Why I'm in CL

I've been pondering something. The other day I was with a group of other CL Fraternity folks, and one person made the comment that even the most beloved person in our lives will let us down. That it is not we, as individual human beings, that we look to as Christians and as Fraternity, because we are all prone to fail each other.

I felt a little sad at the comment, and not because I don't believe it is true. Rather, I felt the comment is upside down. I've been thinking in terms of canvases. One could have a blank white canvas, something like an expectation of purity and perfection, and want only something beautiful painted upon it. Such a one would get worried, I suppose, about smudges and mess-ups, wanting to keep it clean and pure. It might actually be pretty hard to get permission to put one's brush on such a canvas, belonging to another.

Well, I don't have a blank white canvas. I think of my canvas as painted black. Black paint can blot out a lot. But the beautiful thing is that when you paint with vivid colors over black, you get something really stunning. Life emerging from death, light from darkness. Wonderful beauty in contrast. And yes, ok, maybe smudges of a dark purple that is hard to discern from the black. But a great Artist can use all these vibrant, living, real colors and make something very beautiful. And something about it says "paint me; that's what I'm for!"



That human beings fail each other is the most self-evident reality I can think of. That occasionally, or even frequently, human beings can bring Beauty into each other's lives? That's miraculous. And that's why I'm "in" CL.