Isolated Pawn

The question I have is whether I have the right attitude. It is not an easy attitude to have: being gentle, being humble, being patient, bearing with others with love, and making every effort to keep peace. These are things that Ephesians 4:1-6 tells us are part of the life I should be living.

When I am angry, I know I am not gentle. I am not patient when I get distracted, or when the computer databases I work with break down. I am certainly unbearable to be around if I am angry--and that means I can be downright unloving and even belligerent.

Acknowledging these faults is a far cry from actually taking steps to rehabilitate. Really, though, I think they all come from being impatient. On my latest trip to Louisiana, I had the chance to become angry because of my impatience--but I didn't. Instead, I kept on working. In attempting to set up a new blog about the most recent trip, I had another chance to become angry because of my impatience (Blogger kept having errors). Again, I didn't. Instead, I restructured my blog to take advantage of the new post label feature.

That's where Chess comes in. Something that kept me patient in Louisiana (on all my trips) was the presence of other volunteers. Something that kept me patient at the computer last weekend was the fact that the errors only forced me to begin something that I had already thought about doing anyway. I was not alone in Louisiana, and I was not uninformed at home.

An isolated pawn happens when a single pawn is left without any pawns of the same color nearby. Isolated pawns become weaknesses as the game of Chess progresses.

Isolated people become weak also. The inverted life requires non-isolation. To keep the faith, a person needs friends, associates, and fellow believers (Hebrews 10:25). The inverted life also needs wisdom and knowledge that is accessible on call (Psalm 119:11). A lack of both of these things puts me in a very weak position, just like a pawn without anything protecting it. The social side of faith is essential because each one of my "fellow believers" has knowledge, wisdom, and experience that always seems to come just in time, right when I need it the most.

This is one of the reasons why I said in my last post that the inverted life "sometimes takes outside help."

...Be of Sin The Double Cure

The inverted life is not one where you can simply and easily purge all worldly influences in one fell swoop. A few months ago, I lost track of that fact. I fell away from God in anger, sin, and fear, and forgot that trusting him means more than what I thought it did.

For five months after my second trip, some of my worst habits seemed to vanish, and I thought I was free from their influences. But then I had a relapse of my illness.

The inverted life is not about being perfect before you come to God. It's also not about cleaning up your life before God can put your talents to use in the Kingdom.

I have had that problem, thinking I had to clean up my life before I could offer it fully to God. Jesus says: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12-13) So, at the end of those five months of freedom I slipped back into all my bad habits. Then I became bitter at myself. What had I done wrong? Another question might have gone through my mind at that time also: what had God done wrong?

I have to admit that I am still sick. I don't have to revel in this, or boast in it, or wallow in it. But I have to admit that I'm still stuck with a spiritual disease that could've been terminal: sin. And then I have to go back to the spiritual "doctor" to get it diagnosed.

The injured and the sick need a doctor, but after the diagnosis comes the cure. That's where I had a problem: many cures require extensive therapy. In America, our worst disorders include cancer, obesity, arthritis, hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and other disorders that can be treated early and even prevented. If left unchecked, the progression of some of these can be debilitating, or worse--terminal. The blame should not fall on the doctor if the patient refuses treatment. So I cannot blame God for what went wrong.

Many treatment plans require a change in lifestyle, not just simple pill-popping. As in medical cases, spiritual lifestyle changes require discipline (Hebrews 12:4-11).

Returning home from last week's trip to Louisiana, I was reminded of this by John McGuire. Maybe there will be some posts from that trip soon. I'll have to get my thoughts collected first.

As for my treatment regimen, this isn't something that a single post on a blog will cure. It takes more than that, and it sometimes takes outside help. Would anybody like to join me?

P.S. The Inverted Life now has music. The tracks range from the inspirational to the conventional. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Gefilte Fish

Never had it before. For that matter, I've never known a time when I've had egg matzo before. Some of the people where I work are Jewish, so they brought some of these things in and I thought, I'd like to have a try.

Interesting.

Easter Eggs

I'm sure today that all kind of eggs are getting hidden for Easter, whether they are hard-boiled, or chocolate, or candy filled, I'm sure there are children all over the place getting ready to hide or find those eggs. "Easter eggs" are also those nifty hidden features included in computer programs, usually in games.

But there are "easter eggs," or little nifty things that sometimes pop out at me from the Bible. One "easter egg" that blew my mind a while back is this: 1st Corinthians 11:23-26

I think this is what blew my mind: Jesus gives thanks for the bread. That bread is a symbol of his body, his life, and the fact that he is about to sacrifice both by being crucified.

Maybe my interpretation is imprecise, but in the New International Version, there is this "easter egg." When this was read aloud during Sunday morning worship a few months ago, I realized that as Jesus gave thanks for the bread, he was giving thanks for something else.

Jesus was giving thanks for the chance God had given him--the chance to come to Earth, to be "pierced for our transgressions," and to be "crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). Because of this we are saved.

But how many of us could be like Jesus, and give thanks for the opportunity to lose something precious to us? How many of us could be like Jesus, and even give thanks for the opportunity to lose our lives?

Today, we celebrate the fact that Jesus did not simply lay down his life, he took it up again. We celebrate that our Savior could die and come back to life again (John 10:17-18)

Happy Easter!