To take that step we may have to muster the passionate desperation one needs. Who can even think in such a state? How can we possibly move forward when there is no knowing what lies ahead? We have no other choice, however, but to proceed somehow, step by reluctant step, the first step fraught with pangs of distress, anxiety, terror. The dark! Therein we can discern nothing blackness shrouds all in thick, oppressive waves. Kajii contrasts that burglar with most of us, who are quite helpless in the dark, and he describes how darkness represents a frightening boundary: In one of his creative essays, written in 1927 and entitled “A Picture Scroll of the Dark,” he mentions reading about a Tokyo burglar who was successful for years because he developed the ability to rob houses in total darkness. Kajii Motojirō lived out his brief life at the beginning of the twentieth century facing the ever-present specter of an early death from tuberculosis. Kajii Motojirō on Finding Beauty in the Dark In that spirit, I would like to share wisdom and beauty about facing our uncertain future from a Japanese writer and a British poet. One of the things I like most about my discipline of comparative literature is that it often brings together a variety of interesting works of literature under the same analytic microscope, often with very surprising results. This morning I would like to explore some ideas about how we might move forward into the future to become all that God knows we can become. We cannot see what lies ahead, and most of the time that makes it discouraging, if not utterly terrifying. We, on the other hand, are clueless about that identity most of the time and live our lives forever perched on the edge of a dark, inscrutable path we call the future, uncertain of what it contains. Instead, God, like other wise parents, knows that great things will come out of the difficulties and challenges we face because He knows our eternal identity. If God were to immediately grant our request and swoop in and rescue us, well, then for us eternity might just prove to be something of a basement experience. Sometimes, when we pray to have our trials end quickly, we are like first-year students sending home pity-me texts. There may be times of fear when we wish for the tests and exams to be simplified or waived altogether and when we ignore the fact that life is a complex system designed by loving Heavenly Parents to make us into better people and prepare us to confront an eternity of expanding opportunities. Consider how great your relief and consolation would have been had they immediately driven to Provo, packed you up, and taken you back home, where a fake diploma, conveniently purchased online, was sitting on your bed along with a note reading, “It’s just a piece of paper anyway!” I am certain, however, that the relief would have worn off rather quickly, especially as you came to realize that you would be living the rest of your life in your parents’ basement!Ĭollege is anything but “just a piece of paper.” It is all about the unique experiences you have, the struggle and confrontation with weakness, the self-discovery and overcoming, the ripening and growing in wisdom, and especially the learning that will happen with roommates and part-time jobs as much as-if not more than-in class.Īctually, life itself is very much like college. Now, imagine if, during the second week of your first semester, while feeling sorry for yourself after failing a quiz, you had texted your parents about your doubts regarding college. What If God Gave Us What We Asked for Instead of What We Need? For those in the middle or finishing up, I invite you to look back on your experiences here and contemplate the value that attending college has added to your life. For you beginning students, there is plenty of growth ahead, and I invite you to anticipate the time in a few years when you will assemble in this place wearing graduation robes to receive your degree. Students, one month of the semester is now past.
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