Deliver Us from Pharaoh
Dear Eugene,
Sometimes I wish my family is very poor. Or we are in the middle of a war. A famine. Slavery. Whatever. Just something really really bad. Bad enough that we would beg for deliverance, cry for salvation, that we could have a true exodus experience.
And I know the thought is despicably crass, because much of the world is really in such really really bad shape. If you so want it, why don't you just go there, there, or there? I would look at the news and say to myself. Don't you wear your first-world guilt on sleeve like it's a virtue.
But I have nowhere to go but here. Maybe one day God will call me to somewhere else, but as of this moment, God puts me here, gives me and my family much more than we need, and we must learn how to obey Him and do His will within the very particulars of our here and now. Affluence makes faithlessness all the more inexcusable. Our cross to bear.
As expected, my son struggles with saying No to his phone. Even when he was forced to leave it in a different room, I could see his mind was still somewhere else, a cloud of imaginary fingers hovering over his head, rapidly tapping to the rhythm of the next matter settled, the next concern addressed, the next longing fulfilled.
The next Snapchat appreciated.
Don't you have something better, more meaningful to do with your life? I stopped short of asking the dumb question. The answer, of course, is, He really doesn't have anything better, more meaningful to do with his life! Or more to the point, He really doesn't need to do anything better, more meaningful with his life!
What do we do when God's people actually enjoys slavery? When we sincerely believe being lorded over by Pharaoh is really not that bad, an acceptable compromise, a secured livelihood, a habit hard to break, a Golden Calf that we can at least see and touch to grasp its technicolor reality?
Praying in agony, Alex
Sometimes I wish my family is very poor. Or we are in the middle of a war. A famine. Slavery. Whatever. Just something really really bad. Bad enough that we would beg for deliverance, cry for salvation, that we could have a true exodus experience.
And I know the thought is despicably crass, because much of the world is really in such really really bad shape. If you so want it, why don't you just go there, there, or there? I would look at the news and say to myself. Don't you wear your first-world guilt on sleeve like it's a virtue.
But I have nowhere to go but here. Maybe one day God will call me to somewhere else, but as of this moment, God puts me here, gives me and my family much more than we need, and we must learn how to obey Him and do His will within the very particulars of our here and now. Affluence makes faithlessness all the more inexcusable. Our cross to bear.
As expected, my son struggles with saying No to his phone. Even when he was forced to leave it in a different room, I could see his mind was still somewhere else, a cloud of imaginary fingers hovering over his head, rapidly tapping to the rhythm of the next matter settled, the next concern addressed, the next longing fulfilled.
The next Snapchat appreciated.
Don't you have something better, more meaningful to do with your life? I stopped short of asking the dumb question. The answer, of course, is, He really doesn't have anything better, more meaningful to do with his life! Or more to the point, He really doesn't need to do anything better, more meaningful with his life!
What do we do when God's people actually enjoys slavery? When we sincerely believe being lorded over by Pharaoh is really not that bad, an acceptable compromise, a secured livelihood, a habit hard to break, a Golden Calf that we can at least see and touch to grasp its technicolor reality?
Praying in agony, Alex
Heart-wrenching wisdom here, Alex. I am struck by how you include yourself here alongside your son... "we sincerely believe..." Yes, I'm painfully reminded anew how much I love and cling to my own "leeks and garlics."
ReplyDeleteAnd I like leeks and garlics, whether mine or others'...
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