God’s Psychology: Reflections on the Lessons of Proper 19

There are two laws of human nature which we encounter periodically. The first is the Law of Regret. Its captured very nicely in the Joni Mitchell song, “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it's gone. They paved paradise, and built up a parking lot.” The second is the Law of Seeking and Finding. In this edition of the Mini Steeple, I will focus on the first law, and in the next letter, I will focus on the second.

The Law of Regret is simply the regret we feel at losing things. Most of us will recognize this as descriptive of human experience. There is even a patron saint of lost items, St. Jude. Jesus knew this law and used it in a number of parables. Chapter 15 of Luke is known as ‘…the lost things’ chapter. Therein are found the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. These are well known stories because they illustrate something we all know: the anguish of losing something.

Losing things marks our lives. Moving to St. Dunstan’s, it wasn’t long before I discovered that I had lost something. It was my Daytimer. For me, this is my right arm. Everything is there…it's like my purse substitute. This time, I lost it having put my paycheck in a pocket flap, where “I knew I wouldn’t lose it.” Looking feverishly around the tables of the Rummage Sale, I was horrified at the thought of having laid it down inadvertently while examining merchandise, and never finding it again. I really didn’t want to have to go to Bob Dwyer and ask him to write me another check. One of the ladies at the sale asked me about what I was so concerned, and her reply was “Oh, is that all? I lost mine two years ago. Real maturity is learning to get on with your life having lost it.”

Did you know that the average corporate executive spends 15 minutes/ day trying to locate things in his office? I am a veteran at this. I told Howard Smith that I was the only guy I knew who could simply sit at his desk in a morning, not move for two hours, and lose three pieces of paper. He comforted me by saying that I was not the only guy he knew that could do that.

The point is, we lose things. Then we feel regret. Then we discover how very valuable the lost item really was. Then we become existentially aware of the all too human attributes of taking something for granted, or even worse, presuming on the grace that gave it to us.

As always, there is a spiritual lesson here. Jesus, our messiah, knows this trait in us. He even identifies himself with it. Just as we know what it is like to lose a Daytimer, or an animal, or a coin, Jesus says his father knows about loss. In his case, it's the loss of the human race.

The next point has to do with losing God. Despite the fact that most of us think that God cannot be lost, Psalm 14 says that he can. It further says that we can lose any number of things and be worried to death over it, but have no concern about losing God. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian literary giant of the Cold War years, came to believe that his country had lost God and replaced him with godless communism. Then he came to the West, and after a few years turned around and went back to Russia. He had concluded that the Liberated West was quickly losing God as well.

Thinking about 9/11 last week, I was reminded of a conversation between Ted Koppel and Ruth Graham Lott after the World Trade Center attacks. “How could the good and loving God that you proclaim allow such a bad thing to happen?” he asked. She replied, “We have removed God from the family. We have removed God from our schools. We have removed him from our places of business. We have removed him from the Public Square. This I know: God is a gentleman. If we want him to absent himself, he will. But then, wouldn’t you agree, it is most disingenuous to first ask him to cease from informing us, and then blame him for not protecting us?”

These are some of the dynamics of the Law of Regret. But I have neglected the greatest part, the corollary of rejoicing when that which is lost is found. Most importantly, God. God, like Daytimers, coins, sheep and sons, can be found. We will explore that subject in the next Mini Steeple.

Father Tom