Summer is here. As a teacher its like hitting a brick wall of unbusyness- I go from 14 hour days with 100 or so students to almost nothing. Some of that time will be spent working but there are no immediate demands on my time
I turned thirty recently.
Its been a good decade, different than what I set out to achieve as I graduated high school.
I graduated college, got married, had my first kid. Im not sure what the next decade will bring, but it will probably be something unexpected. I keep reading over the story of Joseph. He was always in places where I can only assume he didn't want to be (like the bottom of a pit or in jail) and yet he was faithful and eventually was used in mighty ways for the protection of an entire country as well as his own family. The lesson for me is to be faithful where I am at and hopeful for the future.
Our pastor at church has been talking about this word "Legacy", those things that we pass on to the next generation. Last week he talked about a the people of Israel demanding a king, which God reluctantly gave them (He tells Samuel, "They arn't rejecting you, they are rejecting Me") which got me thinking about a few things.
First, why did they reject God- what was the legacy from past generations that caused them to want a man king instead of a God king? The legacy of the Judges? Samuel? In the first two chapters of Judges, you can see the pattern already. God does something great, the people rejoice, God gives a command, the people dont follow through, God punishes them ("they will become thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare for you") This is a pattern that seems to repeat over and over through the book of Judges, but looking past that, it is how the people behaved under Joshua's command, in the wilderness, all the way back to the beginning of the bible. God is great, yet his people still reject him. (Think Adam and Eve) Rebellion is that sin that we reserve for teenagers - "hes just going through that rebellious stage" - but it seems to me that most, if not all of our sin, is linked to some sort of rebellion. If our hearts were tape, we've stuck it to so many other things that it doesn't stick to God very well.
Second, how many times do we reject what God is doing and wants for us because of a person's of group of people's legacies in out own life? We justify our own rebellion based on the rebellion of others. Samuel was getting old, his sons were corrupt. The people felt justified (and I think I would have too) in saying give us something better than your sons Samuel. And yet God saw it as a rejection of him. CS Lewis argues this as one of the hardest things for us to get in our heads, that all sin, even when directed at other people is really about rebellion against God. We justify our actions with other peoples actions, but its all rebellion against God.
Third, what are we doing that's causing people to reject God? Samuel put his sons in charge. It never says God told him to do this. It doesn't seem that there is a rule that the priesthood has to get passed from father to son -think of Samuel himself- he got the post from Eli. Samuel saw Eli's family get rejected by God for having corrupt sons but yet did nothing about his own sons. What rebellions have we cultivated in our own lives, justifying our actions (or inactions as the case may be) with the actions of others. People are waiting to see something worth following- as my pastor asked "would you recommend your life as a model for others to follow?" And I dont believe hes asking if I'm following a particular set of rules set forth by my particular sect of Christianity. Rule following only is its own socially acceptable form of rebellion from God. Just give me the rules, tell me how to act, so I can live out my life inside of those boundaries, looking godly, but never really connecting to God himself. Legalism is an act of resignation, and not of active pursuit of God.
Its time for us to lay down the arms of our rebellion, and seek the one true God. I pray that God would help us in this. That he would make our tape sticky once again as He has been faithful to do so many times in the past.
"...the darkness of the soul mentioned here...puts the sensory and spiritual appetites to sleep... It binds the imagination and impedes it from doing any good discursive work. It makes the memory cease, the intellect become dark and unable to understand anything , and hence it cause the will also to become arid and constrained, and all the faculties empty and useless. And over all this hangs a dense and burdensome cloud which afflicts the soul and keeps it withdrawn from God."
"...Oh then, spiritual soul, when you see your appetites darkened, your inclinations dry and constrained, your faculties incapacitated for any interior exercise, do not be afflicted; think of this as a grace, since God is freeing your from yourself and taking you from your own activity."
