Things will get a lot worse before they get any better

By Anonymous
The idea of the reaching into the abyss in order to see the light gave me a weird feeling of satisfaction. It was some sort of explanation and a confirmation of God's plan for humanity. God created this world and wanted each of us to recognize him for what he has done. Reading this made me feel as if God has tried telling us once that he is what we believe he is, but now it is up to us to recognize it for ourselves.

 The "turn" that Heidegger wrote of described how we must go so far into the abyss before we realize we've been doing things all wrong. I thought of this like a pogo stick. Descending on the pogo stick is not nearly as fun as ascending on it, but it is necessary. In order to go higher into the air there must be a great force pushing down into the ground. The turn is the point where humanity has gone as far down as it can on that pogo stick and now must exert all of that force in the opposite direction.

The abyss is a collection of each individuals own abyss. Some have to go further into the abyss than others, but we all must enter it in order to see the light. When I was reading this I began thinking about writers who did not believe there was a God but converted at some point. Were they the poets in the destitute time? Poets are the ones that sense the trace of the fugitive gods, stay on the gods' track, and so trace for their kindred mortals the way towards the turning. Although these writers didn't believe there was a God, did it keep them from pursuing him? I think they only reached into their abyss, arrived at their turning and modeled it for us to see.

I commented on Ty and Phillip's posts.

Comments

  1. Sophia ColbertFebruary 26, 2018 at 2:07 PM

    I like your Pogo stick imagery! But I wonder if it is necessary that people do things wrong before they can do something right. My question is do people need to see wrong to recognize right? I would argue no, since since Adam and Eve knew what good was before they knew what evil was. Darkness is not necessary to see light.

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  2. Michael TurnerFebruary 26, 2018 at 8:55 PM

    Perhaps good in itself was enough in Adam and Eve's time, but for a fallen world evil is a necessary occurrence. In the grand scheme of things humanity must now "suffer into truth" in order to fully appreciate the salvation that God grants through Christ. Heidegger's point of the abyss shows us that by mistakes we learn and eventually change our ways. How long it takes is determined by the individual's ability to see the truth and adopt it into their own life.

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