God’s Joy and Jumble

I have looked at some of what is happening in our world on the news and witnessed in our local communities recently, and over my lifetime, and have wondered how we as God's human creation have been able to continue to survive and often thrive with the contradictory nature that we exhibit, and thus are snake-bitten concerning our efforts to be at peace and harmony with God, with one another, and with God's non-human creation.

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He wrote the Pensées, which translated means Thoughts. "The Pensées was not completed before his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination and defense of the Christian faith." (Wikipedia)

In Pensées, Pascal wrote this about man (humanity), "What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe! Who will unravel this tangle?"

These thoughts of Pascal questioning humanities' glaring contradictions, chaotic thinking, and behavior, which possess both brilliant and beastly thoughts and actions, remind me of the thoughts of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans 7:15-25a, that also is the Bible reading for this Sunday, where he expressed his lack of understanding of his own actions as a man of God.

As you read this passage, find out if you can draw any parallels to your thinking and behavior as a believer in God and follower of Jesus' life and teachings.