October 29
Scripture focus: Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?" He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself." "Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live." Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?" Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same." Luke 10:25-31 The Message
“In the twisted logic of addiction we live as if God accepts me because I do the right thing (addictive doing), God accepts me because I feel so bad about myself(addictive feeling), or God accepts me because I know my bible inside and out and can take any wrong-thinking person down in an argument (addictive thinking). This hoped-for closeness to God, because it is based on our performance, is fragile and tentative. People who are spiritually addicted live with a constant anxiety about whether they have done enough, felt enough or believed enough.” Soul Repair, p.65
Do you remember how Paul called the Galatians crazy for their self-efforts at strenuous moral striving? Could it be that part of the craziness was a constant state of anxiety that propelled them to action – an anxiety fueled by insecurity, fear and shame-based living?
Notice in today’s story that the religious scholar had his own anxiety brewing. He was uncomfortable with this message of Jesus that said things like, “It’s okay to go to dinner with the unsavory.” Or “come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” That scholar had some things he presumed and assumed about the ways of God, and he didn’t want anyone confusing him with the facts.
One thing that’ll have to happen along our road to spiritual recovery will be a willingness to let go of what we think we know and an awareness that there’s more to learn than we ever dreamed.
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