***It became absolutely necessary for this to be more than one post! The next one COULD come over the
weekend, but I make no guarantees! I have many responsibilities, such as taking care of my family, which
MUST remain high on my "To DO" list! I welcome any comments at the end of this post. Enjoy!
My life, like that
of any “normal” person, has been marred by a number of shortcomings. In
elementary school, though I certainly tried hard and cared about grades, my
report card would never quite contain straight A’s. My handwriting was “not
good enough.” A few years later, in junior high (middle school), I would valiantly
audition for an early entry into the choir. Again, I didn’t make the cut; I was
“not good enough.” Cheerleading tryouts would dash my hopes of ever being popular
with the “in” crowd, as I was informed that I was a runner-up, just in case
someone quit the team (Does that EVER happen?)…
Fast forward to high school cheerleading tryouts and a more vocal
auditions, seared by the emotional drama of hearing “not good enough.” You would think, after a
while, I would just try something different!
So that I don’t
leave you thinking, “Poor thing! Sounds like all she ever did was fail!” I must
say that there were also a few successes, but, as Solomon, the writer of Proverbs
stated, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth…” (Pro 27:3). So I’ll
leave it here and state up front that there have been many other such doleful
occasions over the course of life thus far, but those of childhood often give
rise to the more turbulent emotions!
I would be remiss
if I did not recall THE reason I began considering these past failures! I was
doing laundry and tidying messes after enjoying a houseful of family and
friends this past weekend, and, while promptly hanging shirts as they were
removed from the dryer (so they would not wrinkle), I considered a past
incident, which, until now, had never caused me to blush. I had been married
for about 12-13 years, and was in what I recall being the most insane years of
motherhood, with my older three children all under the age of six. My husband,
after years of completing his education, was entering a world of professionals.
And, as such, he was determined to look the part. Unlike me, he seemed to need
a little help with the aging process, and even wore glasses just so that he
would appear to be older! And then, there was the dressier attire. Since we
were still “living on love” and not quite earning an income, it seemed best to
cut corners and do all laundering of dress clothes at home. Liquid starch was
purchased, and between taking care of children and cleaning their many messes,
I made my first attempt at soaking his laundered dress shirts in starchy water
and then ironing them. I think it might have taken me the entire day to get
about 4-5 shirts done! But it was all worth it when in waltzed my sweet husband,
with a bouquet of flowers in his hand, his eyes quickly averting to the beautifully
starched and ironed shirts, admiration written all over his handsome face…
IN MY DREAMS!
Nope. The REAL story is that at some point he
managed to scrutinize my onerous achievement. And, being the one who has
wondered why my foot didn’t ACTUALLY fit into my great big mouth, I promptly
informed him that he could iron his own shirts (There was an adjective in the
original sentence, but I’m NOT going to include it!). Many years later, I would
be asked to list on a survey my least favorite household chore. I’ll bet you
can guess my answer! “IRONING! I’d rather clean toilets!”
So, why do I share
all of these things? Well, in my previous post (see “Justice, Kindness, Humility…”) I reflected on a verse
found in Micah 6:8. And as I completed that blog, I sensed that I would likely
come back to it. But this time I will also include verses 6 and 7.
With what shall I come before the
Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before
him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be
pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of
oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O
man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Throughout
every culture and every era of history, stories abound of man attempting to
make things “right” so that his guilt is somehow assuaged. In this verse, my
mind ambles to thoughts of Jewish high priests slaughtering lamb after lamb at
the celebration of Passover. A bloody mess it was, with what likely exceeded 250,000 lambs slaughtered annually (from The War of the Jews by the historian Josephus).
Then there’s Micah's phrase “Shall I
give my firstborn for my transgression…?” and my mind even abandons Jewish culture
and recalls learning of the rituals of others around the world, such as the Aztecs of my
own hemisphere, who are sadly remembered for sacrificing many of their own
people, seemingly for the hope of appeasing their “gods.”
However, since I AM approaching
this from a Judeo-Christian mindset—I may as well be up front—I return to the
Jewish Passover, with the high priests, who slaughtered so many animals for the
sake of covering the sins of their own nation. This was akin putting new paint
on a dilapidated automobile, attempting to keep it up regularly, lest the
rusty rottenness beneath “shine forth in all its glory,” making
it dump-worthy. Or, since I am speaking of vehicles, I love my pastor’s story
about cloaking the garbage in the back of his pickup truck with a towel so that he could
place his wife’s luggage there and not offend her with all the filthiness
beneath.
“He has told you, O man, what is
good…” Well, just what DID God tell
man? Perhaps it makes sense to turn the pages all the way back to Genesis 2, after
all things had been created as God spoke words, filling empty spaces with life, and
stating that those things he had created were “good.” God
instructed Adam clearly, leaving him access to EVERY tree EXCEPT the one from
which he and Eve ate fruit in Genesis 3 (Gee whiz, Adam… Thanks a bunch!). Still in chapter 2, in the midst of the creating, came a first “not good” in verse 18, where he stated, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I
will make him a helper fit for him.” And at the end of the day in which Eve had
been formed from Adam’s rib, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold,
it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). So how do YOU suppose that Eve brought good to Adam? I mean, was she not the
one entertaining a slimy serpent and taking its advice? I think that most will
agree, after a closer reading of the first few chapters of Genesis, that Adam
was the one given the original command. And, to lay things more heavily upon
him, he was right there, in chapter 3 verse 6, when Eve took of the fruit and
shared with “her husband who was with her, and he ate.” The blame game and all
that follows, I leave to your leisurely reading!
But moving forward quite a bit
in history, I consider John 1:1-4.
In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that
was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Well,
maybe THIS can shed some light on the subject, since, like the book of Genesis,
it speaks of “the beginning.” If I continue in John 1, it becomes clear that
this “Word” refers to Jesus Christ. Now here’s a way for me to make some
friends! I mean, everyone loves Jesus, right?
If you have followed history, both past and present, you know the
answer! Things looked no different when Jesus’ feet walked upon the earth. For
instance, when a guy named Nathanael first heard of Jesus (verse 46), he asked,
“Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?” He would, like some others, later exclaim, “Rabbi, you are the Son
of God! You are the King of Israel!” (verse 49).
Things
were just picking up. Once Jesus had clearly stated his identity (God) and had
referred to himself as the “good
shepherd” (John 10), people were GOOD
and ready to get rid of him! They understood him to be a blasphemer. No person
in his right mind would claim, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father”
(John 8:38), after stating that truth will set them free (8:32), which he later
clarified (14:6), “Oh, by the way, I AM the truth!” (my paraphrase). After his
listeners got lost in a conversation about being Abraham’s offspring, he stated
that “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (verse 36) and later, “before Abraham was, I
am” (verse 58). They made a poor attempt to stone him right then and there,
understanding “I AM” to be a title reserved ONLY for God, for as educated men they all
understood Scripture references such as Exodus 3:14, where Moses asks who he
should say sent him to the people of Israel, and God tells him, “I AM WHO I AM … Say this to the people
of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.”
Take a glance back at the
last post and Micah 6:8. Those good
things required of man begin with “do
justice,” or actively doing what is right or just in God’s eyes (a reminder
that nothing escapes his notice). Did you ever wonder what HE thinks about
whatever it is that you happen to be doing?
I mean, doesn’t it seem that if I’m generally seen as a thoughtful, generous,
kind (fill in other good adjectives
here!) person, I’ve accomplished God’s will?
Trust me – I recognize that I am diving into
some deep water here! But do YOU think
it was good for a bunch of guys to
get so angry with Jesus (back to John 8:59) that the sound of his words alone
would cause rocks to start flying? If you enjoy freedom of speech, surely YOU
wouldn’t want to be stoned just because someone disagreed with what you said!
But there’s far more to this story, and many of you know exactly where this is
going. Blind men had received sight,
dead men, such as Lazarus, had been raised, and Jesus continued speaking. When
he stated in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one,” the Jews now determined he
was a blasphemer, making himself equal with God (verse 33). Jesus wisely came
back with a quote they could not deny as being from the very word they held as
truth, saying, “Is it not written in your Law, I said you are gods?”(from Psalm 82:6).
You know… if I try to grasp
hold of the intense emotions of the moment, I can imagine that they were
absolutely furious! This guy had been making a fool of them, and they were NOT
happy with the way that this untrained man from Nazareth kept recalling the
words of Scripture, which THEY had studied for their entire lives! And I have
to think that when he said, “… even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the
Father” (verse 38), they MUST have wondered at this! I mean, WHO could
argue with one who only did GOOD things, such as heal and send
tormenting demons fleeing? By the way, many DID believe in Jesus at this point,
but if I am honest with myself, I fully relate to the kinds of things that can
occur when pride has been injured. I, for one, can behave pretty
foolishly!
***TO BE CONTINUED!***
