Several blogs ago I posted the now infamous "itchy" blog, a short and sweet analysis of a common, pervasive situation we all face. It was meant to set up this discourse. So, please read on.
While the "itchy" blog was a bit gross and humorous (if only to a small segment of the population), the comments I've received personally in response to it go to prove my point: there are ugly things inside all of us that we don't want to talk about or have known.
We all have itches. Most of us choose to hide them.
Thoreau wrote once that "all men lead lives of quiet desperation" (Walden, 1854). The paradox of community, commonality, and corruption is that most of us share the same burdens. If we chose to walk through them together, then the burden would be lighter and the path to wholeness shorter. Those who have went through AA or Celebrate Recovery can testify to this. But for those who only bear their sufferings quietly in solitude, life can be relentless torture, filled with longing and desperation for wholeness and intimacy.
There is a book in the bible entitled Deuteronomy which was written to the whole of the nation of Israel with the sole purpose to remember their journey together under the direction of Moses. It was about their common experiences: their rescues and their failures. Somehow, in the commonality of the book, the community found wholeness and redemption. The book ends by recording Israelites preparing to capture, together, what they failed to accomplish in the beginning of the story ... the promise of God.
We all have itches.
If "scratching only makes it worse" (Josh Baldwin), then let us be reminded that the best remedy for our ugly sores is nothing more than exposure and light.
We are reminded in the last book of the bible how we overcome:
1. Through the blood of the Lamb, the work of Jesus on the cross
2. And through the word of our testimony (Rev. 12:11).
We all have itches. Don't be ashamed of yours ... it is your testimony.
3 comments:
If you need some Preparation H, then just let me know...
my modesty is not shocked by your itchy prob. i too just wrote a blog titled itchy, so i am with you brother lets bring it all to the light....well maybe not all, but a good portion.
I've always said that i could give you any two topics and you write a brief devotional that would be insightful, challenging and at the same time brilliant.
Rabbi, you have proved yourself once again by connecting the reality of our private itchy's in embarrassing and unmentionable places with our sin nature and need to live in the light. A historical testimony lived out by God's people in the book of Deuteronomy. Well done. Well done.
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