July 21: Of Clint Eastwood and Limitations

2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11

Romans 7:1-13

Psalm 17:1-15

Proverbs 19:22-23

"The fear of the Lord leads to life;

   then one rests content, untouched by trouble."

In today's context, fear has connotations different from what is meant in today's proverb.  Better, perhaps, "knowledge", "awareness", even "reverence".  

But as I've said before, knowledge and awareness, perhaps even reverence - they are all transformative. One cannot really know something without having that knowledge change them.  An example: my sons would leave the door to the basement wide open at night and, as I walked from kitchen to stairs to go to bed, I would hit my head on the bloody door.  And it would hurt.  After that happened once or twice, I came to know the Dore was likely ajar, and I would turn the lights on rather than walk in the dark.  

The knowledge of God changes us. It constrains our actions, it reorients our desires.  And to many, that is a problem.  They don't want to have to change what they do.  They want the "freedom" to enjoy themselves doing whatever the heck they want to do, and no buttinskies from anyone.  Anyone notice those people rarely "rest content, untouched by trouble"?

Our pastor finally explained that simply enough not just to understand, but for me not to be able to refute.  See the knowledge of God to us is like the knowledge of where the water ends, and where land and sky begin to a fish.  The fish may not understand why, the fish may not even like it, but the fish was created in a way that lets them live freely, fully, in the water - away from land, where they are unable to breathe, and away from the sky, where birds might pluck them out and eat them.  In the water, they can rest content,  untouched by trouble.  

The same is true for us.  In today's NT reading from Romans, Paul is in the midst of a diatribe against those who ignore Christ, insisting they can achieve a salvation on their own, refusing to recognize the "sea and sky" limitations on their actions.  He counsels that our salvation is achieved by grace, and that grace comes through the knowledge of Jesus...ie the "fear of the Lord". 

Father, give us the wisdom you gave Clint Eastwood so long ago - "a man's got to know his limitations".  And in doing so, when we see where our finiteness ends, open our hearts to Your presence, protection and love, and teach us the "fear of the Lord", that we might be content, untouched by trouble.