Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    his greatness no one can fathom.

• Psalm 145:3

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!

• Romans 11:33

“ ‘The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think.’ – Søren Kierkegaard”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet and social critic.  He is known by many as the father of existentialism.

Can you imagine infinity?  Engineers can utilize infinity.  But just looking at the vastness of space, we can see endless stars in the sky with the help of a telescope, but each time they look at a dark spot in the universe even more universe is discovered.  Thinking of the adjective that I used, the universe is endless.

Recent discoveries with the Webb telescope might indicate that the web of the universe is fixed, but the galaxies are moving through that fixed grid – not good news for the Big Bang Theory people in that it messes up their theories, but regardless of how we attach our viewpoint to one of those distant galaxies, there is still an infinite universe beyond.

But I mentioned in a post recently that God has the ability to hear the prayer of eight billion people, listening attentively.  Not all people pray to Him, but He watches over them.

I am lost in a conversation when two people talk at the same time.  I do not hear what either is saying.  Not that I am eavesdropping on another conversation, but if someone in a restaurant is rather loud, maybe three or four tables away, the conversation at my table is lost to an extent.  All I heard from the loudmouth was noise, not distinguishing any word.  But God can attentively listen to the prayers of everyone even if we are all praying at the same time.  Because every aspect of God is infinite.

What Kierkegaard is saying is that we cannot fully know God because we are trapped in time and space while God is not, and we do not have the capacity to fully visualize infinity.

But we should ponder in awe regarding this.  One day we will be in the presence of God.  He will either welcome us as His children or banish us from His presence.  The former is the better result.  At that moment we will see God in His full glory, but can we comprehend Him even then.  It will be so awesome.

But in pondering who God is and how infinite God is in every respect, we are drawn to God, wanting to know more and understand more.  So when we meet face to face, it will be the culmination of a life well spent.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.