Christ, Cares, Commands, and Courtrooms: The Definitive Nicolette Connelly

On Practicality. Practicality is not action without the use of theory or philosophic thought. It is not the art of simply getting done what needs to be done. Practicality is a trait that must be practiced within boundaries set up by philosophical and moral reasoning. Practicality requires one to think before acting, determining the moral and spiritual implications of possible actions so that one may then act with confidence that whatever one is about to do is in communion with reality as well as with the mind and the will of God. If one takes the time to consider all the implications of possible actions beforehand and pays attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, one will be able to discern the “rightness” or “wrongness” of the actions one is considering. Once implications are discerned, one has the opportunity to choose the right and reject the wrong and can then begin to act along those guidelines.

Love Letter. Have you ever had one of those moments when you suddenly spot an old friend and have a great chat, or you receive a compliment from someone whom you didn’t realize cared about you, or you meet your music idol after a concert and obtain his or her autograph? Have you ever closed your eyes for a minute afterwards and let out a happy breath, saying, “Thank you, God!”? Can you see and hear Him smile and reply, “It’s just because I love you.”

The Greatest Commands. The Apostle John writes that God is love, and that because God is love, every person who loves knows God (1 John 4: 7-9 ESV). This must mean that someone who will never hear the name of God spoken or never hear the Gospel of Christ can still know God if she truly knows love, either through her own love for others, or through the love another person gives to her. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why “love your neighbor” is Jesus’ second-greatest commandment (Matthew 22:39 ESV). Love is a way through which someone who may never learn of God through writings or instructions can come to know Him.

Good Law. A human law is only good insofar as it serves divine law. 

Burdens. It often seems to us during times of suffering that God is far away from us, unreachable and untouchable on the other side of some great chasm. However, the truth is that He is right there with us, suffering along with us, bending with us under the same burdens and sharing the same griefs. We know He bears our burdens with us because when Jesus came to earth to be our “God with us” (Matthew 1:23 ESV) that is exactly what He did. He shared in our burdens and griefs even to the point that He tasted the bitterness of death, as we all will one day. Now that He is risen and reigns as King, has His sharing of our troubles ceased? No. He still bears our burdens with us, but now He bears them on immortal shoulders that are strong with the hope of the Resurrection. His strength is also transferred to us, since as we give Him our burdens, He gives us His hope in return.

On MBTI and Other Personality Tests. It can be fun to take a personality test, look at your results, and think, “Wow! This test is spot on!” and “This is exactly what I would do in this same situation!” However, I think that while those kinds of tests can be interesting and are capable of teaching us something about ourselves, it is important to remember that human beings are all uniquely created, and therefore, none of us should ever look to one particular test, quiz, or table of personality traits to define ourselves. We must remember that the knowledge we gain from taking personality tests or learning, studying, and talking about the different types and traits that are said to exist in people is not meant to be used to manipulate ourselves or others, or to put ourselves in a box and believe that we are bound by a particular set of rules to always act or react in restricted or specific ways to certain scenarios. Additionally, the knowledge of a particular negative tendency that we may possess should never become an excuse for ill behavior but instead act as a sort of guideline that shows us where we can try to improve ourselves, according to truths revealed to us that we know from God’s law to be right. Perhaps the point of these types of tests and their potential to provide us with information about our personalities is meant to help us to come to a deeper understanding of who we are as human beings. Once we have gained somewhat of a deeper realization of who we are meant to be, we can help others come to understand themselves, who they are, and what their God-given role might be in the world and the specific point in time in which they are placed.

 The Love of Wisdom. “What is philosophy?” you might ask. “What does the word mean?” “What is a philosopher?” “How and why should something said hundreds or thousands of years ago affect me today?” “What is philosophy anyway?” Congratulations! You have already begun to practice it.

Christ in the Courtroom. One of my favorite moments in a college classroom as a Legal Studies major was when my teacher “Professor Butler” read the definition of the American adversarial procedure to our class. I was so excited to learn that the reason prosecution and defense are set against one another in the courtroom is in the pursuit of the truth. As I thought about that definition later on, it suddenly struck me that the reason I found it so exciting is because Jesus Christ Himself is the Truth, as He said in the Gospel (John 14:6 ESV). He also said “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20 ESV). Therefore, wherever and whenever people are working diligently towards  the discovery of truth, whether in a courtroom, a law office, or around a kitchen table, they are working their way towards Christ. 

Jesus and Injustice. If the duty of judges, lawyers, and other legal personnel is to work towards the truth, will the truth always be revealed in every circumstance? The answer is no. In our fallen world, nothing is perfect—the legal system included. Jesus is the Truth, but that does not guarantee He will be accepted. However, it does not mean that He is not there. Yes, He is there, perhaps even palpably so, when Truth is seen and justice served. He is there, His Holy Spirit instructing the minds of investigators and giving attorneys the right words to say. But He is also there even when Truth is ignored, when it stumbles because of human failings, mistakes concerning evidence, or even corruption, manipulation, or greed. He is there when a person is falsely accused, when someone is wrongfully convicted—just as He was while on earth. He is there, because if only two or three people present there in the courtroom are looking and longing for the Truth, He will not fail to be with them.

Leadership. Good leadership involves submission to an authority higher than oneself, insofar as that submission does not include any immoral acts or intentions. 

Air. Air is something human beings need in order to live. We need air in order to breathe. However, I find it interesting that this same substance we need in order to survive can spoil another substance needed to sustain life—food. 

Life. We need warmth; fire can burn us. We need oxygen; air can spoil our food. We need water; water can destroy our homes and drown us—this is all a part of the terrible beauty that is life after the Fall.

The City. The City is the place where your heart belongs. It is a place where you love to be. When you are away from it, you long to be there, and once you are within its walls, you feel content. In the City, you can be close to all the people whom you love most. For Christians, “the City” is the City of God—the best and truest City that needs no light of sun, moon, or stars—whose lamp is the Lamb (Revelation 21:23 ESV). It is the love of God and His City that lights in us the love and loyalty we give to earthly cities, to our countries, to our families. We as Christians must live as citizens of Heaven while on earth. In doing so, we need to show in our example of loyalty and devotion to earthly country and city the loyalty and devotion we hold for our Heavenly home. Those who would wish to be faithful in large matters must first be faithful in small (Luke 16:10 ESV).

Inspiration. People tend to seek out stories of perseverance rather than stories of perfection.

Cast your cares. We must allow God to prove His faithfulness to us in the small so that we are able to allow Him to prove His faithfulness in the large. We first need to trust Him to help us take our next breath, and then we can willingly give our larger cares over to Him as well, such as the health and well-being of our loved ones and the safety of our country.

“Are you a man, or a mouse?” A mouse follows its nose to a trap, finds a piece of food inside, and desires the present security of sustenance within easy reach. A man, however, can look at the big picture. He can see that the price to pay for that present and immediate security equals a loss of freedom. In our world today, we must decide which is more important: freedom or security? We must decide whether we are mice or men. 

Manna. The Israelites’ attempt to save extra manna for their next day’s meal was an act of distrust in God (Exodus 16:20 ESV). When we have nothing and therefore must trust in God for basic necessities such as bread, we give Him room to do something miraculous and spectacular. However, when we attempt to provide for ourselves and do His work for Him, we create room for nothing but worms and maggots (Exodus 16:20 ESV). 

Animals. Animals are not capable of sin, hence there is no “badness” within them. Because they have no “badness,” they cannot understand or process bad or evil things that happen to them. Therefore, the idea of cruelty towards animals is appalling and horrifies those who hear about it. Animals understand good because they are inherently good in themselves, as humans are, but unlike humans, they have never learned to be intentionally or premeditatively evil or cruel.

Socialism. Socialism requires the complete and perfect virtue of one person while forcing artificial virtue on all the rest. 

“Judge not?” The words “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1 ESV) are often taken to mean that a Christian must not pronounce something someone is currently doing or has done in the past as wrong. However, I believe the true meaning to actually be “condemn not.” We must always strive to recognize the difference between right and wrong and to condemn the wrong. However, it is not in our authority or capacity to condemn the person. Only God has the final say.

Finish Line. Christ should always be the ultimate goal in everything. 

So Clothes-Minded: The Moderns and the Cloths of Heaven

In Battle of the Books, a satirical account of the war waged between ancient and modern works and ideas, Irish poet and essayist Jonathan Swift’s narrator often remarks on certain characteristics of the Ancients and the Moderns. One specific Modern characteristic to which Swift consistently returns is the condition of the Moderns’ battle armor and their attitude regarding it. 

Throughout the story, the narrator describes the armor that the Moderns wear to be of a far poorer quality than the armor of the Ancients. At one point, before the battle between the Moderns and the Ancients begins, Plato, one of the Ancients, notices that the armor the Moderns are wearing is “rusty” (Swift 146). Later, as the two armies form ranks, the narrator notes that a portion of the Modern army lacks “coats to cover them” (152). The Moderns are aware of the deficiency that exists in their attire. The narrator mentions that some of them participate in the battle for “nothing but the plunder” (152) and several of the Moderns explicitly state their desire to possess the armor of the Ancients (157-158; 161-162), which is described in the case of the Ancient Virgil as well-fitted and “shining” (157). What reasons could Swift have for including these specific details within his satire regarding the armor of the Moderns as well as their dissatisfaction with what they have and their desire for better? 

W. B. Yeats, another Irish poet, offers some food for thought in reference to the idea of a yearning or longing for a covering—or cloth—in his poem “He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”. In the poem, the speaker tells the listener that he desires to gain the “heavens’ […] cloths” (1), which are “enwrought” with both golden and dark light (2).The speaker expresses a desire to lay these cloths, once obtained, at the feet of the reader (5). However, the poem ends with the speaker lamenting that since he is “poor” (6) he has “only [his] dreams” (6) to share with the reader.  

What exactly are the “cloths of heaven”? There are many different interpretations possible. For example, one could posit that the term refers to humanity, or, “humanness”—in other words, the ability or capacity within a person to be as fully human as they were meant to be. Compassion, dignity, mercy, and sympathy—concepts that could be understood to correspond with the idea of “golden light”—are all elements that could be included within the definition of what it means to be fully human. What also must be included in order for one to be fully human would be those more vulnerable aspects of the human person, the “dark light,” or those concepts related to sadness, pain, longing, and even despair. The speaker’s desire to share these “cloths,” with the reader could be interpreted as the speaker’s longing to share his humanity with the reader—his struggles, his joys, his yearnings, his sympathy. Yet, he is “poor,” or lacking in that ability, and can only share his “dreams,” which could be seen as the visions of what he truly wishes to be able to do. However, at this point in his story, his dreams are not reality and therefore he cannot share all that he would wish with the reader.  

To compare this particular interpretation of the poem with the Moderns’ situation in Battle of the Books, it could perhaps be said that in the cases of some of the Moderns, their longing for better armor is in fact a longing for a deeper sense of humanity. The Modern works were written by authors who certainly desired to share their thoughts, ideas, and humanity with their readers, but––if one were to follow the above interpretation––the Moderns’ lack of sound armor within the story would seem to suggest that a number of them were somehow lacking in the area of humanity. In exactly what way does this lack of humanity make itself apparent? 

Perhaps one could discern an answer in the narrator’s characterization of the Modern soldier Descartes, whose choice of weapons and manner of death point toward philosophies contained within one of Descartes’ works. Descartes, who is depicted as one of the leaders of the Modern bowmen (Swift 152), dies when an Ancient soldier fires an arrow through a “defect” in his helmet (156). At first, it may seem rather peculiar that the narrator focuses on Descartes’ death being caused by faulty armor that permits the wound to his head, but perhaps the description could be interpreted as a satirical dig directed toward certain modern philosophies. One particular aspect of Descartes’ philosophy, which is detailed in his work A Discourse on the Method, is the idea that the mind—or head’s—ability to reason is the sole gateway to knowledge (Descartes 24). Descartes’ promotion of reason and the mind above faith and the heart—as opposed to a healthy balance of both—could be considered a slightly less human approach to the acquisition of understanding. Additionally, Descartes states in A Discourse on the Method that the best way to solve difficult issues would be to divide them all into “as many parts as possible” before attempting to understand them (17). Descartes’ modern method may be a helpful common-sense approach regarding a math concept but it could run into issues where matters of the human heart are concerned. Human beings cannot be broken down into distinct parts in order to make examination of their issues and struggles easier. Realistic, effective, and humane approaches aimed towards helping a person must be geared toward a treatment and care of the person as a whole being—a holistic approach. Furthermore, the characterization of Descartes as an archer—a soldier who fights by firing missiles from a distance—offers an interesting connection to another statement in his Discourse on the Method, which compares the works of “the ancients” to beautiful palaces built on mud (9). Descartes’ modern philosophy diminishes the authority of ancient authors in a passive manner and avoids active engagement of their actual philosophies. The Moderns’ avoidance of direct contact in battle and the insufficiency of their armor seem to imply that the Moderns lack the degree of humanity required for open-mindedness regarding a balance between mind and heart, a consideration of the whole person, and the importance of personal engagement with thoughts and ideas, which may constitute the true entryways to knowledge.  

Must the Moderns, as the speaker in Yeats' poem suggests, despair of ever obtaining a complete sense of humanity? Does the failure on their part to communicate on a fuller level of “humanness” constitute a total failure? I would argue that it does not. With the one exception of Jesus Christ, to be fully human is to be imperfect, and to be imperfect means to fall short of all that one is meant to be. Both the Moderns and the Ancients, as well as those of us that are living today, will only ever be fully perfect and thereby fully human in Heaven. There, with our eyes fixed on Christ, the “perfecter” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV), we will “know fully … as [we are] fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV), and there, Christ will cover us in the cloth of righteousness.