Between The Lion's Paws - Laying Down a Marker

PNG Pic Lion

I'm following in the footsteps of Alan Jacob in the way that a child does her father on a sandy beach. She attempts and misses but continues in belief that he knows where he is headed or least, he has an idea. Why I am choosing to share this project on my blog can best be expressed in this post  where Alan explain the difference between the blogosphere and blogging.  Specifically, he contends that blogging can be dialogical:

... I post a thought; later, I return to it with an update; someone responds, and I incorporate their thoughts into a new post that links to them and to the original – basically, what I am doing right now. Note also that blogging, when done in this fashion and in this spirit, is also seriously dialogical, and I think there is a close connection between a dialogue-friendly medium and a forgiving medium. More on that another time, perhaps.

In this blog post he writes of a new project, saying that he is  "Just laying down a marker here, by way of a beginning."

And so, I do the same. Laying down a marker, by beginning. More accurately continuing and combining several themes I've read about, mulled over, and noticed connections between for over ten years now. It's time to put the pieces on the table, see if they fit and if they do how.  If they don't at least I will know.

The themes I've worked with are lament, suffering, hesed, the goodness of the Lord, hospitality, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Subsequent posts will list resources and initial thoughts of these themes and others. While at times lament will take a prominent seat, it is only because we have lost this God-given practice, and I am convinced, as you will see from others as well, one we need to recover quickly.

First, I am indebted to Michael Ward for sparking this line of thinking via passages in his brilliant book Planet Narnia. Ward makes a convincing argument for his theory that each of the Narnia books corresponds with a planetary influence properly understood within medieval cosmology. You can watch here for a summary of that argument. While living through a season where many if not most of my beliefs about grief and suffering, and the goodness of God were challenged and dismantled, this passage from the chapter "Saturn" helped to begin a rebuilding. (Saturn being a vehicle to express the sorrows of this life.)

Despair or outrage at crookedness only makes sense of one has a notion of the straight, and that notions could not have arisen if everything were bent or even if everything were dualistically good and bad, for dualism is a truncated metaphysic which cannot account for the natural human preference for happiness over sorrow. Saturn with his plagues and pestilences therefore cannot be sovereign, Indeed, it is only by virtue of his deferral to Jove that Saturn can exert his true influence, making his patients into contemplatives who see beyond sorrow. 

It was in re-reading the Narnia stories with his theory in mind that I noticed that each book begins with a lamentable state.  A state with hints of Saturnine influence that could and did lead to expressions of lament. But the more surprising element began to appear on subsequent readings. Without the presence of Jovian hospitality (Jupiter being the god who presides over hospitality, read the story here),  true lament could not occur and accomplish the work it is given. 

Said another way, from a  psalm that I came to learn is a psalm of hospitality,

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

    He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

    he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

    for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk

    through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

    for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

    in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

    my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me

    all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord.