It's a beautiful summary of the secular paradigm. One that, even though I am a devout Christian, I deeply resonate with and appreciate. The Christians I grew up with believed that the human dilemma was entirely escapable because God was all about plucking us out of hard times. These people ended up very disappointed when they were divorced or suffered from sickness or by obesity or some other malady that plagues the mortal. God didn't perform the plucking he was supposed to.
Even though I like it, the above quote is not accurate to the reality that I find myself in. I do sense the existence of a parallel universe of sorts that has interacted with me and that I have interacted with. I like to call this unseen world The Kingdom of God and I have actually experienced it interrupting the effects of the human dilemma.
My brother in law put his hand on my neck and summoned the powers of the unseen world and brought healing.
Several situations that I have found myself in should have killed me, but somehow I am still alive.
I work in an environment where I am exposed to lethal things like MRSA and TB and so far, my immune system has been strengthened to fight these things off.
I exist in a world of stresses and pressures and somehow have found unexplainable peace.
I have been blessed to be in the 0.11% richest people in the world and 7,549,560th richest person on the earth (by income) according to global rich list . com I have been blessed with an constant supply of healthy food, and clean water, I have a safe place to live, educational opportunities, yet, I am always drawn to deeper humility and less pride and entitlement.
Oh, and sex.
I can't explain these things and the only source of these mysterious wonders is a God that hovers all around bridging the gap between the world I can see and feel, and the world where I am not bound by the harsh realities of (and can hope for things greater than) the human condition.
So I know the kingdom of God exists. Not only because I have read about it, or I have friends who believe in it as well, but because I live in the space between experiencing the brunt of the human dilemma and being rescued from it.
It's a tension. It's a paradox. It's glorious.
Very well put...I find the quote to be dead on! We are in a dilemma, a human dilemma...but that dilemma is deciding by which values and in whose Kingdom will I choose to live. There is the kingdom of the world (parallels with a kingdom of my own making)and it's value system (how the world works) and then there is the Kingdom of Heaven with it's values system (again, how the world works). One Kingdom requires me to dye to self...which is a great dilemma in that the self is very reluctant to die. The other kingdom promotes the self and feeds it's desire to be godlike. Once that dilemma is dealt with and the kingdom life is being lived, interestingly, more dilemmas arise. In one kingdom there is a constant need to feed the self and the expense of others and ultimately there seems to be not deep satisfaction (Mick Jaguar was right)and there is a deep sense that there is more to life then the self...a very important dilemma. And there is the other Kingdom where the self is sacrificed and there is a deep sense of rightness in ones humanity...God, existence, Sex, Relationships,...all become alive and meaningful. And this Kingdom can not be contained but naturally wants to push out into the territory claimed by the other kingdom...and it is hear that we are face with more dilemmas. At the point where kingdoms collide is where we live much of our lives, daily making decisions about which values and what kingdom will be lived out in this particular moment in time. The space between these kingdoms is so tight that it can only be described as "tension" and as the quote puts it "can not be escaped". And our humanity is wrapped up in the daily dilemma because the very definition of what it is to "be human" is defined by the kingdoms we choose to live in.
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