Short Memories

I'm going to start this one off with a joke: What kind of car did the disciples drive? They all went together in one Accord.

Ba-dum, chhh!

Read 2 Thessalonians 1-3

It's procedure that I would start focusing on the first chapter but what really jumped out of me in this three chapter jaunt is a little thing in the second chapter so I'm gonna go with that and perhaps focus on the first chapter tomorrow. Or the third chapter tomorrow. Or maybe the second one again because I realized I have even more thoughts on that crazy chapter. We'll see. Maybe just a full week of nothing but 2 Thess. Whoo!

Right towards the end of the second paragraph of the second chapter, Paul suddenly throws in these chiding words: "Don't you remember me going over all this in detail when I was with you? Are your memories that short?" (2:5 or thereabouts). Well, as a Sunday school teacher for about a year I know I can relate to Paul. This interjection strikes me as odd when I read it (and thus why I wanted to write about it) because Paul has some really, really nice things to say about the second Thessalonians (joke) in the first chapter. But then out of the blue he's throwing a rebuke their way. It's one of those personal touches that I appreciate about reading the letters as opposed to the other books of the Bible I suppose.

But seriously, don't these people get it?! And then I realize this could be Paul talking to me on just about any subject, not just eschatological fun. For instance, the fact that I haven't posted here in at least 5 days or something like that. I know that part of my walk with God is reading his word and praying and now writing about what I'm reading. But do I do it? Am I that wantonly stupid and disobedient? It's not that I don't have time, I definitely do not have that excuse right now with being unemployed and all. But everything else is so much more attractive to me than spending time with the one I love.

From the outside, this post, like many others that all three of us have made, might appear to be whining again. It's not. I think that these posts, although not the most uplifting thing, are the fruit of us getting into the word and actually thinking about what it's saying to us. That's what this writing is forcing us to do, use God's word as a flashlight which, instead of always shining into the darkness surrounding us, shining it into the dark recesses that we have in our lives. While there's value in shining the light for others to see, it's just as valuable if our sin an iniquities have come to light and begun to be dealt with. And that's cool to me. It's been rough going for all of us recently, who knows all the reasons, but there is fruit in our lives because of this project that we can see and feel so let's keep at it, guys. Let's do the impossible and let it make us mighty :)