Paul and Peter in the early morning

This is how my mind works. I am lying in bed reading a book about the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Imbedded in the chapters is a short chapter about a high jumper from California named Faust. Apparently, Faust combined his training for the high jump with a search for spiritual holiness. As he took his practice jumps, he would think of his sinful nature, his penance and his salvation.

The chapter talks about his early life as the son of an actor, his parent's divorce, his early struggles and his track coach's seven year plan which led him to be the third American athlete to participate in the high jump.

When he arrived at the Rome Olympics he failed to jump even to his own personal best and ended up as 17th in the competition. Afterward, he went home and tried to console himself with the Olympic ideal of athletic participation, rather than thoughts of his failure.

The chapter ends with the scene in his modern day backyard in Los Angeles, where the now sixty something year old man still trains at the high jump in his own personal spiritual discipline.

After I read this chapter, I wanted to share it with Cindy, but she wanted to go back sleep quickly. After reading a bit further into the book, we put out the lights and tried to go to sleep.

I lay in bed and my mind was racing. I was bouncing around a junkyard of theology. I considered a passage in 2 Peter: "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fail, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

As I thought about that, my mind was drawn to the countervailing concept found in Romans: "...to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness."

So in these two passages we see the two opposites of Christian faith. It makes me think of that idea of true wisdom as the ability to hold to two opposing ideas. The idea that we must work out our salvation, yet our salvation is based, not on our own efforts, but on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Is this an incomprehensible duality or just two facets of a long journey. There are many mysteries in this life. We are called to keep steady in the journey. There is confusion, doubt and wonder along the way. But if we stay on the path, trusting in the promise of the sacrifice, walking forward continuously toward the goal, then we will come to the ultimate prize.

Paul, the student, uses the language of athletics to show how we are called to keep on the pursuit of the race toward that goal, with effort on our part to continue in the race, with the hope that is born from our faith. Nevertheless, he is clear in Romans when he states that our salvation is born from the sacrifice of Christ, rather than through our own efforts.

Peter, the fisherman, a blue collar workingman, talks about persevering in our efforts to secure our salvation. Peter speaks in the tone of someone who works for a living. His theology is a theology with work shoes on. He emphasizes our part in the equation, how we must work at the process.

And so through the two statements, we have both sides of the same coin: the effectual saving actions of the creator and the necessary response of the created.

And so my thoughts have come to their ultimate conclusions at 2:19 a.m.