Tag Archives: Instant Gratification

Simple Answers/Complex Problems

Lent
March 5, 2018

 Scripture Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

We live in a scientific world where experimentation and objective test rule. Modern people read stories like the one above with a bit of skepticism. Yet, we still know that bad behavior can lead to bad consequences and we must pay for the consequences of our actions. The fuzzy part comes in making the link between our bad or unwise behavior and any outcomes that follow. Are these coincidences or is God reacting to our behavior? I think our guilt sometimes searches for judgment when humans rely on their conscience. Getting away with something leads to a lessening of our inhibitions to repeat the action and we know that. Evil spreads as our consciences weaken.

We humans waste a lot of time an energy on griping and finger pointed that could be better used for positive outcomes. As adults, we still have a little of the two-year-old’s tantrum left in our being when we fail to get what we want immediately. We call it the need for instant gratification. God’s time differs from our time. Healing of souls takes time. Taking a previously enslaved group and turning them into an efficient and effective community of self-governance is not an easy transition. Many of our justice issues suffer this same frustration. Letting someone out of prison without having provided restorative services does not work. Simply feeding and clothing the poor does not address the problems of a society that is ill-prepared to offer education and employment necessary for people to become self-sufficient. Yes, we need to feed and clothe the poor while we work toward a society that provides adequate training and employment for all its citizens. Dealing with complex overlapping problems like poverty and racism and poor education cannot be solved by passing laws that require sick people to work to get health care.

Prayer: God of Mercy and Justice, help us see the broader picture and work together to make justice a reality throughout our land. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Hell on Earth

Instant-GratificationLiving in the Spirit
September 25, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 9:38-50

‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. –Mark 9:42-48

I think this scripture is more about real-time, today-time hell then it is about some future punishment. It is about the decisions we make and the living hell that can result when we make shortsighted, instant gratification choices without thought of the long-term consequences.

I live this truth every day regarding eating right and exercising. I have osteoarthritis in my major joints and if I do not walk and stretch every day my body stiffens more and more. I have one artificial knee and will most likely have another someday. For every extra pound of weight I carry I add four additional pounds of pressure on that knee hastening its destruction.

Isn’t that also an apt description of what happens when we do not care for our relationships and treat them as precious, worthy of our investment of time and attention? It is also true regarding our souls and our relationship with God.

Prayer: O Lord, keep us mindful of our commitments to caring for ourselves, soul and all, as well as caring for one another. Protect us from our own desires that are damaging to us and to those who really matter in life including you. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

God’s Perspective

Information OverloadEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
February 2, 2015

 Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:21-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them like a tent to live in;
who brings princes to naught,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.  — Isaiah 40:21-23

Isaiah is challenging God’s people to have perspective. The people he was addressing were seeing the trees and not the forest. Problems grow insurmountable when they are all that we can see. Isaiah gives us a glimpse of God’s view. This is truth for today just as it was truth those many centuries ago.

The peoples of the earth seem to me to be running scared. Part of this is cause by the contagion of fear that happens when bits and pieces of news travel like electricity from one group to another. Our reaction in the United States to the recent Ebola case diagnosed on our shores was part wise learning from previous error as most medical facilities reviewed their protocols for dealing with contagious diseases, but it was part hysteria. Living in a world of instant information and a growing need for instant gratification contributes to both unjustifiable overreaction and the sense of not being able to do anything about everything so we do nothing at all.

The good news is that God created all beings to adapt to new environments. Just as the printing press changed the transmission of information some 700 years ago and the world changed because the masses gained greater access to knowledge, so too will we adapt to all that is changing about us. The thing we need to hold on to is that God is the one sure constant in our lives and that is all that really matters.

Prayer: Lord, give us glimpses of your perspective when we are blinded by the issues that beset us. Help us grow in spirit and in truth so that we might be sources of strength too. Amen.