Words of wisdom (2) more of Frederic Buechner

Buechner (see below) often deals harshly with himself when he comes to talk about his faith journey.
He does this it seems to me for quite good reasons.
First because he is a saint!  And like all good saints he realises that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And he understands that this starts at his own front door.
Second because he also realises he has stuffed up.  One might even want to admit big time! He is very frank about the pastoral, intellectual, moral and personal mistakes he has made as a man, an intellectual, a pastor and a theologian. One could add  as a husband and a father.....but as I don't know him personally that would be presumptuous! And am only going on comments from his writings.
Third because he is critical writer and academic he invites genuine critique of his life and work 
In today's reflexion he continues one of his interesting dialogues with the one he calls the "interlocutor student"....personally I would call him/her the pretentious sh&t!

We read
 "You know, you were just getting down to the one thing people might be interested in," he says, "because it is always interesting to hear why a man believes what he believes. But then instead of giving it to them straight, you started paraphrasing from a work of your own fiction. I've heard you do the same sort of thing in sermons. Just as you are about to reach what ought to be the real nub of the matter, you lapse off into something that in the words of one of your early reviewers is either poetry or Williams' Aqua Velva. I would hesitate to use the phrase "artful dodger" if you hadn't already used it artfully yourself. Why don't you really tell them this time? 

As I say the pretentious sh&t or the unknwoing ba&t@#d!

Buechner's  saintly wisdom is herein contained (with none of the sort of anger that you or I might feel)

Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.

The commentator on this photo says humorously(and wisely)

Will someone wise up and cast Anthony Hopkins to star in a film about the life of Frederick Buechner, before they both die?

A blog dedicated to Frederick B