Back in the winter I was reading a book called Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton. As you might guess from the title, it took a slow start at the beginning, opening with some dry, complex thoughts. But eventually the material started to pick up momentum as the ideas communicated began to generate excitement and motivation to reform. I don't have the book on hand, but what is probably my favorite revelation from Mr. Chesterton's journey to rediscover orthodoxy in his faith was this: Repetition is not necessarily stagnation. This has been a recurring lesson to me for years now, and it seems like I keep coming back to it because it never quite gets all the way through to me.
Chesterton illustrates this idea in this way: Adults and older youth often grow bored with activities quickly. There must always be a sense of novelty in order for a thing to be of interest. There must always be a sense of forward motion. An infant or young child, on the other hand, will often say, "Do it again!" whenever he finds a phenomenon entertaining, and he will not cease to repeat the phrase until he is sufficiently satisfied.
Take, for example, a circle and a spiral as another analogy. In education, we refer to what is called "spiral curriculum," in which one will return to familiar material in order to address new levels of the subject. For example, one may learn that multiplication is like adding multiple times (2x4 is like 2+2+2+2), then later return to learn the multiplication tables, then later return to learn how to multiply multi-digit factors, then later return to introduce variables as possible factors and products. In education, we see the spiral as the model for progress. So what about the circle then? Would that be a symbol of stagnation? What if we took the circle and changed our perspective so that it became not a two-dimensional geometric shape, but a wheel. It is a wheel, not a spiral, that allows a vehicle to move forward. The one who is content to remain in the same place relative to the body for an extended period of time, will find that he has made significant progress for himself and for the whole body, though he remains attached to the same axle.
Time and time again God has brought me back to this idea of sitting at His feet and resting in the truth, waiting for His teachings on a particular subject to sink in before moving on to anything new. But I can never sit still. Metaphorically. I always have to get up and move around. I have to be constantly learning something new, or else I feel like I'm not progressing. I can't just be content to hear the same thing taught to me over and over again until it gets through to me... because I often feel like I already know what He's trying to tell me. I've heard it all before. Or so I think. And I don't hear Him through.
Chesterton idealizes the image of a child laughing and urging his entertainer to "do it again" by putting the lens up against the Creation. The sun rises each morning because God says, "Do it again," not out of monotony but out of pleasure at seeing His creation do what it was made to do. The flowers of the field are so very similar not because God found the job of creation so dull that He simply used a mold to ease the process of duplication, but rather because He found a single flower so appealing that He said, "Do it again! Make another. That one is good too. Make another. And another."
Tomorrow, God will tell the sun to rise again, and He will see that it is good. And when the sun rises, He will tell me to get up and do it again, to lay myself down at His feet, to die to myself, and to rise again in Christ to live for Him. And He will see that it is very good, and He will be pleased with me. I say that not out of arrogance and pride, expecting to be a pleasing offering to God, but out of hope in Christ. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit anointed Him in the appearance of a dove, and the Father's voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). He did not say, "With His work I am well pleased." Jesus had not begun His recorded ministry yet. As far as we see in Scripture, Jesus had not yet done anything that would merit a declaration of God's pleasure in Him. Yet we hear that God said, "In Him I am well pleased." This was said that we might see that it is not in our works that our Father takes delight, but in our being. That's it. The mere fact that we exist. And that we choose Him, because of course, we are corrupted by sin, and that's not good; but the forgiveness we have in His Son redeems us so that He can look at us and say, "It is good. In you I am well pleased."
The last few days, I have felt discouraged because I feel that I am not leading anyone when I could be leading kids at Camp Highland. So as I was praying and having some quiet time, I started looking for encouragement. I have a funny habit of kind of silently preaching to myself sometimes. Not really praying, and not really talking to myself, but more like preaching to a congregation with myself as the only member. As I was doing this, my mind began to form the words of encouragement, "God is pleased with me. He is pleased with my work." Then I had to stop myself. What have I done to please God? Are my works what save me? Is that what makes God look at me and find me holy and innocent? No. He is pleased with me. Just the fact that I am me. I am who He made me to be. Just as the sun performs its duty in accordance with its identity, so I am pleasing to God by being myself and fulfilling the purpose God has given me in this moment in time.
He is pleased with me. So I will do it again!
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