November 06, 2014
Cold Turkey
Recently, after decades of
chewing tobacco, my friend quit cold turkey — and now the doctor wants him to
lose 30 pounds. Comparing the two it seemed logical that if he could quit chewing,
surely losing weight should be a cakewalk. I was reminded of the woman caught
in adultery and the way Jesus responded to her. He didn’t condemn the woman; nor did
He tell her to make a plan, taper off, or gradually leave her adulterous ways. He
did however, tell her to quit cold turkey. Jesus declared. “Go now and
leave your life of sin” (John 8:11b NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----We’ve been caught! We all have been peeling our onions when Jesus said squash them. The Bible never outright states Jesus’ paradoxical nature, yet it is everywhere in the Word. He forgives this woman, warning her to sin no more. But He tells Peter to forgive a continuously sinning brother seventy-times-seven. And, if He was expecting a frail human to forgive that many times, might we not figure His all powerful Father would forgive a time or two more? And this poor woman is fresh out of mulligans? Or maybe this was the four-hundred-ninety-third time she committed adultery.
-----God’s Word is perfect. We aren’t. We’re not just imperfect in the thoughts and concepts making us, we are imperfect in the processes of all their interplay. Moreover, memory is ingrained. The brain's neuron cell bodies have giant molecules operating similar to computer chips. These storage devices obviously code and note neural messages by variations in frequency and intensity of the electrochemical signals entering the cell body. So, an idea is represented by millions of cells firing together, like one strand of Christmas tree lights blinks in unison by the function of a single blinker-bulb. Also a distinct pattern in the variations of an outgoing signal sends it to the particular node on the particular twig of the particular branch of the axon which effectively signals the correct neuron next in the particular network of their millions firing together for representing the concept of “the”. Encoding is embedded incredibly deep within that gray ooze behind our eyes between our ears. Then millions of networks firing by correlation with one another in various areas of the brain produce multitudes of processes at preconscious, subconscious, and conscious levels. Indeed, chasing sin out of this maze is more like peeling than squashing onions. No wonder Peter’s friend needs forgiven four-hundred-ninety times.
-----Yet, the whole of it is blather in front of Jesus’ “Go and sin no more.” None of us knows in which neuron is the molecular “chip” containing the “let’s do adultery” code so we can overwrite or just delete it. But, by the time the affects of that code signaling up its host of neuronal firing hits our consciousness, it has become more of a cultural type thing than a digital one. But Jesus commands us to make conscious decisions at particular moments between what the mind has come to be made of and what it must become made of. We’re not going to get every one of those decisions correct. Yet, regarding every wrong one, we must honestly answer the question, “What then do I really want, sin or righteousness?” These moments Paul knew as doing the very things he did not want to do, or not doing what he did want to do.
-----No. It is not enough just to answer a question between desires. Forgiveness must be had and felt. Desire for what’s right must attach to imagination and somewhat be rendered into plans. Then comes practice for making the right decision more naturally each time right and wrong clash in the mind. It’s not simple. But it must be honest.
-----Wield a guillotine alongside each individual with the right decision written in the glint of its blade’s edge and note how much more quickly right decisions can be made! There seems to be a direct correlation between the immediacy of punishment and the ignoring of a miscreant neural network‘s blinking bait. Regardless, Jesus’ command to the woman was not written in the glint of a guillotine blade. It was breathed on the truth of “…a bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will faithfully bring forth justice.” (Is 42:3)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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