Beauty of Fasting and Prayer: My Journey Through the Bible Day 2

Today started like the rest of the days. I realized that there truly exists an order in the affairs of men and women. Order brings harmony and cooperation. Transparency may be a new term used in the 21^st Century to describe business transactions.  Transparency detailed in the bible promoted good business in ancient times and works just as well centuries later. I don’t like accounting. I find it boring but I realize through the reading of scripture that it is necessary to know the details of one’s life as well as one’s business. I understand the importance of measuring in quantitative as well as qualitative terms.

Measuring in qualitative and quantitative terms has been my livelihood for over 25 years. I am a School Psychologist by profession and I measure output, how much is retained in memory and how we are able to use what we have retained but I never thought that it was sanctioned by the bible. I realize that it is important to weigh and measure and the role that it plays in good governance.

My ex-mother in law used the story of Ezra to justify her son’s negligence in taking care of his family. She justified his abandonment of his family by saying that I was a  pagan wife and God had told the Israelites to separate from pagan women in the Old Testament. I hated Ezra after she made these comments over 25 years ago. I read the last chapter of Ezra for the first and the last time as she justified her son’s abandonment of his family because I was a Baptist and he was a Methodist.

This was not the first time that an ignorant person used scriptures out of context to justify their lack of responsibility. The bible doesn’t tell what happened to those men after they abandoned their wives and children. I understand how one could make a poor choice and see that decision reflected in the generations which follow.

I come from a large family. Our lives have taken a different turn based on the people that we married or shared parental rights. The brothers who married educated women with high moral values have children who understand discipline and order and achieve a measure of success. The brothers who parented children with less educated women with few or no moral principles have children addicted to a  social life which involves alcohol and drugs. Those of us who failed to stay married have children who suffer from low self esteem. So I understand  the importance of sharing a marriage with a person with the same values.

Many Americans view themselves as victims. A disproportionate number of African-Americans blame slavery for the majority of their problems. The truth lies within. The people in Ezra faced some hard choices. They worked together and stayed the course. They didn’t try to oppress each other or anyone else. They worked together to accomplish a common goal, rebuilding the gate and walls surrounding Jerusalem.

They established a system of accountability. The chose quality materials in large quantities in order to get the work done. They worked on projects which benefited the group as a whole. The worked on projects which required them to cooperate with people whom they did not know. They developed skills which allowed them to perform a quality job. They didn’t wait on anyone else to do it for them. They did it for themselves and took pride in their work.

It makes me sad to see people so dependent on the government. They only time that they come together to work together is when they  have a grant. The realize the problems but instead of working together to fix the problem, they allow the problem to get worse and expect some government agency to fulfill their responsibility. I watch people who allow roofs to leak and refuse to fix them at their expense because they expect some government program to repair their roof. All the while the roof gets worse from lack of attention. It is a terrible state of affairs.

I read the bible in it’s entirety 20 years ago. I don’t remember a lot of the details because they didn’t shed so much light on present times as they do now. I thought about how people here read the bible constantly. It is the only book that they read on a constant basis. But they don’t realize that there is something unbiblical about refusing to work unless someone pays you to work and expecting someone to give you something for doing nothing.

People in modern times seem to have an obsession with what to wear and what to eat. They talk about nothing else. They fill their bodies with non-nutricous foods and wonder why their quality of life is so  poor. They blame God for their poor health yet all holy books clearly state that some foods are to be eaten in moderation and some activities are not healthy for the human body. 

So when the body speaks of foreigners, I don’t think that they referred to people who were spiritual and followed spiritual principals at all. Because most spiritual principals are the same. They may sound different or use different words, but the prinicpals are the same. We miss so much in life by judging others and not minding our affairs or doing what we should be doing.

Today a mother came with a court order to take her child. Someone called the father and a fight ensued. The police came and took sides and then the Sheriff’s office and independent body needed to step in and establish order. The bible gives clear instructions that we are  to follow the law and use make decisions contrary to those elected in those positions. The bible illustrates example after example of people who took the law in their own hands to save a friend or love one, only to have the situation become worse. Laws are to be made and enforced to benefit the whole and not to serve one individual.

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