was still looking after the little girl. "I'm sure the wind will blow her over, and perhaps kill her. Do let me go."
They had been sweeping more slowly along the line of the street. There was a lull in the roaring.
"Well, though I cannot promise to take you home," said North Wind, as she sank nearer and nearer to the tops of the houses, "I can promise you it will be all right in the end. You will get home somehow. Have you made up your mind what to do?"
"Yes; to help the little girl," said Diamond firmly.
This is one of my favorite passages in this book, because I think it is easy to imagine ourselves in Diamond's position--or if you are older, like me, to remember times like this when you wish you had been as courageous (or "whole-hearted," according to Ms. Brown) as Diamond is here.
Really, if you think about it, it makes no sense for Diamond to help out this girl. He doesn't know anything about her situation; he doesn't even know who she is; he has no guarantee of his own safety (getting home); he has been told by North Wind that even though it doesn't look like it, the girl is getting the exact kindness she needs; and to cap it all off there are actually negative consequences for his helping the girl ("the wind will get a hold of you, too"). Of course, one of the great things about Diamond is that he doesn't stop to think very much...at least, not like you and I think. One of the other great things about him is his willingness to help. Now this world is full of all kinds of people who don't think very much and who are over-eager to help...but none of them is very much like Diamond. That's an important thing to realize, even though I can't explain it at length here. I guess what I mean is that these things are not always virtues, although with Diamond they clearly are meant to be.
So Diamond stops. (Why does he stop? To quote a later line: "Now the way most people do when they see anything very miserable is to turn away from the sight and forget it. But Diamond began as usual to try to destroy the misery.") He stops because he knows he should. He doesn't know what he is going to do, he doesn't know how he can help, but he stops anyway. (And, it is worth noting, he even feels bad in the middle of wandering the streets with the girl because, "...he thought he had been no use to her." It turns out he is wrong about this, but at the time he feels like he has failed.)
This is a really important passage because it illustrates, to me, the expectation set on Christians by Matthew 25:31-46. That's the famous sheep and goats passage, and I am always struck by how both groups misinterpret the situations they find themselves in. The sheep don't realize that by helping the people they see in need, they are helping Christ (they have apparently made helping people in need a habit, and they can't even imagine not doing so...they just think they are doing the natural thing in the situation). The goats don't realize that by failing to help the people they see in need, they miss out on helping Christ. (Why don't they help? Probably because they don't know anything about the situations the needy are in: maybe they're in jail because God is teaching them a lesson about obedience...maybe they are naked because God is teaching them a lesson about humility; they don't even know who the needy are, much of the time; they have no guarantee of their own safety; they have been told by their Bibles all sorts of things that they use to get off the hook; and to cap it all off, there are often negative consequences for helping the person.) I don't think it takes much guessing to figure out which side Diamond is on.
So that's my post on chapter 4. And yes, this is me trying to keep it short.
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