Ransacking the Attic

Emerson says “Each truth that a writer acquires is a lantern which he turns full on what facts and thoughts lay already in his mind, and behold, all the mats and rubbish which had littered his garret become precious.  Every trivial fact in his private biography becomes an illustration of this new principle….   Men say, Where did he get this? and think there is something divine in his life.  But no; they have myriads of facts just as good, would they only get a lamp to ransack their attics withal.” 

Since acquiring truth is the greatest endeavor in this life (besides loving others, which is in itself finding truth), this seems a very useful practice.  God gave us life to learn from it, and nothing teaches us more than our own experiences, though too often we stuff those experiences away in an "attic" and forget about them, failing to connect them to the deep truths we encounter in the universe.  Jesus spent a lot of time telling people to open their eyes, he restored sight to the blind and called out the Pharisees for their blatant disconnect between the "truths" they taught and their own dishonest actions.  They didn't connect, ever.  They never cast that lantern of their doctrine over the contents of their attic.  They never saw their lives for what they were, so the truth never came to them.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the teachings of Jesus - what makes it so poetic and quotable, even to unbelievers - is that his sermons do just that: connect every day things with Truth.  Mustard seeds, sheep, bread, water.  And the more common the object, the deeper the teaching.  Suddenly Jesus himself is bread, is water.

This tells me that everything, even the most common or absurd things, when cast under the right light (truth, in Emerson's terms) illuminates and deepens our understanding.  My method for "testing" the New Testament will be based on that.  First, to study and try to understand the teachings and second, to connect those to everyday things in my own life and in the world around me.  I'm still not sure how to "prove" my findings, but I hope the experiences speak for themselves.

On a technical note, I've also decided to stick with the New Testament because, in my own King James copy, it is a slight 403 pages while the Old Testament comes in at a whopping 1,184.  Maybe I'm lazy, but I think the N.T.'s manageable size allows me to dig a little deeper into each story and teaching.  If I've calculated right, this means about 7.75 pages per week. And this first week of the year is almost over already!