Today in my World Masterpieces class, we were discussing Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. Dostoevsky was a devout Christian, which showed through his writing. In this piece, there is a very cynical man who adamantly admits that he is the biggest jerk on the face of the planet. He meets this prostitute and tries to lift her up out of her current position saying that if she keeps on this road she is going to become a slave to other people. This same girl though is the Christ-figure. That can be taken in so many wrong ways...I have completely not meaning to draw a parallel between Christ and a prostitute. This woman, Liza, loves the Underground Man despite the fact that he is the biggest jerk on the face of the planet. She loves him through his faults. She becomes the redeeming hero of the story.
The Underground Man simply can not take the fact that she is becoming his hero. He can not take the fact that such a lowly person is leading him to redemption so he undoes everything that he had told her and gets her to sleep with him and then pays her. He dethrones his hero to his prostitute.
How many of us are doing in this with Christ? Sometimes it is so hard for me to humble myself before my hero. I want to be self-sufficient. I want to be able to save myself. I often times place human characteristics upon him in an attempt to knock him off of my throne. I want to think that I can not trust Him or that He doesn't really love me through all of my sins. I can't comprehend Him and that frustrates me. I want to fit God into this box that actually makes sense to me.
So this blog is a rather short one, but it is gorgeous outside and I want to go for a drive to take in my Hero's majesty. However, I ask you....Are you trying to dethrone Christ?
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