Enjoying God's Ways

“Comfort me and let me live. I enjoy your teachings.” Psalm 119:77

Every serious follower of Jesus will come upon deep struggles of the soul from time to time. We may discover that some long-enjoyed activity is outside the realm of God’s blessing. I remember the time, early in my Christian walk, that I discovered passages that forbade reliance upon astrology. That didn’t create a very long or deep inward struggle as I always had a fairly rational view that the placement of stars light-years away held little sway over the activities of my miniscule life. But imagine if I had been a true devotee. I would have perhaps struggled a bit more.

Recently a pair of competitors on the TV Show “The Amazing Race” spoke quite earnestly about their commitment to Christ and leaving everything, including the outcome of the race itself, in God’s hands. The next scene shows one of them, a very beautiful girl, trying to talk her way out of a traffic ticket. She says, “It should work, I’ve used my looks to get out of more than one ticket.” I am not naïve, I know the producers of the show edited the two scenes back to back to highlight the incongruence. I also realize that, of those two scenes, we viewers only experienced no more than a few minutes of the young lady’s life.

What it does highlight, though, is the ease with which we can plead love for Christ and ignore behavior which is less that Christ-centered. I did comment at home, in the privacy of my living room, to my wife. But on longer reflection I care more about how my own life may reflect the same dichotomy. How many scenes from my life might be played side by side, only to reflect a difference between my professed commitment to Christ and my actual behavior?

The times that shame me most, personally, are those reflexive moments. Someone pushes just the right button, an avalanche of emotions batters me in a micro second, my face turns red, my blood pressure rises, I lose the ability to respond evenhandedly and let loose with words honed to hurt more than anything else. In a matter of seconds I directly disobey part of the hallmark of the lifestyle of Jesus’ followers. I have met cursing with more cursing; not with blessing. Or, perhaps I have kept silent. More out of a sense of fear than kindness, I do not respond, but spent the next day or weeks fuming over one little encounter.

Perhaps I console myself with the idea that the person deserved my response. Or I tell myself that at least I refrained from physical violence. (That, of course, is only about self-preservation since I now am nearly 60 and still of slight build.) But, the more we excuse action and attitudes that are not in line with the Master’s ways, the harder it becomes to hear Him at all.

The Psalmist says, “Comfort me, and let me live (because) I enjoy Your teachings.” In contrast with one who says they enjoy Jesus’ ways but give little thought to how that affects their behavior, the Psalmist, in all truth, enjoys God’s teachings enough to allow them to choose God’s ways even when they are the more difficult. For that person there is great comfort, there is a high sense of life indeed.

 It is far too easy to ignore the messages from Jesus that would challenge us the most. One of the greatest joys in life is to watch someone who, living a lifetime with some particular prejudice or moral presupposition, encounters Christ and realizes their assumptions have been far off the mark. Instead of insisting all those “immigrants” learn “our” language, they leave off that kind of talk and befriend the beauty shop owner with the strange accent.

This applies to those young in the faith as well. Taking the hard road in a modern world filled with sexual images and innuendo, they leave off their former ways. He or she lives a celibate life until marriage, though it is now so uncommon. But, they are not doing it because the church told them to, or because they have some “old” worn out morals, but because they actually enjoy the Lord’s teachings. Having learned His great love, they want to please Him even when it is difficult.

We talk often about the “Lord” being all we need. But the real proof is when we respond to His teachings, take the hard and difficult way, and receive the comfort He is lavishes on those who do so out of love for Him. The one who enjoys God’s ways is the one who has learned, or is learning, that every command is a command of compassion. God’s teachings are always rooted in providing the best for us, or in teaching us to treat others with the greatest compassion and respect possible.

Sometimes that means we are in the minority. Sometimes it means we appear liberal to our conservative friends. Other times liberals scratch their head at our conservative views. For the follower of Jesus, the labels don’t matter much. It is Jesus’ teachings they enjoy, and it is His comfort that allow them to live them out fully. And, when they stumble along the way, when someone has pushed their button once again, God’s comfort overflows to the dear one asks once more for God’s help to live God’s way.