Walking on Water

I recently finished reading Madeleine L’Engle’s “Walking on Water,Reflections on Faith and Art”. It took me a long time to read it, not because the book failed to engage but because there were so many things in it that I wanted to think about. 

One of my favorite quotes from L'Engle's book: "A sad fact which nevertheless needs to be faced is that a deeply committed Christian who wants to write stories or paint pictures or compose music to the glory of God simply may not have been given the talent, the gift, which a non-Christian, or even an atheist, may have in abundance. God is no respecter of persons, and this is something we are reluctant to face…It is hard for us to understand that he lavishly gives enormous talents to people we would consider unworthy, that he chooses his artists with as calm a disregard of surface moral qualifications as he chooses his saints.".

This courageous insight lends great credibility to every other observation in Walking on Water. I am someone who would like to have been given a great creative talent of some kind. It is tempting to ask God, why we aren't given that talent when we are positive that we would, to the best of our ability use it for His glory. Perhaps the thing we are so positive about is a thing known to God to be quite different. Or perhaps it is just one of several mysteries for which we await an answer.

When I read the endless banter about whether or not Christians should read Harry Potter I always think the better questions are: "Where are the talented Christian writers" and "Why is there very little Christian fiction that is as fascinating or engaging as Harry Potter?".

L’Engle is a deep thinker but she is also wonderfully funny:  “What I remember from Ruskin is the phrase: ‘the cursed animosity of inanimate objects’, which I mutter under my breath when I get in a tangle of wire coat hangers. I also wonder if there is any such thing as an inanimate object.”  This may not be as funny to someone who has not had an out and out knock down, drag out fight with the wire coat hangers in her laundry room (sometimes resulting in tears), victory always belongs to the wire coat hangers!

Looks innocent doesn't it?? Don't be fooled!

She also has, what I think, is an amusing quote about atheism: “Atheism is a peculiar state of mind; you cannot deny the existence of that which does not exist. I cannot say, ‘That chair is not there,’ if there is no chair there to say it about.”

I find L’Engle comforting when she quotes the Spanish writer/philosopher Unamuno:

“Unamuno might be describing the artist as well as the Christian as he writes, ‘Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself”.

This comforts me because when horrific things happen to children or when a tragic illness befalls a child of God I grasp for understanding. When I look in the mirror knowing that I have failed God AGAIN, I feel despair. Often, when I watch the news and am bombarded with man’s inhumanity to man, I definitely feel anguish of mind. Unamuno and L’Engle are saying this is part of the process, part of the journey with the living God. If we put God in a box and don’t think about Him too much then we need not feel anguish, or passion, or despair.

There are other treasures L’Engle has collected from other sources:

John of the Cross: “One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well”.

Lady Julian of Norwich: “But all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well’.

That last one says it all from the moment you hold your crying child and tell them “It will be ok, everything will be all right" to the ubiquitous but essential Romans 8:28:  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

And here is another quote she included from Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard:

“To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people  up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.”

I would like that, I would like to live in such a way that my life would not make sense if God did not exist and if I tell you my story then that is true. But you have to hear the whole story to see it. I think it means a more obvious correlation. L’Engle talks about the widow’s mite and how “it was worth more than all the rich men’s gold because it represented the focus of her life”. The widow and her offering only makes sense if God exists. L’Engle uses the chosen quotes and examples to make the point that “Some unheard-of Elizabethan woman who led a life of selfless love may well be brought before the throne of God ahead of Shakespeare, for such a person may be a greater force for good than someone on whom God’s blessing seem to have been dropped more generously”.

We do what we can do with what God has given us. My talents and gifts pale in comparison to the gifts and talents of others; that is not the point. The point is, “Will I do something with what I have been given?”

L’Engle’s book is filled with many insights to ponder with regard to faith, particularly the nature of faith and art. Though her focus is on the Christian as an artist everything in the book applied to ME as an ordinary person and I think could apply to all!

Walking on Water is a wonderful look at the mind of a talented writer who also has a deep faith in God.