Betrayal

Today's Reading: Obadiah, Psalm 107

The more we become aware of our inmost thoughts, the more ugliness we find. It's written all over the life of the saints of the church who drove themselves mad trying to get to a place where they felt good about themselves and what they thought, and yes, dear child of God, the same is true of you. We are quite good at hiding these feelings, but as I watched someone swerve in and out of backed up traffic last night, I hoped in my own head that Dante had missed a level of punishment (Circle of hell for those who missed the reference) for those who have complete disregard of others on the road. That in my heart, I hoped for swift justice from God. I won't judge them now (whoops, I already had) but God will certainly get them.

Obadiah is a very short book about this retribution from the perspective of someone who was wronged. That even those closest (here brotherly tribes) delighted in some perverse sense at the misfortune of others, aka when push came to shove, there was a sense of minute joy at a neighbor's downfall. In this book, there will be delight once again upon looking to the future, this time when the field is leveled.

Am I suggesting you are as messed up as the saints?...umm, yes; as would brother Martin (Luther). There is something very misdirected and dysfunctional at our very core which makes us very thankful that someone else is in charge of making sense of it all and making it right. It is precisely this part of us that is in need of desperate help from Jesus. Keep these moments of self-reflection in your heart, they are brought to the front of my mind each Sunday as we kneel at the foot of the cross in great expectation that we be united with Christ in death and resurrection, being drawn into a completely new being not governed by such thoughts.