The Structure of Safety

I was thinking this morning about God's laws and commands and why people for the most part don't want to obey them or even consider them at all. What I see them being like is a very simple structure like the crude one I have drawn here.

It is like the frame of a house and roof but there are only beams in the corners and for the roof. One can easily go in and out of it because there is nothing to stop you. I think it represents God's commandments which are there for our safety and well being. It is just as easy to go in and out of obeying God's commandments because there is nothing to stop us, only our own desire to obey and to stay safe. G.K. Chesterton: “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing—they believe in anything.”

Christ says, “You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.” I believe we have chosen to ignore what God has asked of us in order to embrace the tradition that society is pushing: things like - live together outside of marriage, murder through abortion unwanted children, refuse to accept the children God would give us through contraception, refuse to limit what our eyes see on TV and in movies. Basically believe that any limitation is bad, that we should be free to do anything and everything. For the un-churched this is forgivable but for those who call themselves Christian, how dare we say we follow Him and yet do these things?! And for those with high visibility, it is a scandal. Jimmy Akin advises, “While there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous Christians in the Church, it is up to each of us to counterbalance the evil done by them with our clear witness to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.”

I remember hearing years ago on Focus on the Family about a playground study. What they found was when there were no fences, the children stayed close to the center, well away from the edges. But when there were fences, they played right up to the edge of the playground because the place of safety was clearly marked. I think the commandments of God are like the playground fences. They actually give us more room, not less, because we can freely use the whole area of our lives within that structure of safety.

In Galatians 6:14 St. Paul says he is crucified to the world and the world to him. That means to me that he has decided to live within the structure of safety, God's commands, and what is outside is as if it doesn't exist, is dead to him. This is what God wants for us, that we chose to believe that He does have our best interest at heart (aren't we the apple of His eye?) and that the limits (structure) He imposes actually give us more freedom, not less. Does your pride prevent you from really being free as God desires, not as the world tempts you to be? I hope not.

Baal in Our World

I listened to Glenn Beck and Rabbi Daniel Lapin last night. They were talking about the God of this world, Baal, the ancient (pre-biblical) god of war, weather, sex and the body. I see that what I was writing about in my last post really was about Baal's influence on our societies now, in this present age.

They presented the idea of going up in an elevator and how much energy it takes to go up. To go down takes no energy at all - you can slide down to the basement before you know it.

God in his wisdom has said that in order for people to do well and be the best that they can be, they need to work on it and they need to have some things that they just don't do because the end results are bad. Baal, on the other hand, says “if it feels good, do it!” And we have been doing what feels good from about 1960.

What changed in the 1960s? Well contraception came in and separated sex from marriage. And like pornography, enough is never enough, sex outside of marriage has gotten to the point of casual hook-up, devoid of meaning but injurious to the woman who is still seeking relationship, and she may get pregnant as well. What to do with all these unintended babies? Well, not take responsibility for the life created but rather seek to kill the person who shows so clearly what one has been doing. Make no mistake, this is a separate person whose life is ended, not some blob of tissue. Before the woman even knows that she is expecting, the baby's heart is beating. Check out this video on YouTube, Genesis by Ramos David  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iItjtWd0SpE&list=FLsjCPNdB-A2aGj6V-e_-FnQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video

So we in the last 50 or so years have taken the easy road, the wide road that leads to destruction. Many are worried and anxious about where the world is going. But are we worried and anxious enough to change our lives? To begin the hard work of moving up, not to a better life but to a secure one, guaranteed by God?

Mary at Medjugorje had this to say recently:
Dear children;  I am with you for so much time and already for so long I have been pointing you to God’s presence and His infinite love, which I desire for all of you to come to know.  And you, my children?  You continue to be deaf and blind as you look at the world around you and do not want to see where it is going without my Son.  You are renouncing Him - and He is the source of all graces.  You listen to me while I am speaking to you, but your hearts are closed and you are not hearing me.  You are not praying to the Holy Spirit to illuminate you.  My children, pride has come to rule.  I am pointing out humility to you.  My children, remember that only a humble soul shines with purity and beauty because it has come to know the love of God.  Only a humble soul becomes heaven, because my Son is in it.  Thank you.  Again I implore you to pray for those whom my Son has chosen - those are your shepherds.

I think Mary is giving us good advice. Not easy advice but life-saving advice.