021008

from friday


02/8/08
A Worthy End
Jill Carattini

An essay from G.K. Chesterton begins, "In all the current controversies
people begin at the wrong end as readily as at the right end; never
stopping to consider which is really the end."(1) In a world impressed
with our ability to create and acquire our own high-tech carts, perhaps
putting the cart before the horse seems very natural. Even very
thoughtful people can fail to think through the point of all their
thinking. Chesterton continues, "One very common form of the blunder is
to make modern conditions an absolute end and then try to fit human
necessities to that end, as if they were only a means. Thus people say,
'Home life is not suited to the business life of today.' Which is as if
they said, 'Heads are not suited to the sort of hats now in fashion.'"(2)
His observations are akin to the experiment of Solomon. Cutting a child in
two to meet the demand of two mothers is hardly fixing what we might call
the "Child Problem."

The reverse of the end and the means is hardly a modern problem, though
some argue the trend is increasing. C.S. Lewis observed many years ago
that logic seems to be no longer valued as a subject in schools. Never
having taken logic as a school subject, or even noticed its absence, for
that matter, I might agree that the observation still rings true. But
this is perhaps all the more startling when you consider how much we
currently seem to value a constant surge of information. In the chorus of
incessant infotainment, T.S. Eliot's lament from "The Rock" seems
almost a heretical voice:

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

The inconsistency of information-addiction and logic-disinterest aside,
the silent battle within our over-stimulated ethos of options and
information seems to have become one against indifference. Weary from
pleasure and choice, apathy becomes a major obstacle. Many do not even
remotely care whether the horse or the cart comes first.

In the book recounting the lineage of Israel’s Kings, Elijah went before a
people who had grown indifferent to the differences between Baal and
Yahweh. "How long will you waver between two opinions?" Elijah asked
them. "'If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.'
But the people said nothing" (1 Kings 18:21).

Cultural commentators note among us a similar indifference. While there
is an increasing interest in spirituality and a desire to locate deeper
meaning in life and experience, we waver between the gods and goods that
seem to answer. And though the need to pursue meaning is certainly a
cultural insight we do well to cultivate, the danger is perhaps in
allowing this desire to be the end in itself, the goal by which God or
Buddha or nature might serve as a means to fill. Like the men and women
before Elijah, our illogic is only compounded by our indifference. Should
we attempt to fulfill our spiritual voids without first asking why they are
there? Could not the desire itself exist because the God of creation, the
beginning and the end, placed it within you? If the LORD is God, why
would you not want to follow?

When Elijah asked the prophets of Baal to call him to reveal himself, the
test of truth was not avoided, but the decision was still before the
people. "Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. 'O
Baal, answer us!' they shouted. But there was no response; no one
answered. No one paid attention" (1 Kings 18:26). Then in a loud voice
Elijah called out, "Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will
know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back
again" (1 Kings 18:37). The fire of the LORD immediately fell upon the
altar. And when the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The
LORD--He is God! The LORD--He is God!"

In this season of Lent a similar invitation looms large before us. We are
invited both to see anew our motivations and the reasons of our own hearts.
We are invited to hear again the call of Christ to follow him to the
Cross, wherever it might lead. At the end of that road, however
tumultuous the means, we shall perhaps find that it was always Christ who
carried us. Even now, he is among us, one worthy of being our end. If
the LORD is God, why would you not want to follow?

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) G.K. Chesterton, As I was Saying (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1985), 63.

(2) Ibid., 63.