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Blind Standards

Been a while since I have been up to blogging. It's not that I am on death's door or have a lack of things to work out through my fingertips hitting the keyboard. It's that I keep wanting to find the topic that will make a difference in the way I go about life. The trouble with that is it takes effort and discipline and I have already confessed all I care to about being a lazy sloth. There is part of me that wants you to commiserate with me about joys and detriments of being lazy, but thanks to God's nagging Holy Spirit, the part of me that wants you to rejoice in my repenting of these besetting sins is gaining ground. Is it OK to call the Holy Spirit a nag? I think I am supposed to use the standard Christianese and say He's wooing me.

Seems like a whole lot of wooing is going on in the world and most of it ain't good. Charlie Sheen wants to woo us into believing he's doing just fine. He's winning. Winning what? The honor of having his manic melt down considered news? I guess Lindsay Lohan should be grateful to have someone else's foibles taking center stage. Except that neither of the exploits should be of import to so many people. I was watching the news and saw Miley Cyrus dress down a photographer who, in his rush to get the perfect shot of Miley doing something ordinary like have lunch with her mother, bumped into her mom as he rushed to get the shot- absolutely oblivious that he had done so. While Miley was giving a well deserved lecture to the photographer another got the million dollar shot- photographing the event in living color. Seems like a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. If Miley hadn't stood up for her mom the tabloids might have said something about how callous she was... or something else that would sell a paper. But really, how is that news for me? It seems more like gossip.

Know what else it seems like? It seems like everyone is trying to sell me something that I don't want or need. Everywhere I turn someone is bastardizing something important to me by making it a commodity for the wrong reason and trying to shove it down my throat as if they are doing me a favor. If you read history you know the founding fathers weren't above strategic moves to get what they wanted for us, their posterity they wrote about. However, it completely frosts my posterior that some pusillanimous elected officials can vacate their positions, hiding in another state rather than to do the job they were elected to do. Why do we let the people we put into office pull such shenanigans? Why do we let the media spin stories like it is laudable to be a coward? Why do we the people elect such idiots? Why are we so easily deceived? Why can't we see a lack of basic character? For all that we get to see on television, on the net and in print... how is it we are so blind?

I think we are blind because we want to be. It's our preferred method of navigation in this ugly world. If we don't look at it for what it is, it can't be that bad. Right? Even when we dare to look we have lost sight of the standards by which to make comparison. The "I'm OK You're OK" mentality is so pervasive but it is not new. Read the book of Judges. What is it that was happening there? Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. How'd that work out for them? Time to take things back to where they make sense and to measure truth by the standard of God's truth. God's truth without embellishment or artificial attractants. God's truth and the Spirit to have it take root in our hearts. That's the difference I need. Woo me, nag me, cajole me...whatever it takes, Lord. Whatever it takes.


Deuteronomy 28:1-2
1 "Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the LORD your God.

Luke 11:28
28 But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it."

Galatians 3:10
10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them."

Psalm 119:6
6 Then I shall not be ashamed when I look upon all Thy commandments.
(NAS)












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