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Romeo

             We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. (II Corinthians 4:8-11)

 

I watched Romeo and Juliet last spring, and my major reaction was largely negative. It’s not that the play wasn’t well-written; it’s that the level of teen angst was off my charts. Yes, when I was under thirty, it probably would have been “normal.” But as I watched, my general reaction was, “Will someone, please, turn them upside down and bang them on their heads a few times? And when you get done with the teens, move on to the parents, priests, and nobility?”

Like some/most people, I am more tolerant of my own levels of drama than I am of anyone else’s. So when we experience the things in today’s passage at one percent of what Paul describes, I am (in my estimation) likely to try to show Romeo and Juliet how it’s done because they’re amateurs. To put it mildly, let something upset my day, and I’m likely to either wish I was dead or decide I have to start from scratch in every aspect of my life. I might be a momentary success or win a temporary victory, but I’m a complete failure.

It's called “all or nothing” thinking, and there are times when, after I’ve been caterwauling in my mind (or on social media) for a while, I ask God if He thinks I’ve looked silly enough for long enough. Usually, I have. It reminds me of the Shiba I had before Grace. If you surprised Honey by touching her, her mind shut down, and she went berserk. After a little bit, you could see her brain reconnect, and everything was fine again.

I think the experiences Paul described were probably a lot more difficult than those that throw me for a loop. Then again, I’ve heard it said (and maybe I said it!) that it’s the little things that seem to be the hardest. The big things are so overwhelming that we shut down our emotional reactions. We have neither the time nor the energy for it. We’re in survival mode.

But the reality is that what destroyed Romeo and Juliet was not what was done to them, but what they did to themselves in reaction to what happened to them. And I’m not suggesting that God is indifferent to our pain, but I sometimes wonder if He doesn’t look at me and wonder if it might not do some good if He were to turn me upside down and bang my head on the ground a few times – a sort of manual reset.

Paul tells us that we carry around Jesus’ death within us, and so also His life. As hard as things may get, we must be careful not to do ourselves more damage than the events do.

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