Today's Scripture Reading (May 22, 2023): 2 Kings 23
I
have always been very impatient. I want things now. I wouldn't say I
like to wait. I really don't want to wait for food. If I am
honest, it is probably one of the reasons why my first choice for food is
always fast food. I was recently at a Mcdonald's restaurant for a quick lunch, and even though I am impatient and want my food now, I thought
they did an okay job. But evidently, the manager was a little more impatient than I was because as I
was leaving, he met me
at the door and gave me
coupons because he felt the service
was slow. And honestly, I hadn't been impressed with that particular store up until
that point.
I
talk a bit about a fast-food religion. It is the idea that we demand immediacy from our religious beliefs.
It is the reason why I think that the four spiritual laws have been able to
gain such a grasp on the evangelical church. It is just an understanding of
one, two, three, and four,
and now you are a Christian,
and we can move on to the next person or event. There is a sense of immediacy to four steps and a simple prayer.
But I believe that spirituality is, at its roots, a
journey;
our spirituality really should have more in common with a slow boat to China
than the Star Trek transporter, but that isn't quite as attractive because it isn't as immediate.
Our image of Josiah was that he wanted
to please God and follow him from the very beginning of his reign. But Josiah's reign started when he was only eight years old. And as an eight-year-old,
there was probably little that he could do. But he began moving Israel toward where he believed
God wanted them
to be. And then,
he found a portion of the Bible (probably the book of Deuteronomy) and began to
realize how far away he still was
from the ideal. And it wasn't
until eighteen years after his reign began with the intent to serve the God of
his grandfather Manasseh that his journey had progressed far enough to
celebrate the Passover the way it was meant to be. And God wasn't through with Josiah even then.
We
do our spirituality an injustice when we treat it like a fast-food restaurant. It is a journey, and years into our
expedition of spirituality, we are still learning what
we need to know to be spiritual. But we also have to place ourselves in spaces where we can learn.
Spirituality, maybe
especially Christianity,
is a journey on which
we need to spend the rest of our lives traveling. There is never a point as
long as we are breathing where we can say that our spiritual
journey has finished. We will always have more to learn.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
2 Chronicles 35
See also 2 Chronicles 35:19
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