2022-11-10 A Meditation on First Boasts

“Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.” (2 Co 11:23 ESV)

A first remark about having a good gig going on, is that such a thought might be spelt out against a backdrop where nothing is going our way. We may be up against something cruel and merciless. We might be up against something unsympathetic and frustrated. It might be that our power in the hour, the levity and joy, is really quite uncalled for.

Or so it would seem: we are to thrive in the midst of opposition (Ps 110:2). We also are to reckon plainly with what cards life has dealt us: too easy it is to get bogged down in utilitarian thoughts. So-and-so only likes me because I am useful to her or him. All things that we call Good, are in fact, the cynic says, plain grabbing and selfish desire, our own private worlds bashing against one another. All boons are inevitable, and all hardships unavoidable.

Instead, the egoist is talked down, as is the utilitarian and the teacher of inevitability. One person who has believed in us, spells a whole world, one we in better hours remember to bank on; it has given us further worlds, by some contagious promissory note called the heart that is loved. That is, people are drawn to salvific history, and those ways in which we have been saved, do spell a boon to newcomers.

All this to say that it is a miracle of circumstance that we have what we have, and so our calling to rise up this day, to live into a boon and a blessing, is no inevitability nor a fruit of individual pragmatism; it is astonishing yet calls us to get back to work, to give thanks and to appreciate what the Good Lord has given us, but to fight on a plane where we are not inevitable nor personally to thank for the gifted outlays. It isn’t our doing.

Meantime, the heavens rail against us and the storm clouds stew overhead. We are irrationally happy. We are out of touch, it is said. There is a laundry list of basic reminders we are wise to keep front and center in our speech, reminders of our creed and personal sanctity. Not so as to boast, but so as to afford acceptance and circumstance further to witness. Only it is not possible to boast without denying our Maker, who was not inevitable nor full of selfish desire. The deeper we go in the chess game, the more important it becomes that we of all people not swear allegiance, not salute, a works-righteous cause. So, like Paul, if at all, we say it apologetically:

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” (2 Co 11:30); “though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.” (2 Co 12:6).