I read Deuteronomy 32 this morning. I was reminded of several years ago when I read it to my Sunday School class. I was supposed to teach a lesson on some verses from this chapter. I was rather nervous and so I decided to just read the chapter.
“For this is no idle word for you—it is your life! By this word you will live a long time in the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.” –Deuteronomy 32:47
It is long so I practiced. It felt like I read it “100,000” times (I said that in class). There are certain books and chapters of the Bible that just deserve to be read out loud with feeling. Well maybe the entire Bible deserves this treatment but rarely do I hear the Word of God read with any sort of passion. Select verses are picked out and dissected with little regard to how they fit in to the larger passage or with feeling.
I am not saying I was able to accomplish this type of reading. I do not know how people perceive me in truth. I only know how they perceive me in my warped and jaded mind.
I remember that verse 47 was important to my lesson as it is in this post. God’s Word is no idle word – it is our life! And we must understand that.
Two years I have been gone from this church and someone from that church recently friended me on Facebook. My mind was asking why in the world they would friend me now. What are they trying to prove to themselves or others? They do not really want to be my friend. If they did they would have friended me four years ago and not two years after God moved me.
I knew rather quickly it was a trap. I asked God to help me focus on what is important. This type of event has a tendency to bring me down into a feeling of worthlessness. You can combine this event with a weekend without the children and the normalcy of school ending to create a perfect opportunity to bring on depression and intense loneliness. Being able to recognize these triggers is good but the next step is being able to block the events from taking you down specific thought patterns. This is where I need God. OK well I need Him everywhere for all things but you understand my point.
There really is no telling why this person waited. They may actually ask why I have not friended them. I rarely request friends on Facebook. What if they are the same way (I know this is not true in this specific case but we can project it out without causing damage)? Of course they would not know this and may perceive my not requesting them as a slight. It is all quite interesting to think about. And this is part of the trap.
You may ask why I rarely request friends. I do not want to be rejected. I am not alone. I know at least one other person who shares this same behavior. This means that we will never be Facebook friends – neither of us willing to friend the other. It also means that we can be actual friends and not just fake friends on the Internet. This is also an interesting phenomenon – real life friends verses Facebook friends.
It has been a while since I wrote something this long but it felt good to write this morning. Until we meet again.