Tag: opposites

Press On, Lord

Press On, Lord

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.”  –Psalm 52:8

 If you are reading this, then you know that I like to write.  It’s my way of cleaning out my thought closet.  I push notions in there and they start to pile up; in time, those ideas need to be sifted, sorted, and stored.  That’s where the writing proves helpful.  It’s my way of boxing up those crumpled concepts so that they stack up more easily in my mind.  The trouble is that sometimes I don’t know where to begin.  Left brain?  Right brain?  In-between brain?  Unaccessed brain?  As in most organizational endeavors, knowing where to begin is the hardest part!  And, as you well know, things get messier before they get maintain-ier.

So, here is my messier.  I want to be a grape, but I am discovering that I am an olive.  I know, it’s a deep thought…or an unfathomly shallow one; either way, it’s difficult to measure.  Perhaps I should clarify:  I would prefer to be splattered rather than pressed.  Splattering is what happens when you want grape juice:  grape…hammer…splatter…juice.  Pressing is what happens when you want olive oil:  olive…pressy thing…oozing…oil.  Any questions?  Oh…okay…I guess that wasn’t as clear as I thought.  To put it another way, I like things that bring quick results.  I would rather “hammer down” than “press on”.  I realize I’ve extremely oversimplified the juice making process, but if I were given the choice between making grape juice or making olive oil, I’d opt for the juice (and the juice maker) hands down.  Granted, juice making could be a lot messier (especially if I used the hammer method), but it would also be a lot quicker.  That’s why, in my fruity analogy, I would rather be a grape.  I’d rather have things happen quickly, even if it’s messy, than slowly…grindingly…methodically…pressingly.  But I think, in God’s analogy, I am an olive.  I think He’s after oil and not juice.

This awareness came to me several weeks ago.  I have been trying to be consistent with my writing this summer and, on top of cataloging thoughts into small containers for this blog, I have also been wrestling with (being pressed by?) the desire to organize my thoughts into a bigger container for a book.  There, I said it.  Well, I wrote it, and that’s a start. (Not the book…just the notion to write one!)  As I’ve struggled with the how and when, and inwardly wanted everything to fall into place, the image of the grape and the olive gradually emerged.  The more I tried to set and keep a schedule, the more unraveled my days became; the more I pushed, the more life pressed.  That’s when I told God I wished I was a grape so that He could just whack me once and splatter out all that was in me.  Granted, it would be messy…and difficult to read…but it would be done; I would have been poured out, well…kind of poured…kind of plastered, and my thoughts would have been squished out.  God, however, removed the picture of the grape and replaced it with the picture of an olive.  Then, He put that olive in a press and slowly turned the handle, that moved the rollers, that pressed the olive, that released the oil, that filled the vial…that rested securely within His hand.  Such was my grape/olive revelation.  I desire fast; God demands slow.

As I contemplate this imagery and the truthfulness that lies within it, I’m becoming more resolved to life as an olive: to life in the slow but steady lane.  After all, when I think of the usefulness of olive oil in the Bible, how can I contend with its symbolism?  It was measured out with flour for the making of bread, mixed in with grain for the presenting of an offering, and meted over chosen heads for the anointing of kings.  And where did Jesus spend His last night on earth?  At the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, whose name means “oil press”.  Surely, with such comparisons as these, I can embrace the parallelism between my life and the life of an olive.

So, here is how I’ll allow the press to have its way with me.  I’ll take the ideas I have for a book and little by little, drop by drop, allow them to spill out here.  Perhaps in measuring them out on a weekly (I hope) basis, I’ll not only move one step closer to fulfilling my goal, but I’ll permit the press to work for me and not just on me.  Maybe, just maybe, if I submit to its force, something of use will emerge from my fingers; something that can be poured out as an offering and poured over as an anointing.

With this, then, as the preamble for the book I hope to compile, let me now pour out the product of the first press:  the title and the synopsis.

The Synopsis of The Law of Opposites

Though the fortitude to write a book is a recent emergence, the foundation for a book was laid years ago.  Twelve-ish years ago, to be semi-exact.  That’s when I was sitting in my Sunday school class and the topic of discussion was the presence of trials and sorrows in our lives.  After a time of sharing thoughts, I offered my illustration of why I believed God allowed suffering.  I shared the analogy of a tree being planted; the taller the desired height, the deeper the required hole.  If one wanted the glorious shade of a prolific tree, then one would have to ensure an appropriate sized hole was dug.  As we apply this analogy to our lives, then we are the tree, our height is our growth toward God and our depth is our being rooted in God.  But, in order for our roots to push down, a hole needs to be dug…which means things need to be broken up and hauled away.  This is not a painless process and it’s at this point that many a believer asks, “Why, Lord?  Why the difficulties?  Why the struggles?  Why the loss?”  But if we can just remember the picture of the tree, then we’ll remember the purpose of the dig:  for a deeper hole, for a stronger root system, for a taller trunk, for broader branches.  If we want to rise to grow to great heights, then we must first succumb to the digging of great depths.

 It was upon the pondering of this analogy that the idea for The Law of Opposites emerged.  The deeper the hole, the taller the tree; the two moved proportionally opposite to one another.  If one wants to know how deep the roots of a tree go, then look at the height of its branches; as far as one stretches upward so the other reaches downward.  Isn’t that just like God to work on (and from) both ends at the same time?  Isn’t it in His nature to push and to pull, to stand tall and to bow low, to give and to take?  I think so, and this book is a reflection of that very idea.  That, whether by looking at what is around us, within us, or above us, we are created by and made to worship a God who governs, and dwells within, The Law of Opposites.  

In the days ahead, I will elaborate upon God’s creation of, and manifestation in, the realm of opposites.  When we take a closer look at nature (laws), mankind (logic), and God (Logos), we see that the law of opposites is evident in each one.  It holds true that what God created, He inhabits.  So, should the “doctrine of opposites” surface when we look at the work of His hands and the writing of His word, we would be wise to acknowledge that our God, Jehovah God, resides within the laws He created…and one of those is the Law of Opposites.

opposites

Please come back next week for the second pressing…the presence of opposites in Creation.

Chapter One: The Opposites in Creation

Chapter One:  The Beginning of Opposites

             As we begin to examine not only the existence of opposites within our world but more specifically, more purposefully, their affect upon us, the best place to start is not just at the beginning, but in the beginning.

‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw the light, that is was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.’      (Genesis 1:1-4)

 When God set about creating our amazingly complex universe, we learn that everything He made could be described in two ways:  by what it was and by what it was not.  In other words, God created opposites.  God created all things from no things; the earth was formless and void, until God spoke.  Then, it took shape and had substance.  Darkness stretched out as far as the eye could not see…until God brought forth light and gave it its own realm.  The waters covered the land, until God pulled them back and set their boundaries. On every day, God created and separated…and He saw that it was good.

Just four verses into Scripture, we read of God creating the light and separating it from the darkness.  What is darkness?  The absence of light.  What is light?   The absence of darkness.  When each is looked at separately, its opposite must be laid beside it in order for its meaning to emerge.  How would we know light without experiencing the engulfing abyss of darkness?  And what would darkness be without the presence of light that, once withheld, revealed it?

As God continued His account of Creation, we learn more about the Law of Opposites that He set into motion.  On day two, God separated the waters above from the waters below (giving us our layered atmosphere), and on day three, He pulled back the waters below to reveal dry earth.  Beaches and bays; coasts and crests; sands and seas.  While they lie side by side, their characteristics are polar opposites.  One is formed in the absence of land while the other emerges from the absence of water, and both contain their own unique inhabitants.

Day four finds God lighting up the sky with the sun, moon, and stars through which He established the counterparts of day and night, the increments of months and years, and the seasonal opposites of spring and fall, of summer and winter.  On day five, He created the wildlife that skirts across the heavenlies or scuttles beneath the waters.  From birds that fly to fish that swim, each inhabiting its own terrain and each inhibited by its own traits.  Then, on day six, a final creation came forth that was the epitome of opposites.  From one, came two; though two, they became one.  This creation would be God’s greatest because into it He would impart His own breath, giving not only physical life but spiritual life as well.

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  (Gen. 1:27)

 “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”   (Gen. 2:21-22)

On day six, God created Adam and Eve.  They were made for one another to complete one another.  From Adam’s side, Eve was formed, and from then on, she was to dwell in that place from which she had come…her husband’s side.  While God could have used any bone…or no bone…to create Eve, He did so with a rib, and the imagery is palpable.

Ribs, whose role is to protect the lungs; ribs, whose placement is on the side of the body; it’s from the ribs that God created woman.  From a rib, that man may be her protector; from his side, that she might walk beside him; from his flesh, that when together, the two may complete each other.  And, though designed to be together and directed to cleave to one another, each is the other’s opposite.

Man is created to lead the woman; to love the woman; to nurture the woman (Eph. 5:23, 25-26).   Woman is created to follow the man; to respect the man; to help the man (Eph. 5:22, 24,33).  The role of each plays off of, and into, the role of the other so that…when done according to God’s design…the man and the woman, from their place of contrast, complete each other.  And, though seemingly different in every way, from their place of divergence, this truth would be emerge:  opposites attract.  And so they do, and so they should, because in such a fashion God created them and in such a manner He reveals them.

So, there we have the manifestation of the Law of Opposites.  From the very beginning, in fact, in the beginning, God separated the light from the dark…the known from the unknown…the evident from the invisible…the Creator from the creations.  From the pulling back of the waters to the establishing of dry land, from the scattering of sunbeams to the sprinkling of moon beams, from the soaring of eagles to the swimming of eels, and from the galloping of the antelope to the grazing of the zebra.  And then, and then…God created mankind.  Male and female He created them; as opposites He created them; that each would be seen more clearly not in spite of, but in light of, their contrast.

light and dark

Chapter Three: The Tree of Opposites

Chapter Three:  The Tree of Opposites

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…”  Joshua 24:15

 It’s time to go to The Tree.  Having presented the opposites that God manifested and manipulated when He brought the world into existence and order, it’s time now to look at the Tree of Opposites, better known as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It is a very important tree which God placed in the Garden of Eden.  In fact, Genesis 2:9 informs us that it was placed in the center of the garden, at the heart of God’s garden.  It is the only tree God told Adam and Eve to avoid; of all the trees in the garden, there was only one that was off limits:  the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  That’s it.  Eat from any other tree, eat from every other tree, but don’t come near the opposite tree!

While the size of the Garden of Eden is unknown, it couldn’t have been too small.  After all, within it ran four rivers, and within it God brought Adam all the animals he was to name, and within it God walked with Adam and Eve…and I just can’t picture God in a garden that “hedged Him in”.  I may be way off course here, but I’m picturing something like Yosemite National Park.  It’s not the largest national park in the U.S., coming in at 761,266 acres, but if you think that’s too large, then let me offer up the smallest national park: Hot Springs with its mere 6,000 acres.  Either way, here’s where we land:  there were a lot of trees in the garden.  If we go with the smaller number, 6,000 acres, and if we continue on the sparse side and say there was only an average of one tree per acre, that would still put the ratio of “edible” trees to “non-edible” trees at 5,999:1.  That’s quite the ratio, and here’s my point:  there were plenty of trees to pick from (literally) and only one to avoid.  And, to top it all off, the one that was off-limits was surrounded by the thousands that were on-limits.  To get to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, one had to purposefully pass by and through a myriad of other trees; one had to move to the center of the garden, to the center of God’s plan.

And just what was God’s plan?  Why did He place a tree in the garden if He didn’t want His creations to eat from it?  Why would He put such a temptation in their midst if succumbing to it would result in their being banned from the garden?  These are difficult questions and the answers, like the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, will bring forth a revelation of their own.

To understand why God would plant such a tree of opposition, a tree that would drive Adam and Eve outside of paradise and the human race outside of perfection, we must remember God’s creative pattern of opposites.  Once again, in the Tree of Knowledge, we see God’s formation of counterparts.  It was in placing the tree in the garden and in commanding Adam and Eve to not eat of it that God gave His created beings a choice, something He gave only to them.  Rocks don’t choose; rivers don’t choose; reptiles don’t choose.  Only to mankind, with his lungs that were stretched by the breath of God, was there given the opportunity to choose.  Only to mankind, the creatures God made to glorify Him and to worship Him (Col. 1:16), did the element of choice come into play.  Why was this necessary?  Because mankind cannot praise that which he did not pick.  Praise erupts from our innermost awe, respect, and reverence for that which captures our heart.  Man cannot be mandated to admire something or made to love someone; it must lay hold of him and he must agree to let his mind and his heart follow after it; it is a choice.  The God of opposites established it to be so; to turn toward one thing is to turn away from another thing.  For man to choose God, he had to turn from something else.  God could have hard wired mankind to choose Him, but in doing that He would have gone against His nature, the only thing that God cannot do; He cannot be less than who He is.  And so God released that which He loved, that the creature might choose his Creator; that the created might praise His Protector; that the praise-giver might glorify his God.

And so God placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the garden…and we know the rest of the story.  Eve, upon listening to the voice of Satan, looked upon the tree and saw that it bore fruit:  attractive fruit, temptatious fruit.  Apparently, from the wording in Genesis 3:6, Eve hadn’t previously given the Tree of Knowledge a good “once over”; at Satan’s prompting, she seems to be examining the tree for the first time:

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.”

And there we have the first choice; the first directional shift; the first letting go of one thing in order to lay hold of another thing, the first step of mankind into the world, and rule, of opposites.

Through Eve’s choice, and then Adam’s as well, the event known as The Fall set into motion the physical and spiritual law referred to in the last chapter, also known as Newton’s third law of motion:  for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  And man, oh man, was there ever a reaction to this action!  Physically, there was no more garden, no more walks with God, no more working with ease, no more lounging with lions or picnicking with pumas; spiritually, there was no more wholeness, no more wholesomeness, no more holiness. When Adam and Eve ate the choice fruit they also ate the fruit of choice.  When Eve put her hand out toward the tree, she reached away from God, and sin entered the world by one for all (though God would later cover sin for all by One).

But God is a God of law, and for that we should all be thankful!  That which He created, He inhabits; so, when His nature reveals that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, we can trust that the choice that catapulted mankind away from God will be offset by the choice that catapulted God’s Son toward mankind.   Because, as beings created in God’s image, we must acknowledge that just as we have a choice, so too does God; and He chooses to recaptivate, and to restore, and to redeem. God was not surprised by Eve’s choice.  He already knew what she would do; He already had His “clean up on aisle 7” plan in place.  We know, because He revealed it in Genesis 3:15.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Just moments after Eve’s choice chew, God revealed His plan of correction, or to be more precise, His plan of Calvary.  After telling Adam and Eve what their consequences would be (in verse 14), God then told the serpent (Satan) what his consequence would be:  he would contend with mankind but God would contend with him.  While Satan would bruise the foot of Christ (the Seed), Christ would bruise the head of Satan; a mortal blow…a final defeat.  Eve chose the fruit; God chose the Vine (John 15:1); Eve chose the sin; God chose the sinner (Eph. 1:4).

Choice.  It’s what God gave mankind because it reflects His nature.  God chose to create man with the ability to choose that He might receive that which was merited and not mandated.  If man were not given the ability to choose God then God would not have had the opportunity to choose man…even in his sinfulness, through which He demonstrates His great love for us (Romans 5:8). To appreciate the depth of being chosen by God, look at the opposite of the word choose: to reject, ignore, dislike, refuse, neglect, not want.  But God chose us. We are not rejected nor neglected; we are not disliked nor disowned.  In creating Adam and Eve without sin, God showed His value for mankind, but in choosing them after their sin…while still in their sin…God showed His deep love for humanity.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The Tree of Opposites.  The Tree of Choice.  Beside it, Satan tempted; from it Eve ate, through it God chose.  Through man’s choice, sin entered the world; through God’s choice, love saved the world.  The tree in the midst of the garden is the cross in the center of Calvary; it’s where God chose to forgive; it’s where Jesus chose to die.

So, what will you choose?   Will it be to submit to the God who first chose you, or will it be to go in the opposite direction?  One way leads to acceptance, the other way leads to rejection; it’s up to you because you too have been given the choice fruit of choice.  “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts…who chooses…Him; but as for me and my house, we will choose the LORD,” (Psalm 34:8, Joshua 24:15; italics mine).

choose this day whom you will serve

Chapter Five: Man’s Opposing Desires

Chapter Five:  Man’s Desires

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Hebrews 11:1

From the garden to the gate; from the yes to the no; from God’s holy nature to man’s fallen nature.  Was it just three bites that Eve took?  Was it only one?  Did she polish off the whole fruit?  How many licks does it take to get to the center of God’s grace?  As we now look at man’s life outside of the Garden of Eden, we continue to see the manifestation of the Law of Opposites.  From man’s desires, to his design, to his dilemmas; at every turn, in every fold, there’s a left and a right, a to and a fro, a push and a pull.

In man’s desires, we see a preference for that which is visible over that which is invisible and a craving for knowledge over a hunger for wisdom.  This is evident in Eve’s pre-fallen, though present tempted, state.  How did Satan lure her toward the tree?  He caused her to look upon it…to examine it…to study it.  This wasn’t a passing glance, as perhaps it had been before; this was a visual scrutinization: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it,” (Gen. 3:6; italics mine).  Eve saw the fruit, touched the fruit, held the fruit, and then tasted the fruit.  It all started with the casting of an eye, and in the blink of an eye, the tangible dethroned the intangible.

And haven’t we been following Eve’s example ever since?  Don’t we find within ourselves, and all too often affirmed by the voices around us, the desire to place our trust in that which is seen over that which is unseen?  Sure, God had said not to eat of the fruit, but at that moment Eve saw the fruit and not the Father.  And the eyes of her heart looked away as the eyes of her flesh looked upon.  Eve may have been the first to pick the visible over the invisible, but her desires are no different from our own.  Just as we are like her, so too was she just like us!  Any of us would have done the same thing then and, what’s worse, we do the same thing today…even with all the knowledge acquired through thousands of years of examples.  We still reach out for that which is seen; we still desire the apparent over the invisible.  In Hebrews 11:1 we read, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Faith is believing in that which we have yet to see, accompanied by the assurance (through Christ) that we will one day behold that in which…Him in whom…we believe.  Why would this be recorded in Scripture if it was not a truth that needed repeating, that needed reminding…a truth we need to behold with our spiritual eyes because our temporal eyes desire that which is visible?  Lest we fail to see how tempting our vision is, let’s look at the past and remember that history lies not only behind us but also before us as we continue to allow it to repeat itself.

Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, their earthly eyes got the better of them.  While God had delivered them from Pharaoh and led them through the Red Sea, they doubted His ability to feed them.  They looked around and there was nothing to eat.  Gone, in their minds, were the abundant tables of food they’d sat down to while slaves in Egypt.  (Mirage number one…and only a few days into their journey!  There was no abundance of food for slaves…but the hunger of their stomachs skewed the hauntings of their mind.  Ironically, in looking for the visible, they remembered the invisible!)  God provided manna and quail; the people saw and believed, for a time.  Years later, when the Israelites entered Canaan, God warned them, through Moses, to beware of that which they saw.  He told them not to want what the other nations had; not in their lifestyle, not in their worship, not in their government.  But once again, the people wanted what they saw.  They saw the goods, the gods, and the guide…they were visible, they were touchable.  They failed to see the unseen hand of Him who held them; they failed to see their Provider, their God, and their Guide.  And so their hands followed their gaze and their hearts followed their hand and, years later, they asked for a king (I Samuel 8:4), and in time they worshipped statues (2 Kings 23:4-14), and they valued earthly treasures over heavenly rewards.  In their hearts, the tangible had, again, dethroned the intangible.

Fast forward from the fall of Judah in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25) to the fall of Herod’s temple in 70 A.D. and we find a change in walls, courts, and altars…but not a change in hearts.  Before man stood a glorious temple that was encrusted with gold.  It was a sight to behold!  Under the rule of Herod the Great, the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt.  In all, it took 82 years (46 for the temple and 36 for the surrounding courts) to complete.  It has been said that, in Jesus’ day, the magnificence of the temple caused the Jews to delight more in its spender than in God’s grandeur.  Once again, the visible captured the hearts of mankind.  Jesus foretold of the temple’s destruction (Mark 13:2), to which His followers gasped and the Pharisees grumbled.  For many, the Who of the temple had been replaced with the what of the Temple.  Wasn’t it beautiful?  Didn’t it exalt God?  Couldn’t it be looked upon…and touched…and held…and worshipped?

Not only do our eyes deceive us, but so too does our appetite for knowledge.  In fact, too often, it is our craving for information that causes our eyes to look upon forbidden fruit.  What did Satan tell Eve that caused her gaze to shift?  It’s recorded in Genesis 3:4, “in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Timber!  What led to the fall?  The desire for knowledge; the desire to “be like God”.  Satan knew of this desire for he had it too, and from his fall (Ezekiel 28), to Eve’s fall, to our fall, it’s the temptation that keeps on luring; the fruit that keeps on appealing.  And yet, we know that knowledge is not always bad.  Solomon wrote of its value in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…” and in Proverbs 2:6, “…from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”  Hosea supports this when he records God’s own words on knowledge:  “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings,” (Hosea 6:6).

So, if knowledge is God given and God desired, then why is it wrong to seek it, to pick it?  The answer lies not in the what but in the why.  Knowledge is foundational, which means it precedes that which is to come and, by its very presence, implies that something will be built upon it.  When knowledge erects its own scaffolding for the glory of man, its beams are hollow and the result is destruction.  (Remember the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11?  Which, by the way, is a referential opposite to Hebrews 11.)  But, when knowledge seeks to build that which will glorify its Source, then its beams are filled with wisdom and its walls are braced with understanding. Knowledge, apart from God-given understanding and wisdom, will cause man to turn from God rather than toward Him, to reach for the immediate rather than toward the imminent.  Those verses on knowledge (recorded above) are incomplete and, as such, are as hollow beams without the rebar of wisdom.  Their strength lies in their complete filling:

  • Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
  • Proverbs 2:6, “For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

Fast forward 1,430 years, and how much has changed?  Have we learned to look back in order to know how to look forward?  Have we stopped valuing the visible more than the invisible, wisdom more than knowledge?  Upon what is our gaze cast, to what is our hand extended, and to whom do our hearts cling?  We are, and always will be, a visual creature, so much so that God warns us to look not at the appearance, but at the heart (I Samuel 16:7).  Our desires will lead us in the opposite direction of where we need to look, of what we need to know, and of Whom we need to serve.

wisdom

This started off as part one of a chapter…I broke it into two pieces.  The full context will cover the Law of Opposites as evidenced in man’s desires, design, and dilemmas.  This part covers man’s desires; chapter six will address man’s design and his dilemmas.  Whew!  And I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough to write about!  

 

Chapter Ten: The Opposing Cross

The Opposing Cross

                And now we come to the cross.  Nowhere is there a greater depiction, or symbol, of the law of opposites than at the cross, and in the cross.  Its very name denotes its nature.  Any time something is crossed, two opposing directions intersect.  We see it in crossword puzzles, we encounter it at crossroads, and we hear it in cross examinations; two directions approach and cross each another.  And with the crossing, there is a point of intersection.  And at this point, there is a completion…a wholeness…a balance…in that both directions, for just a moment,are contained within this one point.  With that thought and from that vantage point, let us now approach The Cross.  Continue reading “Chapter Ten: The Opposing Cross”