[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Book of Questions #17

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

> Reluctant Messiah," where the narrator/focus/whatever says he'd be bored
> with eternal perfection, and Donald Shimoda (R.M.) says to look at the
> sky. Asks if it's a perfect sky, gets the answer "It's always a perfect
> sky." Then asks, "But is it always the same?"

Good point.  (Ack!  I agree with Richard Bach!  *runs screaming for the
hills*)

Seriously, though, I think our problem with "perfection" is that we really
have no experience of it.  Everything tangible and visible in our world is
either imperfect or limited or some combination of both.

The closest our minds can get to the idea of perfection is to think of
something that is absolutely symmetrical, mathematically precise, and
unchanging -- a clinical and static conception that immediately makes us
think, "Well, sure, there's nothing wrong with it, but how BORING."  On the
moral level, if we think about perfection we imagine some sort of chilly,
supercilious prig who goes around judging everybody without mercy, and that
repulses us as well.

But if something is boring, it is not actually perfect after all.  That very
quality of dullness renders it imperfect even though by every other
measurement it may be "correct".  And if a person is cold and supercilious,
they are not perfect either, even if their ethical standards are logically
flawless.  So again, our concept of perfection is completely off the mark.

Getting back to the Christian concept of perfection, according to the Bible
there is and ever was only one human being on the earth, throughout all of
history, who was absolutely perfect in every way.  I realize that not
everybody agrees about who Jesus was and whether His claims about Himself
were true, but I think it's safe to say that whatever else He may have been,
He was definitely *not* boring.
--
Rebecca J. Bohner
rebeccaj at pobox.com
http://home.golden.net/~rebeccaj