I remember an anecdote from the inimitable Chesterton in which a given thought was compared to a cow suddenly speaking in a drawing room. Thus, I suppose, our best thoughts may only ever be best to us, if that, and one may dare believe they surpass untranslated Bovine utterances.
Be that as it may, I wondered about this: Ontology and meaning go together so much so they are nearly indistinguishable. This is the relation between created and Creator, yet deeper. It is as if the Creator and created are one.
This being true, whenever our ontology is skewed, we are in trouble. Thus when families divide, thus when God is imagined expunged, thus when we consider ourselves self-caused. To have a false ontology is to implode.
Yet, there is mercy. The pain of false ontologies calls us Home and we begin to believe it is God alone we need. To deny Him is to deny our very being, and meaning in the process. It has been suggested that such a construct is not a life-enhancing strategy. I concur. But then again, if life has no meaning why would it matter?
Ontology and meaning cannot be separated. Pray for the wisdom to know to whom you pray. Dare to believe the infinite, personal God exists, and He may be known by the likes of you and me. That faith — that reality — is the only thing that will save us. And it lives within the wedding of ontology and meaning that simply is.
– Randy Huff and his wife lived for 5 years in Roanoke (Hollins) where they raised 2 sons. Randy served as Dean of Students at a Christian school and then worked in construction. For the last 9 years he has served as pastor of a church in North Pole, Alaska.
*The way of understanding God in the last paragraph is borrowed from Francis Schaeffer.
