Today is Day One of Week Two of Life Experiment Three - well actually Life Experiment Two, but three flowed better.
Anyway, a refresher. For 10 weeks I will be taking one of the commandments and reflecting on it. Trying to make it real and relevant. On Friday I will share any stunning insights.
And for those (like me) who can't quite come up with the second commandment on cue, here it is:
"You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation or those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments."
It appears to me, the second commandment will take a great deal of thought. There are numbers and levels, it seems, which must be considered. Which I suppose is true of everything. But the (mis)conception out there is the 10 commandments are a simple, no nonsense form of being in a right relationship with God. I am only on week two and I can already tell you, that ain't happening. There is nothing simple about these basic guidelines for faith. And for that, I am grateful.
In my work as a hospital chaplain, I often come into contact with people who believe their faith is a simple, no nonsense type of faith. They believe there are very clear cut rules, and as long as they follow them perfectly, nothing bad will happen. But, then inevitably, something does happen. A heart attack perhaps. Or car accident. Cancer, heart disease, hypertension, etc. These things happen to the best and worst people out there, there is no discrimination. But so often my patients are convinced they have somehow broken one of the 'rules' of their faith. And they are desperate for me to figure out which rule it was and set them on the right path. How frustrating a chaplain I can be for these lovely people. "No simple answers," I tell them. "No rhyme or reason, it just is." I can tell you, the looks I receive in reply to my inability to figure out the answers have to break some kind of rule!
Nope, there are no simple rules, no easy answers, and no way of knowing for sure why things happen. It is a messy, muddy, mixed up, ugly world we can live in sometimes. And you know what I say in response? Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God for not making it too easy, for not allowing some of the difficulties and set backs. They are not pleasant and sure as hell frustrating, but we grow so much more. Our relationship with God becomes so much more real. It isn't a pie-in-the-sky shiny and new still in the package relationship. Rather, there are dings, water-marks, chips, and missing pieces. But that only shows it love and wear. And a well-worn relationship with God is so much more comfortable than one right out of the package.
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