Looking Before and After: Testimony and the Christian Life (Stob Lectures 2006)

by Alan Jacobs

This need for tentativeness is Helm's first concern; it is accompanied by another major one: The Bible does not, it seems, promise that a person's life will form a discernible pattern, with a beginning, a middle and an end. Many lives are completely patternless or marked by tragedy; early promise may be cut off by serious illness or death. It would be completely false to Scripture to suppose that in order for people to be assured that the events of their lives are ordered by providence for a good end, they should be able to discern some overall pattern or "story" in their lives. The pressing need to discern such a pattern can often lead to unnecessary frustration and heartache. I want to begin my response to Helm by noting that he confuses two very different problems here: first, the problem of being unable to discern a pattern or story in one's life; and second, the discernment of a pattern or story that is marked by misery and frustration. Helm seems to assume that pattern is always good, always reassuring: "But what if no pattern at all can be discerned? What if a life, a Christian life even, seems marked by pointlessness and tragedy? What if whole stretches of a life are stamped by monotony, or by loss and adversity?" But it is far from true, first of all, that "pointlessness" and "tragedy" are synonymous - as we shall see, at some length, later in this chapter - and it is equally far from true that the discernment of a pattern in one's life is necessarily a positive t...