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Day and Night

            ...but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:2)

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

I watched part of a talk Dallas Willard gave that turned out to have nothing to do with the subject I hoped it might. But he quoted this passage and asked a good question. How are we to do this? Or, as Christians, how do we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus?

It might seem a little silly, but do look in a cookbook for how to roast a chicken, and in spite of what the words on the page may say, think “Jesus. Jesus. Jesus”?  As I’m driving down the street, do I ignore traffic signals because I’m thinking about Jesus or the Law? Wouldn’t that involve breaking the law? Would I want a surgeon to work on me who wasn’t thinking about the task at hand because he was meditating on Christ?

If you’re in love with someone, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about them, but does that mean that you can’t brush your teeth because you’re too busy thinking about the other person? And do you have to spend hours every day, trying to figure out what will make that beloved happy? Or are you aware of things that do and you do them just as part of your routine?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t think about Jesus, or talk to Jesus throughout our day, but what does it look like? One of the ways that psychiatrists diagnose mental illness is with the question of whether the thing being considered interferes significantly with the ability of the person to function in everyday life. This seems reasonable. So are we supposed to think about Jesus in a way that prevents us from cooking dinner, doing the laundry or holding a job? Somehow, I don’t think so.

But Scripture says we’re to keep our eyes on Jesus, and that the righteous man thinks on the Law day and night. What does it look like? How can we do this? I don’t think I have the answer, but a couple ideas come to mind. The first one that comes to mind is that we don’t take vacations. Mardi Gras was just over a month ago. It’s a time of great indulgence the day before Ash Wednesday when we’re supposed to turn our thoughts to Lent, and the giving up of indulgence leading up to the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In a sense, it is an official sanction to take a vacation from the rules for one day before you get serious about keeping them. Doing something night and day means no Mardi Gras, no “I was a good girl all day, so now I get to eat like a pig.”  It means there’s no difference in your behavior between when you’re at church and Friday night, and between when you’re happy and when you’re angry.

Another idea is that when a question arises about who you will be or what you will do or think, your standard is always Christ and His Law. There’s no waffling about whether you’re going to do what is taught in Scripture or in the teachings of Buddha, or the teachings of Marx.

Are these what this verse means? If you have another idea, please share it.

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