I keep waiting for it to kick in, the legendary "wisdom of old age." Hey, I've met the age qualification. What's holding things up?
Well, what's wrong is that I've forgotten what Aristotle said about wisdom. To begin with, he said, there's no such thing as a wise young person. Youths can be intelligent, quick-witted, amazing agile at juggling language and ideas. (Look at how they handle electronics!) But they can't be wise.
That's because true wisdom is keen thought, PLUS the accumulated experience of years. Without both present and reinforcing each other, says Aristotle, don't expect to find wisdom.
Well, drat! I've met the age requirement_but at the very time my mind's going fuzzy with Parkinson's. Guess I've missed the boat.
Well, if I've missed out on Aristotle's wisdom, I'm still eligible for the kind promised by God, given by God as a gift. Last Sunday Christianity celebrated that promise on Pentecost: the guarantee that, as we journey homeward on our pilgrimage, we'll bolstered by the Holy Spirit's steady presence, and by a set of gifts, if we're willing to ask for them.
The number and definition of these gifts vary among Christian denominations, but the idea remains the same. They're usually numbered as seven. But before thinking about each of them in turn, we ought to spend some time defining "gift."
Any gift, from any source, has three necessary qualities. First, it has to be freely given; otherwise, it's not a gift, but a payment, or maybe a bribe. Second, it's got to have some real value. If it doesn't have value in itself or at least to the presenter, then it's not a gift; in fact, it's a kind of insult. ("Here, take this trash; it's worthless to me.") And third, it has to be unearned by the receiver. If it's owed somehow to the receiver, then it's something other than a gift_again, maybe payment for services rendered.
It might be good to pause here and think of examples of gifts; see if those three requirements don't apply. Then, after a deep breath, starting listing God's gifts to us. Excuse me: to you.
And here's the starting point: God doesn't owe you a thing. Every precious thing from that Source was freely given--and undeserved.
About 14 billion, 500 million years ago, before the Big Bang, God (the name we give to Infinite Love) existed alone and complete, without a need outside the Divine Being. Except perhaps something that, for lack of a better word, can be called a need.
God is Infinite Love, and love must have an object. And so the fuse was lit and God created the entire universe, which has been exploding outward in all directions and still continues to spread as a universe with a trillion galaxies.
One of those trillion galaxies is ours, the Milky Way; inside it, as in the rest, are billions of stars, one of which is our sun. Oh, and you and I? We crawl the surface of one of the specks of dust that circle that tiny spark of light.
So: God's first gift to you is the Universe itself, in which you have such an infinitesimally tiny place.
But God has given you a second gift: your own existence. Your being here is based on a chain events starting at the Big Bang and continuing through the rise and evolution of life forms on this tiny planet (all under God's creating hand); through the rise of life here to the level, so far, of creatures of weak intelligence and flawed will; through successful begetting across thousands of generations; until you arrived on the scene.
Hold it! All the above wasn't an overture to your strutting onto the stage. It all would have happened without you; and the world, in all its beauty and complexity, would be just the same if you weren't blundering around in it. That's God's second gift to you: that you are.
And the third gift: Seeing that human's journey home was way off track, God did a divine intervention in your dysfunctional family. God so loved you as to enter your foundering species, take on your very nature, and lay out the way home, the way of universal love, the way the Way of Jesus.
And a fourth gift: Jesus' promise that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, would lead you home, strengthening us and illumining the way with still more gifts: of WISDOM to recognize that all in your life has meaning only in light of your relationship with God; UNDERSTANDING, to grasp how profound that relationship is; KNOWLEDGE, to comprehend how your life fits together with its one goal; COUNSEL, to advise yourself and others on the best way home.
And then there is FORTITUDE, the strength to choose good over evil, even at great cost; and DEVOTION, deepening love for the Being who so loves you; and AWE OF THE LORD, to growing awareness of the Being is who brought all us tiny dust mites to be.
Forgive this tiny dust mite, please, as he squeaks as loudly as he can, "How great Thou art! How great Thou art!" (That squeak won't carry far in the Universe's vastness. But it will be heard.)
Jim Atwell is a Quaker minister who worships in Cooperstown.
Columns
Waiting for the wisdom of old age to kick in
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
Ask any hospital administrators if they've ever heard of a closed hospital in New York state that has ever been re-opened. They will say, "Impossible." In a half century of going through records you can't find any.
Continued ... - Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
- Opera great's visit still a thrilling memory
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Cary Brunswick
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We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
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We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
Continued ... - Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
- Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
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- Rick Brockway
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
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Using time off in the worst way possible
"You don't mean it," I pleaded. "You simply can't mean it!"
Continued ... - Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
- Column on guns led to a barrage of (mostly) jeers
- No one is coming to take your guns
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Using time off in the worst way possible
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
