Einstein and Chaplin

For six months or more, I have been pondering an exchange between Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein.  The conversation is said to have taken place on February 2, 1931, following the premiere of Chaplin’s world-famous film City of Lights.  Einstein, the world-famous physicist, previously said that the one person in the world he would like to meet was Chaplin.  On a tour of Universal Studios, the two were introduced and immediately struck up a friendship.  From this friendship came Chaplin’s invitation to Einstein to join him at the premiere. 

Here is the portion of their exchange that captured me.

Einstein, “What I most admire about your art is your universality. You don’t say a word, yet the world understands you!”

“It’s true,” replied Chaplin. “But your fame is even greater: the world admires you when nobody understands what you say.”

Isn’t that just fantastic?  It makes me smile and think at the same time.  There they were, two geniuses in vastly different fields of expertise having a genius moment.

I do not know why I keep thinking about their mutual admiration. It’s incredibly insightful and humorous, but there seems to be some message, some application, I just cannot seem to bring into focus in my mind. That is why I write this post.

In the two men’s exchange, something causes me to wonder if I never spoke another word would people understand me?  Or, with all the oral and written verbose, do people not know what I am saying? Here is a deeper one, is God powerful enough that He could take my babble and make His Gospel clear enough that people could see Him?

This last question encourages me to take a faith stand; I believe God can make His being known by every person on the planet.  This is the point I for which was looking!  God is more intensely complicated than we can collectively or individually comprehend, yet all who seek Him come to know Him, personally and intimately.

Trying to fully know our Creator is what all the world’s spiritual inquest is about.  But we know we can no more fully comprehend His being than we can put all the grains of sand on Panama Beach back together into the single rock from which they came.  On the other hand, our Creator can reassemble the boulder if he chooses.

However, we can know Him well enough to enter into a life-giving relationship with Him.  What is more, we know intuitively that something is missing in us.  It is my belief that each human was created by God to be with God. That is His desire, His fingerprint on our intimate personal space and identity.  The human plight is we each think highly enough of our own cognitive abilities that this need can be filled through our own efforts. If you have tried to fill this need independently, you know it is not sustainable.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the Chaplin/Einstein exchange.

Photo – I copied the image from a February 2, 2015 article in The Atlantic written by Alan Taylor.