Today’s Readings: Psalm 13; Joshua 24:1-15; John 8:21-30; 1 Corinthians 10:14-22; Psalm 105: 23-45
I’ll never forget the summer following my freshman year of college. I had spent the previous school year attending a college that was 6 hours away from home. As the youngest of four children, I was the first to leave the area in which we were raised – so neither my parents nor I had any experience dealing with a situation like this: a child who was anxious to exert his independence and establish his identity apart from his parents. Needless to say, the summer was full of potential landmines. “When would I come home at night?” “What sort of summer job would I look for?” “Who would I hang out with?” The list of questions went on and on. Any time I felt my parents encroach on what I considered to be my space, I would respond by getting incredibly testy. “It was MY life,” I remember thinking. “Who are you to butt in?!” As I got older, however, I came to terms with much of this and realized that my parents played a pivotal role in my life and my development. And – whether I liked to admit it or not – they would always be present in my life as a guiding force as I faced the issues of each day. Some folks have a similar tension in their relationship with God. In a day and age when our culture stresses the centrality of the individual, they like to think their lives are theirs – and theirs alone. They have no time and interest for a God who would butt in and get involved. For such people (including myself at times), today’s second Psalm is a real challenge – for it represents a theology that suggests God is intimately involved in the lives of the people. And while I would argue with the psalmist as to whether or not God was the cause of each event (especially those portions where violence and mayhem ensued), I do respect the conviction that God is with us each step of the way. So how do you stand with this? Are you in a place where you feel compelled to assert your total independence and claim your life as exclusively your own; or are you willing to open yourself to God’s guiding presence in your life? Til next time…
I’ll never forget the summer following my freshman year of college. I had spent the previous school year attending a college that was 6 hours away from home. As the youngest of four children, I was the first to leave the area in which we were raised – so neither my parents nor I had any experience dealing with a situation like this: a child who was anxious to exert his independence and establish his identity apart from his parents. Needless to say, the summer was full of potential landmines. “When would I come home at night?” “What sort of summer job would I look for?” “Who would I hang out with?” The list of questions went on and on. Any time I felt my parents encroach on what I considered to be my space, I would respond by getting incredibly testy. “It was MY life,” I remember thinking. “Who are you to butt in?!” As I got older, however, I came to terms with much of this and realized that my parents played a pivotal role in my life and my development. And – whether I liked to admit it or not – they would always be present in my life as a guiding force as I faced the issues of each day. Some folks have a similar tension in their relationship with God. In a day and age when our culture stresses the centrality of the individual, they like to think their lives are theirs – and theirs alone. They have no time and interest for a God who would butt in and get involved. For such people (including myself at times), today’s second Psalm is a real challenge – for it represents a theology that suggests God is intimately involved in the lives of the people. And while I would argue with the psalmist as to whether or not God was the cause of each event (especially those portions where violence and mayhem ensued), I do respect the conviction that God is with us each step of the way. So how do you stand with this? Are you in a place where you feel compelled to assert your total independence and claim your life as exclusively your own; or are you willing to open yourself to God’s guiding presence in your life? Til next time…
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