Great and Messed Up

“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” — Ecclesiastes 7:29 (KJV)

Pascal could not stop being amazed at how strange human beings are. We are capable of brilliant science and terrible cruelty, deep love and petty spite, all in the same person, sometimes on the same day.

“What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe!”

A chimera was a creature from old stories made of different animals stuck together. Pascal says that is what we are like: a mix that doesn’t make sense. We are great and we are wretched.

But even our misery, he says, shows our greatness. A tree does not know it is miserable. A ruined house is not sad. Only people feel that something is wrong.

“The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable.”

Pascal says our miseries are the miseries of “a great lord”, “a deposed king”. A king who has lost his throne is only sad because he remembers he was once a king. We feel that we were made for something better because we were.

So where does the mix come from? Philosophers in Pascal’s time either said humans are wonderful or said they are hopeless. Pascal says both are half right. Only the Bible explains both halves together. God made us good and great, in his image. But we turned away from him, and now we are broken. We still carry traces of the greatness, like the ruins of a beautiful building.

He puts it in one of his sharpest questions: “If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God?” The answer is that we were made for God and fell away from him.

Pascal also warns against two mistakes. One is to think you are great and forget you are fallen. That leads to pride. The other is to think you are only rubbish. That leads to despair. Both are lies. He says plainly that a person should love themselves, “for there is in him a nature capable of good”, but not love the evil that is in them too.

If you tend to think the worst of yourself, hear this: being honest that you are a sinner is not the same as hating yourself. God made you, and he wants to heal you, not crush you. And if negative thoughts about yourself feel constant or heavy, tell someone you trust.

One thing to do this week: this week, write two lists: three ways you can see God’s image in you (gifts, kindness, creativity) and three ways you know you need his help. Pray over both lists, thanking him for the first and asking his help with the second.