When in peril
The bible verse for today is about asking God for help in a time of great peril. Frankly I did not understand the bible verse and had to try to research what it meant.
“And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth.”
For a child about to be born, if there is no strength to deliver, that is indeed a time of great peril.
Children are God’s gifts to mankind. And in order to receive the gift, mankind has to have the strength to deliver. The strength to deliver, biblically, is not just limited to women, it encompasses men and children too. To me this means that the priceless treasure of a new idea, and new horizons, in the form of each human life, is not just handed to us on a silver platter.
And the strength to deliver is not just about physical strength. Especially in this bible verse, the strength they are talking about, is the strength of character, of a nation.
The strength to withstand temptation, and to expect good and look for the good in the face of evil, is an integral part of the “ability to deliver”, and to withstand the suggestions of fear, or pain or disease. We withstand by looking at good, not evil and by expecting good, not evil. Those who see other people as delivering evil, cannot themselves deliver anything good and are indeed in peril. How was Mary able to deliver Jesus, without being fearful of her circumstances and without expecting condemnation or punishment? Instead she expected good and wanted to be of service to God, and her purity of belief is what sanctified her.
To me this strength to deliver, is demonstrated by individuals, like Mary when we resist the temptation to be self serving, and instead serve others, which was Jesus’s constant example. But being self serving is the temptation mankind has faced in the past and in the present, and there are many who do not seem strong enough to resist. But we are not here to serve ourselves. And when we are only serving ourselves, is that why the bible verse says that there is not strength to “bring forth”.
I decided to personalize this bible passage.
When we have a family member who is being “impossible” to be around, are we listening to God and finding a way to be of service, without compromising our core values, as Christians? Are we seeing that innocent child that Jesus saw, when other people would see a sinning or sick individual. When we can refuse to accept any dire outcomes and look for the good in the midst of struggles, we are serving our fellow man.
I know that I personally can always find it easy to complain and to take care of my own self interests, when, with just a little effort, I could also find a way to be of service without manipulating or influencing erroneously. That is what we are called to do.
With our husbands, parents or siblings, when they ask us to do something, we should be grateful to be able to be of service, instead of complaining or finding fault.
When our children need our help or need time with us, we should be willing to step in and give them the grace of our love.
At work, when someone is unfair or overly demanding, we should be able to find a way to pray for them, in the midst of their seeming incompetence or demands.
When it comes right down to it, each circumstance points to a place or a time where individuals could be uplifted if we can be of service, which is interpreted by them as love, given unconditionally.
How does this translate in the real world… lets say in the business world…
where someone might be working with a team player who is not doing their job and is slacking off. They are working remote so no one can really verify if they are incompetent or if they genuinely have valid issues with work but at the end of the day, when work is needed to be done by them, and they have all the tools they need to do the work, it still does not get done.
In such a case, if the team leader looking for the good, chooses to “motivate” such an individual by heaping false praise on them, should the rest of the team do likewise? Is not good found in truth?
False recognition or undeserved praise, is like “social promotion” in kindergarten, and though it is a technique used in rare circumstances, it should not be applied to society as a whole, particularly with adults.
When the team leader or boss sends out a slack message with the false praise, expecting the team to respond, and everyone else sends a thumbs up or smiley face, is that honest? Personally I would probably respond with a mac and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly emoji. LOL. Someone is basically “out to lunch”. There can be humor in truth.
I do not think God wants us to reward slovenliness when someone refuses to be industrious, or give out empty platitudes. Remember the story of the workers with the different talents…and what happened to the worker who buried and refused to use his talents?. That individual received the harshest punishment, one of the harshest given in the bible, for his behavior, when all he did was be fearful and lazy refusing to invest in his potential.
We can be of service in business situations, by doing our job the best we can, and being honest or by not speaking, when we cannot honestly say something good in truth. We can however help that individual become competent, if they are trying to do something good.
But what if we are not in the business world and instead are involved in family settings for most of our interactions. I know of many people who think that children are an imposition on time and resources and they refuse to give them any of their time or resources. Those who refuse to accept the gift of a child, I believe are only hurting themselves.
Children allow us the most satisfying opportunity to give selflessly, as spiritual gifts where we can see the most tangible results. We must invest in our children and be of service to them just as much as we need to invest in our talents in the business world.
I listened recently to a podcast about how homeschooling is exploding and people are recognizing that teaching children about kindness, empathy, truthfulness, obedience and humility, which are Christian values, are more important than teaching about reading, writing and arithmetic.
The child who has been home-schooled, is statistically more likely to be successful and more likely to uphold the values of the family than those who are socialized through government funded schools.
That fact, in and of itself, speaks to families, who are just now recognizing the gift of childhood, and how important it is to maximize this time of selfless service toward the benefit of children, as it provides great rewards for the family and for society as a whole.
Teaching children to be responsible for cleanliness, order, cooking, and running and maintaining their own environment, while also teaching them to use logic, and ask questions as well as use imagination, are things that parents statistically are able to do much better than schools, even when the parents are not certified as teachers and are not even high school graduates.
Those statistics are very telling in my opinion as stated in the video above.
And then, at the core of society, smaller than businesses and even smaller than families, are the husband and wife unit. These core units of society are often challenged by a multitude of problems, and those who stay married because it is financially beneficial for them to do so but they are not invested any more in the other person, cannot deliver anything good. Staying connected to someone when all their quirks and bad habits or even addictions, are in our face can be challenging. But marriage is a promise to help that specific person throughout our human experience.
To provide that service, to those who, over time, are not always kind or loving or even deserving, is the most selfless act of all because that is what Jesus did for everyone he met. The hardest people to forgive and be kind to are sometimes the people we are closest to because we know all their flaws and perhaps feel we have done enough.
But an attitude of service requires us to be on the lookout, not just in business, or in families, but even in marriage, so we can find more ways to be a light to those around us, no matter how dark the situation. As I have said before, prayer helps us do this. And the bible verse today, speaks of how the prayer was a call to God, when the one praying was saying that though there was a child to be born, there was no strength to deliver. That is a time of great peril, and also a time when prayer is the best source of help.
Right down the line…lyrics that I changed one word…speaks it so well, when it comes to service to others…
I just wanna say this is my way
Of tellin’ you everything I could never say before
Yeah, this is my way
Of tellin’ you that every day I’m lovin’ you so much more
’Cause you believed in me
Through my darkest night
Put something better inside of me
You brought me into the light
I threw away all those crazy dreams
I put them all behind
And it was you, You Lord
Right down the line