We are a people committed to happiness. Tocqueville noticed this almost two hundred years ago. As Americans we think we must be happy all the time or something is really wrong. Others are more comfortable with the inevitable ebb and flow of human life.
The scope of creation is more than we can fathom. The best we can do is to stand in awe and sing: “All things bright and beautiful / all creatures great and small / All things wise and wonderful / the Lord God made them all.”
More to be desired than gold? Sweeter than honey? God’s mercy is sweet, but his laws? We don’t usually love laws. Laws keep us from doing things that we want to do. How could the Psalmist say that God’s laws are sweeter than honey?
“How long, O Lord?” How long? Ever ask that question? Most of us have. They say, “Into each life a little rain must fall,” but the truth is that there are times when the rain becomes such a downpour that we are about to drown in the deluge.
We don’t often talk about the mystery and awesomeness of God these days. We have tried to be a bit more logical about God and refer to him as a buddy, a friend, a wonder worker. We often think about God as a bigger and more powerful version of us.
Now that I’m older, I’m more comfortable with the idea that there are some things about God that I will never fully understand. If I understood everything about God , then he wouldn’t be God.
"O Lord, my God, When I in awesome wonder/Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made/ I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder / Thy power throughout the universe displayed." The God who made all that cares more for us than about all THAT! Mind boggling!
We can choose the path of prosperity, a life that leads to happiness, OR, we can choose the alternative; what I like to call, the path of “nothingness.” Which will you choose? The answer is simple. Everyone would choose prosperity over nothingness.
A man and his wife were arguing. “It’s just not right”, the wife said. “You don’t like anybody in my family!” “That’s not true,” replied the husband. “I like your mother-in-law much better than my mother-in-law.”
David’s son, Amnon, became infatuated with his half-sister Tamar. He tricked her and then raped her. In spite of this terrible crime, David was unable to bring himself to punish his oldest son–– “because he loved him”––classic enabling behavior.