Knuckle-headed Tendencies

“Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob,
   you who are called by the name of Israel
   and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the LORD
   and invoke the God of Israel—
   but not in truth or righteousness—
you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city
   and claim to rely on the God of Israel—
   the LORD Almighty is his name:
I foretold the former things long ago,
   my mouth announced them and I made them known;
   then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
For I knew how stubborn you were;
   your neck muscles were iron,
   your forehead was bronze.
Therefore I told you these things long ago;
   before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
   ‘My images brought them about;
   my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
You have heard these things; look at them all.
   Will you not admit them? - Isaiah 48: 1-6

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 47-49; 1 Thessalonians 4

Oh my… this is troubling.

So God will let you go through suffering so that you will recognize who is who and what is what?

Smack!

Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! – Deuteronomy 31: 26-27

I was a hard headed kid.

Ok maybe that’s not fair. After all I did turn out ok. But I was definitely one of those kids that must have been pretty hard to deal with. I was never rude or blatantly disobedient. I like to think that I was a charming young lad. But, when I wanted to do things my way, that’s how it went down.

I was riding in the car with my mom recently and we were talking about my childhood. She was telling me how challenging I was to deal with. Here’s one story.

When I was around ten years old I got an allowance from my Mom. My allowance was five dollars a week; but to get all of the five dollars I had to do all of my chores. So my mom made a contract with me. I got a certain amount for brushing my teeth everyday, taking a bath and all of the basic stuff. But the lion’s share of the allowance was dependent upon other chores like making my bed, taking out the trash, and washing dishes.

This arrangement went well at first; but somewhere down the line I determined that the five dollars wasn’t worth all of this hard work. Of course I brushed my teeth and took baths but this whole making my bed business… eh… it wasn’t for me.

So I looked at the breakdown and said hey… I can go without the dollar I’d get for this or that chore.

My mom knew that pure financial motivation wasn’t going to work with me when I happily accepted eighty cents one week.

Hahahaha…

Our happy arrangement ended pretty quickly. After that week I had to do the chores regardless.

Drats.

It’s pretty funny looking back on it now but it was instructive for me. I bet God looks at us sometimes with the same frustration that my mom had. After all, the things she was telling me to do would help prepare me to be a responsible adult some day.

Of course I didn’t see that at the time…

More often than not we know when we are living right and when we are living wrong. Are we doing what we can to spread love in the world? Are we following our calling in life? Is our labor bearing good fruit in the world?

I know one thing for sure… The blessings that come with a life dedicated to living right far out weigh the flashes of pleasure we get from living wrong.

After all, those things do have a way of coming back to bite us eventually.

So let’s all take a lesson from my hardheaded ten year old self. Decide now to do your best to be your best. Otherwise, life will smack you until you act right.

Cooold Blooooooded!

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 30-31; Mark 15: 1-25