March 9 Devotion

<>Eye on the Prize <>
<>Psalm 73:1-2, 26, 28

I love TV and movies. I like romantic comedies and shoot-um-up action films. I understand the psychology behind both genres. In romantic comedies the discord in the story always works out in the end. Everyone is left smiling and the two people who are meant for one another are together ever after. Action films are a vicarious release of the tension, conflict, and hostility of life. I get to see somebody blow up somebody else and therefore I don’t have to find someone to blow up. In both circumstances I do not have to face the reality of my own mundane and human existence.

We live in an escapist society. We use the defense mechanisms of denial, minimization and rationalization to not see, hear, or feel the truth. We have confused fantasy with reality. We create a world of comfort for ourselves and then want every one else to live within that world so we do not have to face reality.

During Lent we are called to repentance. As I observe the religious community I wonder what do we have need of repenting? Aren’t we a Christian nation? Don’t we want the Ten Commandments in the courtrooms and prayer in the public schools? Aren’t we pro-life and send food baskets to the hungry and blankets to the cold? Is it not the godless among us that we need to convince that they are wrong? Do we need to bring back the Blue Laws and the Scarlet letters to assist us?

I love the Psalmist. The Psalmist does not let us get away with such nonsense. He calls us to the reality of our sin, our weakness as we stumble, our impure hearts and our desire to have what the short cuts in life promise but can not deliver. Our humanness continues to eat from the apple of the Garden of Eden believing that we can have it all and be it all. Our hearts are hardened, as we fear that we will lose our slice of the pie.

The Psalmist reminds us that our flesh and our hearts may fail but God does not. It is in repentance that we find a God who is our rock and our portion. It is in repentance that we find refuge in our Savior. It is in repentance that we are able to draw near to God.

Rev. David C. Johnson