Skip to main content

How Embarrassing!

You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.  (Psalm 119:4-6)

          To play off of what I wrote yesterday about the blessing of opening doors the way they open, today’s passage is the way life tends to go, at least for some of us. We walk up to the door and push or pull, and nothing happens. We try again. We peer along the gap between the door and door frame, trying to see if the door is locked, and look all around, including at the store hours, wondering why the door won’t open. We try again before we finally see the instructions under the hours, or near the handle saying to do what we haven’t done and work with the laws of physics, pulling or pushing in the direction that will open the door. All the while, we are hoping that no one has seen us, but as nature would have it, we’re pretty sure that we’ve made it all the more obvious because our face has turned red. Oh, that our ways were steadfast in opening doors the way they’re designed to be opened. It might only be a mistake on our part, but when things don’t work and we discover we’re the ones who were wrong, or foolish, or whatever, it’s embarrassing (at least.)

          If we shift once again to the realm of morality, it’s nearly the same story. We try to be good. Then something comes along we start tugging when we should be pushing, taking when we should be giving. We look for all the reasons it’s the “door’s” fault. Only instead of blushing and doing it right when we notice the instructions, try harder to open the door our way. We grow angry, or fearful, or resentful at the door. We demand that God and everyone else make the door open the way we want. Or, we repent and move on. And when the next door, or the tenth door, doesn’t open, we may find ourselves echoing the psalmist. “Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying the decrees written on the door! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all the doors in my life.”

          And we will do no more than mention the doors that open left-handed versus right-handed, or the stores that want to force us to be British and travel in the “left lane” to enter and exit. The point is that when we try to do things the wrong way or insist that they be done our way, we can have no peace and no blessing. If we allow ourselves to continue down that path, it should not surprise us when our difficulties increase.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more