A WOMAN UNDONE

A WOMAN UNDONE
8/30/2015
Testimonies seldom come in the form of gentle encouragement, those which help shoulder the weight of burdens of another in this world as I recently experienced. They come in the form of edification – the difficult process of growth, of spiritual maturity for the born children of God to better serve in the fields of harvest as our Lord Jesus has directed them to do so. Feel good theology abounds but for those called by God, the task of edification for purposes of spiritual maturity comes in the form of Grace; of hearing what is said in the form of chastisement of our children to put into motion what is meant by the sanctity of marriage under God as well as being unafraid to bear witness to the worldly, which clearly are all grown men and women. Our young men and women need to endeavor to explore what is meant by the “law” or the flesh to that to which God has joined spiritually – this voice of opposition to the worldly loveless homogenization of marriage is based on previous experiences (leaning towards one’s own understanding) or those of clearly undisclosed “social norms” and are the duties of a prayerful parent as the pervasiveness of this homogeneity permeates the minds of our young. The strength of witnessing is one solely controlled by the Holy Spirit through the fruit of the Holy Spirit in a vessel clearly and all glory is rightfully His.
When one “asserted” their objections to the sanctity of marriage dissolution by our supreme court from the periphery, murmuring voices among hundreds of thousands are heard but indiscernible, what resonance can be “felt”, if any? An annoying sound clearly. I voiced my objection as well, but later in terms of the philosophies and more importantly the principles of law that were being undone – to which are simply those of absolutes contrasted to those of social norms. It is clear that social norms and the further extortion of the law were preferred by the masses instead of the binding force of God’s Love, our Father’s Love, and the permanence of marriage. First Lady Clinton’s remarks, which essentially went unheeded by many including by me many years ago, were essentially that of a satisfaction towards our nation which was currently “ridding itself of absolutes” which govern our country clearly. Why could we not have “heard” what was and was not said then? What about now? What deafens our ears?
To illustrate the answers to these questions, I deeply personalize an old joke:
An old woman thinks about her life, not in terms of “what if” questions followed by the useless imaginations of that logical end as created, but critically in terms of “when” that young woman began to open her eyes to the world around her not in the form of self-indulgent pleasures, of wine and dance, or of meaningless sex, but she looked to what had meaning, to what had depth. Examples of truth that were not very pleasant to look at, much less be moved to speak against it.
This young woman was confined to a mental hospital in her late teens early twenties because she posed an immediate threat to the safety of others and in spite of the stupor of the drugs, she became aware of the individuals around her. A young man was regularly receiving electroshock treatments and his hair color was more salt than pepper. He would soon be transferred to a permanent facility and the young woman wanted to ask him why he allowed this and sought out a quiet time to ask him. He said that if he did not, his mother would not have any money and that she needed the money. The young woman was stunned at his words and she herself could not find the words to describe what and how she felt about this situation.
An hour before sunset was the time that the young woman enjoyed walking the length of the chain link fence surrounding the hospital and which bordered a road less traveled by others as it was quiet and the beauty of the landscape kept her moving forward. As she sadly pondered the disclosure of the young man, to which she found it to be an abomination that a “mother” would shape her child to be her personal ATM, she again posed in her mind the question as to why a mother would do such a thing. As she considered these thoughts as she walked, she heard at a distance behind her the blow out of a car’s tire which was barreling down the road. The wobbling sound of the car’s tire went past her and the car came to a stop on the road about one hundred feet in front of her. She watched as a handsome man got out of the car with cell phone in hand while he examined the damage. As he slammed the phone onto the pavement shattering it to pieces because there was no reception for that area, the young woman determined that this was a quick tempered and therefore careless man. The hallmark of youth is an impetuous nature, a sense of carelessness and recklessness which in time is tempered by wisdom. This man was different however in that he had all the “symbols” of success but nothing more. The young woman had recognized him as he had just come from visiting his wife at the hospital and was looking to this road as identity concealment from the main arterial away from the hospital. He carelessly flung about what was needed to change the tire as the young woman sat by the fence to watch him. When the man turned to pick up the tire and mount it securely, he saw the young woman and adjusted his demeanor. The young woman understood how to fix a flat tire and saw where the lug nuts were dispersed to by the man’s careless actions. The young woman considered the content of the words that this man’s wife fearfully uttered to her in the hospital – love was waning and this woman could see that her husband was “putting her away” and she did not know the Word of God to come to grips with despair or this behavior. As the man struggled to find the lug nuts, she was moved by compassion for the woman and offered the man a solution to get him quickly on his way. The solution was simple, remove one nut from each of the three remaining tires to secure the tire. Recognize the joke? Had the man asked, the young woman could have offered guidance as to where the lug nuts were, but he was a prideful man since he measured success by his own will, owing nothing to anyone least of all his wife – a man full of himself clearly and would never ask a woman for advice much less guidance. He remarked to the woman that that solution was pretty clever and inquired why she was “in there”. The young woman could have begun her response with quip that reflected her lack of respect for the man given the circumstances of her understanding and lifted from an old movie, “Gentlemen prefer blonds” where Marilyn Monroe says “it is men like you that have made me the woman I am now” and subsequently revealing the depth of her being in the face of unabashed ignorance but instead she answered simply and sharply – I am here because I am crazy, not stupid.
This world is clearly waning of love, as our Lord cautioned us to look for in the latter days, but in terms of brothers and sisters in Christ which are called to be workers to the harvest, as spiritually mature parents we must not be afraid to edify one another regardless if our “children” are among other worldly adults and opportunity to witness rises in the midst of an event or circumstance. Speak the words of truth boldly but in love, free of disparaging remarks or personal attacks, do not shirk the task out of fear that they will not listen or understand (that is the Holy Spirit’s work) – our “children” require skills in the field that a “parent” has already learned and understands all too well. Be willing to “assert” those values within one’s family regardless if one is perceived as “meddling” for the love you bear “your child”……………..