Resolving to Fail
When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. Deuteronomy 4:30 NASB
All these things – The myth of eternal return is upon us. In the Western world, we start again. We finish the past cycle and hope for the next. But “all these things” will come upon us once more as we go round and round the circle. Pagan man sings the theme of Disney’s Circle of Life. Biblical man does not. Soloveitchik helps us see the difference:
“Cathartic redemptiveness, in contrast to dignity, cannot be attained through man’s acquisition of control of his environment, but through man’s exercise of control over himself. A redeemed life is ipso facto a disciplined life. While a dignified existence is attained by majestic man who courageously surges forward and confronts mute nature—a lower form of being—in a mood of defiance, redemption is achieved when humble man makes a movement of recoil, and lets himself be confronted and defeated by a Higher and Truer Being. God summoned Adam the first to advance steadily, Adam the second to retreat. Adam the first He told to exercise mastery and to ‘fill the earth and subdue it,’ Adam the second, to serve. He was placed in the Garden of Eden ‘to cultivate it and to keep it.’”[1]
“Dignity is acquired by man whenever he triumphs over nature. Man finds redemption whenever he is overpowered by the Creator of nature. Dignity is discovered at the summit of success; redemption in the depth of crisis and failure.”[2]
Today the world takes a vacation from the trials of living. Tomorrow it attempts to overpower the brute force of nature once more—and fails. Inevitably fails. There just is no possibility of triumph in a place where death reigns. It will all come to an end. It will all be absorbed in the cycle, disappear in the sands of time. She’ol will win. Unless . . .
Unless we realize that it is failure that produces the biblical Man. It is the failure to be the god of our own world that pushes us to dependence on the God of the whole world. It is failure that brings relief. Oh, we can fight—for success, for a cause, for peace, for a better life—but the real truth is that it is all just too much for us. There are always things that come upon us. Life is difficult, and it’s intended to be that way. Peace in our time is a pipe dream. So, let’s embrace the reality of failure—and the hope that it brings. Let’s stop pretending we are in control. Let’s admit we can’t do it. We aren’t the masters of our fate, but we can become servants of the Master. It’s not our job to make it all work. It’s our job to do only what we are asked to do. The rest is beyond us. The same man who said, “All these things will come upon you,” also said, “it is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.”
The world of the West will take a deep breath and renew the fight. Sit this one out.
Topical Index: control, renewal, failure, Deuteronomy 4:30, Deuteronomy 30:11
[1] Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith (Three Leaves Press, Doubleday, 1965), pp. 34-35.
[2] Ibid., p. 35.
