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This morning I have been reading about online rip-off’s … online cyber-crime … how to be online savvy … how to be online caught …
Apparently online bargain-hunting is so stressful that my brain will cease making savvy decisions after only ten minutes of the (bargain) chase. The term “Black Friday” becomes more appropriate the more I read!
But “Good Friday”? I never “got” the obligation of grieving that goes with Good Friday.
If Jesus was dead but then risen – if all this was foretold – if this was “how it was meant to be” … then why the grieving – why the sadness – why the “what have we done”? And if it is all just imagery and not factually correct – isn’t there even less reason for “grieving”?
“Then Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.“ Luke 19:45-48
Just as I rate being online savvy, I also rate being spiritually savvy. Just as I can pass-by the “Black Friday” headlines: “MASSIVE Black Friday DISCOUNT … only five left … and only two minutes left to bag this FANTASTIC DEAL!”) … So too I find more and more love in looking beyond much of the trumpeted and accepted God Stuff.
“Every day he was teaching in the temple.”
It is an everyday teaching of inclusivity that resonates with me today. An everyday teaching that does not need me to make a massive “now” decision. It is an everyday teaching that becomes more subtle AND more inclusive as I am drawn to love that frees rather than binds – that liberates rather than obligates – that doesn’t need me to fit what fits someone else. And with that comes less and less need for “The Cross and All That”.
From this “everyday teaching” I find THIS life more and more rewarding … that we EACH have a spellbinding story to tell (if only we will listen) … that we EACH have everyday teaching that enhances all of our everyday living … that being “savvy” is not just about being NOT ripped-off – but is about looking for (and finding) the good in others.
Which also means seeing the absence of good where it doesn’t exist.
This morning I find little to “spellbind me” in the MASSIVE BLACK FRIDAY headlines – just as the MASSIVE GOOD FRIDAY obligations don’t entice me as much nowadays.
For me “the devil” is not what is in the details … Love is in the detail.
The detail of a smile … of a touch … of a kindness where none was “needed” … of a word where none was necessary … of a silence where words are intrusive … of forgiveness where anger is the headline currency …
That “stuff” is my everyday … that “stuff” is how I like my inner temple … that “stuff” is more to me than all the Good Friday and Easter Sunday (and other MASSIVE SOUL SAVING EVENTS of taught evangelising).
“Every day he was teaching in the temple.”
That’s my kind of in the moment and every moment everyday teaching.
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