Here was my question: why is that we seem to enjoy the process of making something more than the final product?
Here's a summary of the responses I've gotten: 1) its the artist in me...God is a creative 2) as finite creatures, we will never truly 'arrive' as we continually discover our infinite God 3) its the apostolic desire to initiate new things and spread outward 4) boredom...getting bored with one project, dropping it and starting another 5) the journey is necessary to fully appreciate the destination 6) it mirrors God's progressive revelation.
Excellent thoughts. Listing them out makes me think what a worthwhile question this was to ask. So my comments are thus: Probably all of these have bearing on the subject. God certainly is creative and, being images bearers, we are also creative beings (though not quite in the same way as God...As Harold Best puts it, God is the only true abstract artist in that when He created He was not copying anything).
I am really struck by Simon's idea of never truly arriving as finite beings before an infinite God. It reminds me of the description of heaven in C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. To the best of my recollection, heaven is depicted as a journey upward from the plains to the mountains in the light of an ever-increasing sunrise. This communicates the notion of discovery, journey and expectation...three dynamics that the human race has always hungered for. Wouldn't it be fitting that these desires are found ultimately in a humble relationship with our Creator?
Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder if we are stopping short here. Perhaps it is not that heaven is perpetual discovery, but rather a full and sustained celebration of the ultimate discovery (although perhaps one could argue that these are one in the same concept). I wonder if because, at the moment, all we know is the journey, we are unable to conceive of anything better than anticipation and searching.
Follow me here. If we, even now, have the drive to taste of the fullness of the glory of God, but are not yet able to fully satisfy that thirst, it would surely make sense that any destination (whether the completion of a website design, good book, or otherwise) would come as something of a letdown; a letdown that, rather than encouraging satisfaction and celebration, drives us back to the search, back to process, back to the journey. This would then explain my joy in the creative process, almost more than the creation itself (since moving toward something gives the impression of progress more than arriving at an undestination).
I'd better leave it at that for now. There are more of the points that certainly deserve comment in my next post. But for now, let me repeat my theory: since no destination, for the moment, is truly satisfying, the journey for us carries more feeling of promise than the arrival. But when we know fully even as we are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12), perhaps the destination will be so overwhelming that the prospect of journey will pale in comparison. But for now, we journey.
What think ye?
Sunday, January 18, 2009
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5 comments:
Your final thought: 'Since no destination, for the moment, is truly satisfying, the journey for us carries more feeling of promise than the arrival. But when we know fully even as we are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12), perhaps the destination will be so overwhelming that the prospect of journey will pale in comparison. But for now, we journey.'
Yeah, and the best explanation that came to mine was making love with one's spouse. I won't go into details, but we can consider it.
When projects are all finished, we want the satisfying thrill of accomplishing something new. What a thrill! But, as for heaven fully on earth, it will be perpetual satisfaction, thus no longer having an appetite to start something new to move towards that satisfaction. We will have reached it completely, as you said.
Precisely. And I cannot deny that the connection to sexuality has not entered my mind. Perhaps we should have a secret, "marrieds" discussion about the connection. Actually, I wonder if Rob Bell's, "Sex God" discusses this point.
"If we, even now, have the drive to taste of the fullness of the glory of God, but are not yet able to fully satisfy that thirst, it would surely make sense that any destination (whether the completion of a website design, good book, or otherwise) would come as something of a letdown; a letdown that, rather than encouraging satisfaction and celebration, drives us back to the search, back to process, back to the journey."
This part resonated with me.
"But, as for heaven fully on earth, it will be perpetual satisfaction, thus no longer having an appetite to start something new to move towards that satisfaction. We will have reached it completely, as you said."
Good thoughts guys.
I am currently reading N.T. Wright's new book, "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church."
I'll have to get back with you guys on what Wright can contribute to this conversation =).
Yeah, I need to dig into some Wright at some point.
The sex thing needs more thought - there is definitely an analogy there... definitely.
I think what you're talking about Daniel is a kind of dialectic (or paradox?) between journey and arrival. I think I would hold to my earlier thought that we will never ever exhaust what can be known about God. As he is infinite-creator, and we're finite-created, he will always be other from us, and in that sense there must always be 'more' (an excess) of him than we can comprehend or experience. However, I think there is an arrival as well (or a kind of arrival) - that even in this life, when God is manifestly 'present' (in a meeting or whatever), we feel a sense of completion and fullness. In that moment, we cannot imagine anything more.
I think the analogy of the overflowing cup illustrates my point - the cup is full - fully full - and yet there is always more, an excess, which overflows. Heaven then would be a perpetual *arrival* - that time and again we experience God fully, and cannot experience any more - and yet there is more, and we perpetually *journey* into that more even as we arrive.
So I think the two things, journey and arrival, go together in a kind of dance. Stuff like websites / songs / essays, never satisfy, because when they are completed they are *really* completed: there is nothing more. In contrast, God satisfies us fully, but I think he satisfies us fully because there *is* more. So that after we arrive (and we *do* truly arrive, we *are* fully satisfied), we then journey on even deeper. I think desire has a part to play in this too.
Or something like that.
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