I recently visited my friend ‘Bob’ in the hospital.
A hard-charging guy, Bob is very engaged in the fast pace of his successful business, slugging it out with the best of them. So, I imagined that confinement to a hospital bed would make him feel constricted and constrained.
Yet, I found him very relaxed; perhaps more so than I've ever seen him. As we spoke, Bob explained that decades of experience had taught him to celebrate every day, even a day in the hospital. Despite the huge responsibilities and attendant problems, he had learned to maintain a frame of mind that insulated him against the angst.
"Just do the work; things have a way of working themselves out at the end." Anxiety was optional.
For a long while after leaving his room, I reflected on this refreshing attitude.
How can an intelligent person feel confident that things will “work themselves out at the end”? Why is that anything more than simplistic, wishful thinking? Who was watching and guiding to ensure that things worked out in the end?
That is, unless one believes in G-d, a G-d Who cares about you and me.
I can’t really say that Bob meant his comments to be a theological enucleation, but that’s what I hear.
Scripture and Talmud describe Abraham’s struggle to connect with the Divine, the Invisible Force that created the world and consistently continues to animate it. Once he recognized G-d’s existence, he never lost his faith in a loving Higher Power, despite many trials and tribulations.
At age 99, G-d tells him, “walk before me and be perfect (the conventional translation of the Hebrew word ‘Tamim’ in this context). What does perfect mean? Can G-d reasonably ask us to be ‘perfect’?
The word ‘Tamim’ means whole. It refers to seamless commitment and trust. Abraham was a man whose relationship with G-d knew no ripples, and no exceptions.
He knew that even when his experience seemed at odds with what he hoped for from G-d, or would have expected from the Divine, he was never alone. They were 1000% connected.
From G-d’s perspective, our deep, consistent relationship is fact. The question is: Can we accept it? Can we feel it?
When we can, there’s indeed no question as to whether things work out in the end.
Don’t sweat it.
ב"ה
Nardy wrote...