There once was a young man named Nicky. Nicky had his eyes
on Jen for quite some time. He would look longingly at her and sometimes he
would catch her brown eyes looking back at him. Finally he screwed up the
courage to write her a letter which confessed his love for her.
It took him days really. He lay the pen to paper introducing
himself and then talking about some things he enjoyed. He talked about
different types of flowers that struck his fancy and some situations that were
particularly memorable to him. He lay each pen stroke with and sentence with
great care to pull the recipient of his love confession along to the point
where he would make the connections of those flowers to the scent of her hair,
and those memorable moments being made brighter because she was in the backdrop
then reaching a crescendo as he confessed his undying love and made a request
to date her.
Nervously he handed Jen the letter who gladly took it, for
although she knew him…she didn’t really know him. Odd young man, often blushing
in her presence, it was enough to have her interested in what he had to say.
So she sits down to read the lengthy letter and numbers each
sentence of the 10 page masterpiece. When she’s finally done she opens the
letter to the fourth page, the second paragraph and the third sentence where it
read “So I really liked that movie a lot…although I don’t remember seeing a
thing.”
After a moment of deep meditation she draws the conclusion
that the young man is lying about actually enjoying the movie. By the obvious
contradiction and his outright confession he is admitting that he is a liar. The next day she meets up with the expectant young man who
eagerly asks her “have you read my letter?” to which she replies “I’m not
finished with it yet. I’m on page four, P2:S3. So far I think you are quite the
liar!” The young man stands there confused and in horror realizes
that she hasn’t grasped the point of his letter at all. He tells her to read
some more of it so she goes home, decides to read the containing paragraph. To
her joy she discovers that the entire paragraph is talking about a day at the
movies but ending with that sentence which is an outright lie. Now that she has read the paragraph though, she is sure of
the meaning of the sentence and proceeds to tell the young man that it is
definite…he is a liar. The young man looks at her and said “Read the whole
letter! You missed my point entirely! Each and every sentence doesn’t stand on
it’s own, but it’s connected to the other. Each paragraph doesn’t stand on it’s
own but it’s connected to the other. Each page is part of the whole point where
I am confessing my love to you!”
“Well, if that was your point why wouldn’t you have it in
page 4, paragraph 2, sentence 3?”
“I did have it there! Because if you read the next paragraph
you’ll see that I spent the whole time in the movie thinking about the color of
your hair! Read it with what I was saying in mind and you’ll see—that I love
you!”
As with any subject (Dispensationalism, Calvinism, Baptism, Trinitarianism) it is important to read the
subtext in context of the surrounding text. Some find much riches in focusing
on a verse (like John3:16) to gather treasure…and this is well and good. The
thing is John 3:16 sits in the middle of a broader passage and that passage
sits in the forefront of a bigger discussion and purpose. To look at any part
of the Word of God void of its Scriptural context is to ignore the very manner
that the Lord in Heaven has orchestrated the giving of the Word. True it is
profitable for many things…but look at it’s full power in the way that the Lord
has deigned to give it. -r-
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We Irish lasses get cocky when we\'re tired.
Written by Jerry on 2005-05-17 08:34:29Post of the year contender.
heh
Written by biblerey on 2005-05-17 13:34:29unfortunately I\'m still trying to go for \