Today's readings are 1 Samuel 20.24-42 and 1 Corinthians 1.1-25.
In today's reading from 1 Samuel, Saul does something quite unthinkable in his anger. He tries to kill his own son. What do we make of this kind of action? I observe that when people do irrational things they very often have explanations which seem very reasonable to themselves. For instance, someone who is suicidal will be able to give you many reasons why suicide is the only reasonable thing to do. Someone who is insistent on becoming drunk for the next week will have reasons which seem quite logical, at least to themselves. The difficulty in such situations is that the person who is bent on acting in an irrational manner is quite convinced of his reasons and is impervious to any contradictory reasoning you might be able to bring up.
What is to be done when someone is acting in such a way? Sometimes it may be possible to restrain that person from harming himself or others. Sometimes it may not be possible. Sometimes flight is the best solution. Sometimes we need to distance ourselves from an individual and take others with us to safety. In all cases we want to approach the situation with prayers, begging that the Lord will have mercy primarily on the person who is bent on offensive behavior, then secondarily on others who will be affected by that offensive behavior.
In our increasingly intolerant and utilitarian society, more than ever before, we who believe in God's mercy in Christ, we who have received forgiveness, we who have been rescued from destruction, are needed in the lives of trouble people who are bent on harming themselves and others around them. May the Lord give us grace to love and serve our neighbors in this way.
In today's reading from 1 Samuel, Saul does something quite unthinkable in his anger. He tries to kill his own son. What do we make of this kind of action? I observe that when people do irrational things they very often have explanations which seem very reasonable to themselves. For instance, someone who is suicidal will be able to give you many reasons why suicide is the only reasonable thing to do. Someone who is insistent on becoming drunk for the next week will have reasons which seem quite logical, at least to themselves. The difficulty in such situations is that the person who is bent on acting in an irrational manner is quite convinced of his reasons and is impervious to any contradictory reasoning you might be able to bring up.
What is to be done when someone is acting in such a way? Sometimes it may be possible to restrain that person from harming himself or others. Sometimes it may not be possible. Sometimes flight is the best solution. Sometimes we need to distance ourselves from an individual and take others with us to safety. In all cases we want to approach the situation with prayers, begging that the Lord will have mercy primarily on the person who is bent on offensive behavior, then secondarily on others who will be affected by that offensive behavior.
In our increasingly intolerant and utilitarian society, more than ever before, we who believe in God's mercy in Christ, we who have received forgiveness, we who have been rescued from destruction, are needed in the lives of trouble people who are bent on harming themselves and others around them. May the Lord give us grace to love and serve our neighbors in this way.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com
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