I'm trying to get this right because I want to be able to help somebody, and if I can figure out how to do what Jesus did, the degree to which I can, is the degree to which I may be able to help someone else.
There are days that go by when regardless of external circumstances my life is very much joy. And there are days that go by when that is not the case, and partly because I am living through and watching a holocaust, hey genocide, perpetrated by the country in which I live, the world superpower, and almost without exception everyone I know is sitting on the sidelines, blissfully oblivious, couldn't care less.
This is beyond horror for me.
But I have no complaints, I envy no man, no person, any breath.
But in reading this verse of Jesus and pondering the life of Jesus something that I keep forgetting just came to me and maybe it would be helpful to you as well. It is almost impossible how frequently I forget this. You know likelihood I will have forgotten it within the next hour or so, but I must not. I must remember.
No place do I see did Jesus ask of himself or suggest that we ask for ourselves, perfection. No. In teaching after teaching, parable after parable, he says that what matters is the attempt, the every breath attempt, and if we do it properly, and we look properly, we're going to be feeling joy. I keep forgetting that.
I keep holding myself accountable for achieving the results that I would gladly give my life to see. No. That's hubris, it's lack of humility, it's not my business, and it defeats what I'm trying to do.
The degree to which Joy is not in my life, to that degree Joy cannot be seen in my life by others, and to that degree I am not the beacon to Jesus teachings and example that I need to be. I'm making progress. So much more that I need to learn, so much more confidence that I need to gain. So little time.
Enter into the work of the lord, and enter into the joy of the lord thereby.
Ps. And now I'm understanding the Palestinians almost for the first time this moment. The life, the joy, in the midst of material hell, the joy. And, their peace, impossible, against All odds.
These are people that unlike christians, do not dismiss Jesus as a mere sacrificial lamb. No they Revere his teachings and example as a human being, the greatest prophet. Not only Jesus but centrally jesus.
And what I've just written of above in this post, I now realize, by his teachings or whatever teachings, they understand, they live, at the molecular level, as children of creator called to attempt to do the will of Creator, knowing that they are not creator but part of creator, Allah, thereby feeling the love and joy and approval and oneness with creator that comes from their every breath attempt.
Even when family members are being tortured in Israeli jails. Even when much or most of their family members have been shot in the head or the womb by Israeli snipers. Or blown apart by us bombs.
There is a joy there that is unmistakable. And it should be there. And what a witness they are. I've never seen such a thing. I've never imagined such a thing was possible, but there it is.
Enter into the work of the lord, and enter into the joy of the lord thereby.
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