My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, {and} every good path;
For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death,and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land,and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land,and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
I am thinking about the reality of this proverb, and look at my life and my current choices and desires. The things I truly want, and it is so true, that when I walk, as I am, as God has shown me, it seems that I know the nature of a place by the attitudes and ideas and concepts which pass the lips of those around me.
There are so many people, whom I have met, who think in terms of validation, justification, and explanation, in order to make what they do, acceptable. Yet I do not find that for me, I can do those things. I don’t tend to follow the stream, or walk in the way of the majority, because I have no real ambitions toward self, beyond the pure happiness which is my heart, and spirit.
It is not the same to want things, as it is to want purity in my life. Things, jobs, cars, houses, all those things are so feeble in their validity to me. A vehicle – and yes I have had many vehicles – was always a cost, always a drain on resources. Even a brand new car is a drain on resources. That isn’t a complaint at all, but just a fact of ownership.
A house, or a home, can not really truly be owned, in the manner by which anyone perceives it, simply because the land on which it sits can not be owned. We are beholden to the land, the land is not beholden to us. It was there before we were born, and it will be there after we have passed on, so there is no true ownership, but rather subservience.
I think even, from the readings I’ve made by the history of the Jews shows this to be true. When they were in favour with God, then they were allowed to inhabit a land, yet they were warned that if they pursued their own devices, that they would be expelled, as their history has shown. Because it was never their ownership, but rather they were give responsibility of that land, by God.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, as we come from the earth, to it we shall return, and as such we will always be subservient to that which is our master. A master which we, as people, do not respect. And more then this, we can see this attitude proceed from one to another, to our treatment of our friends, and our families, and those whom we say we love. Our wants and desires and lusts are greater then the love we claim toward those whom – in truth – sustain us. Because who can suffer anything, without the support of their friends? Their love? Their Family?
I went for my coffee this morning, and the barista and I had an interesting conversation, about our priorities and the flaws with human thinking…
When we work at a job, and we’re ill, or have a doctor appointment we can book time of for these things, and it is acceptable, to a degree to our superiors’, yet what of the responsibility to our partners, who without, we would have no reason to continue to move forward?
Have you ever called in late because you and your partner, were desirous of intimacy? Of making love? Isn’t the foundation of a relationship more important, and the sustenance of that relationship, more decided and relevant then whether we have this job or that job? Yet, who would do that? Who would wake up, after holding their partner all night, and start the day with love, and have that love, propel them through the day with joy, and a peaceful heart?
No, instead we wake up, and rush through to the shower, and out the door, anxious because we are willingly putting ourselves under the authority of another, who cares nothing for our happiness, but instead is only concerned about what we can produce for them that day.
Because as quickly as we are gone, we are replaced, but who really, among any of us, can so easily replace someone if we have loved, and then they are gone?
So which is more important?
just my thoughts…
Its been a long while, I hope you have been well.
I have had this conversation(with people I know in my life) about priorities and come off feeling that most of us want the family that is supportive and loving, the intimacy with our partners, the love/affection of friends and members of our family, the sense of togetherness and well-being but most are very afraid to go after it. We have set up systems that dont support such a want. Since it is our own doing, I guess it will change only when we decide that we need to change it. Somewhere, somehow, we have to find the courage to have a balance.
By: mysoul on September 8, 2009
at 1:30 am