My good friend Chris Cassidy posted a series of blog entries on what he calls Rope Theory. It is a creative theory posited to explain different aspects of relationships. Chris solicited my feedback, and I must admit that he did so after I had spent some time reading Edwards on "The Nature of True Virtue". I can feel Edwards thoughts guiding my interpretation. I read the first two entries in his series and composed some thoughts for him prior to the release of his last three entries on the subject. These thoughts were probably more extensive than he expected or wanted. I provide here a link to his blog on Rope Theory with the warning that none of this entry will make any sense at all if you do not read his stuff first. And it may not make any sense anyway. This entry is my email response to him, and while it is not really devotional material, it may provide you with a good, quick philosophical diversion.
This is pretty intriguing. I am not sure exactly what you were looking for, but I don't really have any stylistic or grammatical suggestions. I am curious where and how this rope theory would intersect similar theories others have had. I look forward to your upcoming entries.
I think the question of why we do what we do is very interesting. To me, the rope theory answers a subset of that question, the new question being "why do we do what we do in relationships?" Here would be my (un)original contribution to this strain of thinking. Human beings always do what they think will make them happiest out of all the options presented to them. Of course, there are often a lot of constraints, and the options may look grim, but our hearts still incline to do what we think will make us happiest. When we sin, even though there is a part of us that knows it is wrong, we still do it because we want to. We want to sin because in that moment, perhaps shutting out our better reason, we think what we are doing will make us happier than not sinning. When I choose where to go eat, how to invest my money, how much time to study on the test, whatever it is... I do either in a conscious or unconscious pursuit of happiness. I do what I do because I make a calculation (sometimes accurate, sometimes not) about what will make me happy.
I make no moral judgment on this tendency, only the observation that it happens. Of course, thinking as a Christian, we ought to seek our happiness in Christ because our truest, deepest, greatest happiness is in Christ alone. The moral judgment comes at this point - not that humans seek their happiness, but that humans seek it in the wrong things.
But in this idea of ropes, I think it is interesting because the implications are this: Every rope I am holding, I have picked up, or I have chosen to keep holding onto (if it was given to me by consequence of birth). Therefore, either consciously or unconsciously, all the ropes I am currently holding are those that I believe will make me happiest. It may not seem that way, and that perhaps I would be happier for not holding one of them. But probably in that case we perceive that the pain of putting a particular rope down is worse than the pain of continuing to hold it.
Now, I picture in rope theory something like the joining of the streams in Ghostbusters. You know what I mean? Most ropes have an end, but it is not an ultimate end, but rather a way point to another end. Ropes link up into a greater system, seen or unseen. That, then, is probably a mere way-point to another end. But there is, I believe, an Ultimate rope that we are pulling, the stream to which the tinier ropes of our lives are joined, the End of all ropes. It is the rope that is not a way point to any other rope. I think many people in life do not take the time to think about what Ultimate rope they are pulling, if any at all.
Perhaps it makes no sense to go up to the ultimate rope to grab and pull with anyone because its too big, the circumference too wide to get a grip. But I still want to pull it, and in that way I need to find the streams, the tinier ropes I might put my energy toward that will, in turn, pull that bigger rope. Because, of course, I have a finite amount of energy, and I want to leverage that energy in the way that will bring me most happiness. My contention is that we should, in our happiness calculations, look beyond what's right in front of our eyes, all the separate tiny ropes, to see what the ends of these ropes meet to do.
I guess this analysis of the rope idea is slightly tangential to yours, which focuses more on relationships. But the idea, as I understand it, is that I pick a rope with someone else, and it is attached to some common goal or thing. Now with some more thoughts about the goal, we might think more profitably of the others who are also picking up the rope. A brief thought - to be unequally yoked would be to have picked up some ropes with someone, but the overall effect of the pulling sort of cancels out because the End ropes are different.
And you can, if you buy that last argument, be unequally yoked with yourself, losing the integrity of your effort, if your ropes are all at odds with each other canceling out - what I would argue would be the inevitable effect of sin and/or apathy about life.
Finally, because this is such a cool thought train you've sent me on, consider the ropes God himself is picking up. If we do not exempt him from this analogy, we realize quickly how amazing it is that our God is a Trinity. That they each pick up the ropes together and pull in perfect unison, with perfect unity of purpose is a humbling, joyous thought. And think of our original suggestion that we always do what tends to make us happiest. Imagine the implications for the Christ's prayer in the Garden, "Not my will Father, but yours"! He did this, we are told, for the JOY that was set before him. And this begs the question, what ultimate end do these ropes, perfectly selected by the Father, Son, and Spirit, tend to? What is the big stream rope into which these little ones feed? Is it God's love towards us in our salvation, or is that even a means to another End? That is, as Edwards might suggest, too small and too focused on us, and God was doing things before we were ever around to be saved. I would suggest, and do not have the space or the brain power to argue it fully here, that the ultimate rope God is the rope of his Glory.
Perhaps I will unpack that thought in another blog entry. Sorry for the overlong email.
Daniel
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