Subtle Lessons, Major Truths
What a weekend.
Sometimes, the Lord our God decides that you need to learn in subtle ways. I've always tried to learn by observation... perhaps I should rephrase that, I attempt to learn by observation; it's a conceit to say that I've always done that. Like many of us, I've tried to learn in ways that were perhaps abrupt. But just like trying to catch the wind in a jar, we miss the point. To learn, we need to pay attention. Sometimes, the truth is hiding in the subtleties.
Not this weekend.
It started when I feared that someone in my family was ill. My family means the world to me. It was not for a lack of faith in God that I worried. It is speculated that perhaps I worry for the novelty of worrying. That is to say that I simply worry. Thus began the lessons to be learned.
It can be said that our faith can carry us, and this time it did. I needed to learn that. But that was not the only lesson, merely the first. And it was a big one.
The next lessons had to deal with pride and importance. For this weekend I discovered that I am a know-it-all.
It is easy when one has a little bit of intelligence to do what we think right, to share it. Can this be done in a manner that is neither boastful nor loud? I think so. Pity. There is a fine line that separates the good from the bad there, however. What I discovered is that it is very easy to go on doing what we perceive as important, when in fact it's just mental jetsam and flotsam. A lot of what I've perceived as important is just that. In fact, it's only important to me.
(Does this mean these little essays will stop? Probably not; you can always choose to ignore them).
Jesus beseeches us to be humble. You can teach and share and be humble. After all, to what purpose does it serve to be otherwise? This was a major theme that runs throughout the Gospels, and one that was handed down to me not once but thrice today. It started when I checked my email this morning. I receive daily "Sayings of Jesus", and today, it was Matthew 6:5-18, part of the Sermon on the Mound. It really wasn't necessary to read it again, as I could tell the chapter and verses simply by reading the subject line. Still, I had to, and the lesson in humility was a good. The lessons of the day were just starting, however.
At service, we covered the presentation of the Ten Commandments, Jesus driving the merchants from the temple and Paul writing about the laws and sin. It was the sermon of our main parish priest, Rev. Jim McCaslin, that really started to draw connections back to my email. As he spoke at length about the all that was read, and tied it all together in such a way that it was very easy to see that, yes, even an entire church can stumble and fall. Human arrogance. Human pride. We know better than He, it seems. Do not fool yourselves. Not for one second.
This all then tied together with my reading of Ecclesiastes.
What lesson did I garner from this?
That it is very easy to let ourselves be too boastful, too proud and too convinced in our own minds of our self-proclaimed importance. After all, who knows how much better, how much smarter, we are than ourselves?
If we really feel that way, then why share it? Is it to His glory... or our vanity?
It would be a lie to say that I've been humble. I'll be the first to say, most unequivocally, that I'm as human as any of us, and that I am someone who likes to boast, if even "modestly". And I do it to bolster up my own, fragile psyche. You see, in the end, it doesn't matter how smart or how dumb or how rich or how poor I am. What matters most is how I interact with my fellow humans. Have I been kind? Have I helped? Have I been there? Most important, have I simply shut my mouth and listened? Many times, I haven't. It doesn't make me a bad or evil person, it simply makes me human.
Still, I've no doubt stepped on toes, as I'm sure others have. The words of the Sermon on the Mound weren't just suggestions, they were the words of Christ and were there to help not only to save our souls, but to save and inspire others. After all, humans learn best by example.
So, I guess that I needed that little wake up call. It took seeing me from the outside to get a good glimpse of what needed to change on the inside.
God works in mysterious ways. Just sometimes not necessarily subtle ones.
Sometimes, the Lord our God decides that you need to learn in subtle ways. I've always tried to learn by observation... perhaps I should rephrase that, I attempt to learn by observation; it's a conceit to say that I've always done that. Like many of us, I've tried to learn in ways that were perhaps abrupt. But just like trying to catch the wind in a jar, we miss the point. To learn, we need to pay attention. Sometimes, the truth is hiding in the subtleties.
Not this weekend.
It started when I feared that someone in my family was ill. My family means the world to me. It was not for a lack of faith in God that I worried. It is speculated that perhaps I worry for the novelty of worrying. That is to say that I simply worry. Thus began the lessons to be learned.
It can be said that our faith can carry us, and this time it did. I needed to learn that. But that was not the only lesson, merely the first. And it was a big one.
The next lessons had to deal with pride and importance. For this weekend I discovered that I am a know-it-all.
It is easy when one has a little bit of intelligence to do what we think right, to share it. Can this be done in a manner that is neither boastful nor loud? I think so. Pity. There is a fine line that separates the good from the bad there, however. What I discovered is that it is very easy to go on doing what we perceive as important, when in fact it's just mental jetsam and flotsam. A lot of what I've perceived as important is just that. In fact, it's only important to me.
(Does this mean these little essays will stop? Probably not; you can always choose to ignore them).
Jesus beseeches us to be humble. You can teach and share and be humble. After all, to what purpose does it serve to be otherwise? This was a major theme that runs throughout the Gospels, and one that was handed down to me not once but thrice today. It started when I checked my email this morning. I receive daily "Sayings of Jesus", and today, it was Matthew 6:5-18, part of the Sermon on the Mound. It really wasn't necessary to read it again, as I could tell the chapter and verses simply by reading the subject line. Still, I had to, and the lesson in humility was a good. The lessons of the day were just starting, however.
At service, we covered the presentation of the Ten Commandments, Jesus driving the merchants from the temple and Paul writing about the laws and sin. It was the sermon of our main parish priest, Rev. Jim McCaslin, that really started to draw connections back to my email. As he spoke at length about the all that was read, and tied it all together in such a way that it was very easy to see that, yes, even an entire church can stumble and fall. Human arrogance. Human pride. We know better than He, it seems. Do not fool yourselves. Not for one second.
This all then tied together with my reading of Ecclesiastes.
What lesson did I garner from this?
That it is very easy to let ourselves be too boastful, too proud and too convinced in our own minds of our self-proclaimed importance. After all, who knows how much better, how much smarter, we are than ourselves?
If we really feel that way, then why share it? Is it to His glory... or our vanity?
It would be a lie to say that I've been humble. I'll be the first to say, most unequivocally, that I'm as human as any of us, and that I am someone who likes to boast, if even "modestly". And I do it to bolster up my own, fragile psyche. You see, in the end, it doesn't matter how smart or how dumb or how rich or how poor I am. What matters most is how I interact with my fellow humans. Have I been kind? Have I helped? Have I been there? Most important, have I simply shut my mouth and listened? Many times, I haven't. It doesn't make me a bad or evil person, it simply makes me human.
Still, I've no doubt stepped on toes, as I'm sure others have. The words of the Sermon on the Mound weren't just suggestions, they were the words of Christ and were there to help not only to save our souls, but to save and inspire others. After all, humans learn best by example.
So, I guess that I needed that little wake up call. It took seeing me from the outside to get a good glimpse of what needed to change on the inside.
God works in mysterious ways. Just sometimes not necessarily subtle ones.
posted by Robert at 5:35 AM
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