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Drink the water anyway
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Third Sunday of Lent
1 Corinthians 10:3-5
In the desert our ancestors all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.
Keep calm and hold on. None of Moses’ countrymen knew they’d be out there forty years. They just lived their lives one day at a time. But many of them murmured against their leader and even against their god.
I often complain when things change, or don’t change. Both Paul and Jesus call me to account. Paul simply says, “Do not grumble.” In today’s gospel text, Jesus gives his listeners both an interpretation of current events and a parable. Their sin did not destine some, instead of others, to die at the hands of Pilate. But, Jesus says, “I tell you, unless you repent you will all likewise perish!”
Repent how? This is how: stop complaining about my life. Instead, I can learn and practice the skill of gratitude, so that bitter experience does not root itself and poison my soul.
What is this skill? It starts with healthy grief: be angry, be sad, experience despair, feel the pain … and then make your way around the grief curve and let things go. (The grief curve starts down with denial, moves into bargaining, then into anger and depression before it curves back up again into acceptance and forgiveness.)
Gratitude is our natural way of being. But when things go wrong, or when we get used to having what we want, we will need to have developed some muscles. Use the words, “Thank you!” Every day, ask yourself “What am I grateful for? And what am I NOT grateful for?” And then in the silence, listen for God’s prompting.
If I want, I can make a list of what I’m thankful for. But this is something I have to do, every day, more than once. Speak out loud. “Thank you!”
It’s not rocket science, but you’d think it was the way we resist. And here’s where Jesus’ parable comes in.
I am not entitled to get my way in life. I am not in charge. But I AM loved, and Jesus’ story tells me so. I may grumble today, but God is patient and will wait for tomorrow before he “cuts down the fig tree.” For him there is no hurry, because he loves ME more than he loves results. He will care for the tree even when there is no fruit. There’s always next year.
Is there a time limit on God’s patience? Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. Because God knows me better than I know myself, and he’ll be with me till the end of time. The rock “that is Christ” follows me around every day, and I do drink from it. No other water satisfies.
I remember how I felt when my son Marc handed me a cold can of Pepsi as I reached the top of the Grand Canyon trail we’d been climbing for nine hours. I wept. And rested. And felt the cold. So thankful. And I said so.
God you are so good. And your mercy endures forever. You fill me up with living water, and you wait without judgment while I learn to thank you. Thank you for that, too.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1451
