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Living the dream
Jesus said, “I do not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” – From Matthew 5
One thing I complain too much about is complainers. I know … I’m doing it too. It’s just a pet peeve for me. I want my optimism to be left in peace.
It’s so easy to get negative and make no effort to offer a better way. And that’s triple-true when it comes to DOING something new. So I love Jesus’ words. He is a radical, not a revolutionary. He won’t turn everything upside down, but he will dig down to find the deepest, most original truth. And that’s the God’s truth.
Moses brought God’s law down from the mountain to the people. That law focused on what God wanted for his children and how to get there – not so much DO NOT! as DO! We get our energy from doing, not from holding back. Zero sum rules do not apply to energy. Fortified with a bit of sleep and sustenance, the more we do, the more we want to do.
Moses wanted his people to remember what they saw and heard, what they did in the desert. How to hold those memories? “Teach them to your children and your children’s children.”
Like Moses, Jesus wanted his followers to do more and complain less. And like Moses, Jesus wanted them to remember those amazing days, the days when God walked with them upon the earth. They were the best days of their lives, and there would be such stories to tell their children and their children’s children! In these brief and shining moments it was time to feast and not to fast. Say yes, and refrain from saying no.
What comes from following the smallest letters of the law? God is glorified, and we get free to be all we’re made to be. Some might disagree, but the devil is kept at bay and we don’t need to rebuke anything, because there’s nowhere for those ugly demons to settle. Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. More and more, our home is in God’s country.
Walking in Israel’s dust with Jesus, this might have been a bit more obvious than it often seems to us. But perhaps not. We can learn this way of life just by saying Yes, day after day, and by chronicling our own one thousand gifts. We all have stories to tell, and stories to listen to others tell. Our parents mostly did the best they could at this, and we can too. Teach your children well.
When you put bread on my table, Lord, let me give thanks. For you are good. When you clear up the way before me with a quiet instruction or two, let me give thanks. For you are good. Your word is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our paths. Why not follow, hear your words and keep them? Whatever eternity we have in us, Lord, you have put there. You are good, and your mercy endures forever.
http://www.davesandel.net/category/lent-easter-devotions-2017/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1577
