Living in the Swing of the Pendulum

The watchmaker began to pack up his supplies for the day. He carefully inspected the works from that day. He was proud of his creations. He had recently built four new grandfather clocks. He worked diligently to make sure the wood was made of the finest quality and had unique artwork in each of their designs. Each was a masterpiece in its own accord, and the pendulums swung back and forth with regularity. He smiled and headed out the door to rest up for the next day. During the night, as the clocks continued in the labor of keeping time, one became irritated with swinging to and fro the whole time.

“I don’t care much for this idea of swinging back and forth all the time,” It professed sharply. “I don’t see why I must travel all the way from the left to the right. It’s tiresome. I like staying in my right side. Besides which, there are details on my left side I don’t quite agree with. It is simply too…’artsy’ for me. I prefer the simple, the logical. We are, after all, clocks. Our whole purpose is to be practical, not artful.”

“Just what do you mean?” retorted another clock. “Weren’t we made by an artisan? We weren’t made on an assembly line like some watches. We were especially crafted, individually made and cared for. If someone wanted to simply know the time they could look at their watch! We give people an opportunity to meditate on the beauty within time itself! We bring people to a new focus! It is your simple, cold, logical side which is the problem with our manufacture. I grow tired of it!”

“You fool!” called the first clock. “Your artwork is meddlesome and confusing to our task of giving the time! I tire of it and I’m certain others will as well! How on earth are they ever to know the time if they can’t get beyond the artwork?”

“The artwork is meddlesome?!” quipped the second clock. “Your logical side is the wasted effort! How are they to be able to see the watchmaker through simple logic?!”

“Because it makes sense!” The first clock screamed back. “If a person can’t tell the time because they are lost in the artwork, then you are flawed! And when they see your flaw, and the watchmaker sees your flaw, he will surely put you to hammer and chisel to simplify you! That is, assuming, he doesn’t just put you to the fire in the first place!”

“Me to the fire?! He would most surely put you to the fire first, for you are so plain, who would want you?!”

“Ridiculous!” shouted the first clock. “I will have nothing more to do with your ‘art.’”

“Ha!” laughed the first clock. “And precisely how do you plan on doing that?! Were you not created to swing to both sides? You’re stuck with experiencing both sides!”

“We shall see!” And the first clock screeched and squealed. It moaned and croaked. And soon enough, it had stopped swinging its pendulum to its left-most side and had firmly positioned the pendulum on the right side of cabinet. “There! You see! I will remain here! I will not be moved! This is less work than swinging to and fro all day, and now I can focus my energies on contemplating the logic!”

“If you will have no more of the art, then I will have no more of the logic!” snapped the second clock. It screeched and squealed. It moaned and croaked. And soon enough, it had stopped swinging its pendulum to its right-most side and had firmly positioned the pendulum on the left side of cabinet. “Ha! See! I may remain here and will not be moved! This is less work than swinging to and fro all day, and I will focus my energies on contemplating the mysteries, the emotions and the art!”

“Fool! You there!” The first clock called to a third clock. “What say you? Left or right? Whose side do you agree with?”

“I have listened to both of your arguments,” began the third clock, “and I must say, I see weight in both arguments. I do believe the art has its place, and I believe the logic has its place. But I agree that this idea of swinging the pendulum back and forth is tedious. I believe the answer is found in simply living in the middle. In that way, you may have some from the art, and some from the logic!” And the third clock screeched and squealed. It moaned and croaked. And soon enough, it had stopped swinging its pendulum to its right-most side, and had stopped swinging its pendulum to its left-most side. Instead, it was now firmly rested in the middle. “There! Now I am doing the least work of us all! While you both remain in your respective sides, you must work continuously to remain in such a spot! I, on the other hand, have accomplished the feat of being able to see both points without using nearly as much energy! Ha!”

At this the three clocks heard a fourth clock chuckle further out. “Who do you laugh at?” Called out the first clock.

“I laugh at all of you!” replied the fourth clock. “One argues for logic, one argues for art. Still another believes that the answer is in laziness and simply staying in the middle and not working at all. In this method he feels he can pacify to both sides.”

“So?” questioned the second clock. “What is your solution?”

“To swing! As we were created to do!” And the fourth clock continued in his swinging cheerfully. “Don’t you see? We weren’t meant to stay stationary, we were meant to live in the swing of our pendulum. In trying to stay to one side, you do much more work than you must to keep to that side, and you miss the benefits of the one side! By remaining in the middle, you may avoid the confrontation, and you may experience some of the benefits, but ultimately you will grow stagnant. By living in the swing of the pendulum, we live in the way we were meant to. My visit to the logical side helps me appreciate the artful portion, and the visits to the artful side help me appreciate the logical side.“

“But by swinging between the two,” replied the third clock, “you have to work so much harder!”

“Who said we would not have to work in this? Were we not designed to work? Besides, the swing is not that much work, as the visit from one side help me swing back to the other side. The watchmaker should return soon, he will clear the matter. By the way, who can tell me what time it is?”

“That is simple!” called the other clocks. “It is…” and they realized they could not tell the time. Their clocks had stopped working when they stopped swinging. At that the watchmaker re-entered the shop. He saw the four clocks, and the first three felt ashamed. When it as exclaimed what had happened, the watchmaker gently laughed.

“You silly clocks. You should have listened to the fourth clock. It is right that you must live in the swing.”

“Oh please, sir!” cried out the first three clocks. “Don’t put us to the fire!”

“The fire? You don’t need the fire just yet. You have understood your mistakes and acknowledge the wrong. No, you may still be fixed. Am I not a watchmaker? Are you not my creations? I will help correct you. The fire is reserved for those clocks who simply refuse to work as they were designed to. How am I to use those?” And he began the work to correct the clocks swings. They went back to their life in the swing of the pendulum. It wasn’t necessarily easy, but they realized it was more fulfilling to live life in the way it was meant to, in the way they were built to.

Hundreds of years ago, Martin Luther once commented that man is like a drunken man on a horse, swaying from side to side. This is true in all aspects of life, and becomes apparent in the life of the church as well. Some of us don’t like experiencing the mystical side, the contemplative side, the artistic side. We cry out and say that emotion and experience have no place in the church. As a result, some of us respond by living only in the experience, and resist the tug of the logical side. We may feel the answer is to stay steady on the horse, where we simply stay in the middle. But I believe the answer is not in simply staying in one place.

In my experience, the older I get and the further I go in my journey with Christ, the more I realize that this sojourn is no easy task that is restricted to one side. God created us as emotional beings, capable to create art and understand it. He created us as logical, smart, and thoughtful. If God created us in these ways, why should we try to live without one or the other? The Christian walk requires experiencing both of these aspects and in an active environment. We must find ourselves journeying from one side to the other. In utilizing both of the tools God has given us, we can find the checks against living too logically or too experientially.

How easy we find it to simply call out the other side as false and remain to our side. How easy we find it to separate ourselves from each other. Why can we not instead live together as we were called to? It may mean arguments, it may mean conflict and disagreements. That is part of living in a family.

As a child my older brother and I used to fight with each other frequently. My father would step in and say to us, “Why do you two argue like this? You’re supposed to be brothers? You’re supposed to love each other?” According to tradition, in his old age John would be carried into the brotherhood saying, “Little children, love one another.” This would follow quite closely to what John says. After all, if we can’t have fellowship with one another, how can we call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ?

My brother frequently took pride in knowing how to push my buttons to annoy me and set me off. I know that this happens in the church as well from time to time. It doesn’t make it right, but it doesn’t make them less our brothers and sisters.

For too long in our history of the church we have had the simple assumption that if we do not agree with the person across the pew than we can simply walk away and cut off relations with that person. Should we not realize that cutting ourselves from a brother in Christ is just as impossible as cutting ourselves from our blood brothers and sisters? Why not leave the judgment to Him who is Judge? Occasionally we may need to ask a brother to leave us for a time, but they are still a brother or sister. Even when they step away from Christ, are they not still a child of God? Shouldn’t we still love them with all of our hearts? Weren’t we too, not long ago, caught in the life of the world and needing rescue?

My point is that much of the power of the church has been lost in the dis-unity and the breaking. I love seeing churches working together for the good of the Kingdom. They may have their disagreements, but they work together through it all. Unity is essential. After all, isn’t it what Christ prayed for before his death? It may not be easy to live our lives in the swing of the pendulum. It may, at times, be confusing. But God created us with both aspects, and we should be willing to live among them.