AP

Chinese Translation by Sonia Liang

直面快樂、信仰和希望的座右銘

6月2日

在我的職業生涯中，說句玩笑話，我一直受到三個睿智座右銘的左右。第一個來自《第二十二條軍規》的作者約瑟夫·海勒 (Joseph Heller) 的小說《一個中年人的苦悶》: 「變一次，糟一次」。

認識到這有點悲觀，我便將美國前副總統丹·奎爾 (Dan Quayle) 的奇言「明天會更好」拿來作平衡。從邏輯上講，我認為，昨天不可能更好，但他怎麼知道明天會更好呢？我只是喜歡他的自信而已。

第三，也是最重要的——我顯然與大多數人一樣認同《花生漫畫》裡露西的

格言 「如果你對不了，那就理直氣壯地錯吧」。

這些座右銘盡可以信手拈來，但它們在信仰領域裡卻起不到什麼作用。和大多數信徒一樣，我也有自己最喜歡的聖經經文，但最近我第一次讀到的一節經文成了我目前的最愛。

它來自《詩篇》第 73 篇。亞薩 (Asaph，被認為是大約 3000 年前與大衛王同時代的人)權衡那些利用和剝削他人卻在生活中取得顯著成就的人時，在第 12 節寫道，「這就是惡人」。

他們常享安逸，財寶增多。

我實在徒然潔淨了我的心，

徒然洗手表明我的無辜。

但他逐漸體認到事實並非如此，並反省 (從第19節起):

因此，我心裡苦惱，

肺腑被刺。

我這樣愚昧無知，

在你面前如同畜牲。

然而，我常與你同在；

你攙扶我的右手。

你要以你的訓言引導我，

以後你必接我到榮耀裡。

接下來是我覺得如此豐富的經文:

我的肉體和我的心腸可能衰殘，

但神是我心裡的力量，

又是我的福分，直到永遠。

簡而言之，這就是猶太教和基督教的希望。人類是軟弱的。先知以賽亞說 「凡有血肉之軀的盡都如草」，草會枯萎，花也會凋謝。或者，正如耶穌對門徒所說的那樣，心靈固然願意，肉體卻軟弱。我們沒有人能夠完全不辜負良心或道德洞察力而活著。

但神不會讓那些信靠祂的人失望—-這是聖經中最永恆的主題之一。這並不意味著信神的人將免受磨難或痛苦，因為只要活著，這是所有人類遲早的命運。但這意味著信神的人永遠不會被拋棄，他們將與神永遠結合在一起。因為支撐和保護他們並帶領他們走向榮耀的是上帝的力量，而不是自己的力量。

– 巴尼·兹瓦茨（Barney Zwartz ）經《時代》許可轉載， 2024 年6 月2 日。

(翻譯 良晨)

English

Through my professional life I have been guided, tongue in cheek, by three personal mottos of great sagacity. The first is by author Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, though this one comes from Something Happened: “every change is for the worse.”

Recognising that this is a little pessimistic, I balance it with former US Vice President Dan Quayle’s strange observation that “the future will be better tomorrow”. Logically, I suppose, it can’t be better yesterday, but how does he know? I like his confidence.

Third and most important – a maxim I apparently share with most of the population, along with Lucy from Peanuts – is “if you can’t be right, be wrong as loudly as possible”.

Handy though those axioms are, they don’t really work in the realm of faith. Like most believers, I have my favourite Bible verses, but recently I read one for the first time in years that has, for now, taken top spot.

It comes from Psalm 73, where Asaph (thought to be a contemporary of King David about 3000 years ago) is weighing against the apparent success in life of those who use and exploit others. “This is what the wicked are like,” he writes in verse 12 “ — always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure.”

But he comes to realise this is not so, and reflects (from verse 19): “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.”

Then comes the verse that I find so enriching: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Here is the Judaeo-Christian hope in a nutshell. Humans are weak. “All flesh is grass,” says the prophet Isaiah, and the grass withers and the flower fades. Or, as Jesus says of the disciples, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. None of us entirely lives up to our conscience or our moral insight.

But God will not fail those who trust in him – this is one of the most constant themes in the Bible. It does not mean they will be spared tribulation or suffering, for that is the lot of all humans sooner or later, merely by living. But it means they will never be abandoned, and they will be united with him in eternity.  For it is God’s strength, and not their own, that sustains and preserves them, and brings them to glory.

– Barney Zwartz, reprinted with permission from ’The Age’, 2 June, 2024.