mira

What a question to be asked right after Katrina. Everyone is either being helped or helping. Here in Texas it's the focus of the entire community. Pride is a part of the reason we do not ask for help. Beyond that we make ourselves vulnerable to others when we ask for help. They can now hurt us both materially and emotionally. We also believe that they might judge what we do with what they give us. We don't want to be judged in the future with what we do with what we are given and we don't want the past to be judged for what we did or didn't do that got us to this point. Not by people and not by God. When they do help us we become indebted to them. If they need help later on we will be obligated to help them. We don't want to be in that position. It might be inconvenient. We might want to keep what we have... both are greed. What a thought, not asking for what we need because we are selfish! All of this complicates our lives and we prefer to be left alone. It's so easy to be miserable and needy. We are victims and not responsible for our mess. But if we ask God to meet our needs and He does....then a response is required. We can't stay where we are. We have to go on. That might be a bit scary. Moving out of the comfort zone of where we are. It's a bad place but it's our place. My second thought related to asking for today's needs. This corresponds to the scripture, "lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth." If we ask for more than we need now then we are busy taking care of it for tomorrow instead of doing God's work today.

One thought I've not been able to shake has been the idea of reverence and respect. Popular culture is changing so much and we have become so casual. I don't know the correct answer to this but I do wonder if we have lost our respect for God because we stopped doing the little things that showed respect. For people we respect in our world we use proper etiquette. One would say, "Mr. President" not "Hey, George!". Many years ago we dressed up to go to church. We wore out "Sunday best". We were careful to treat our Bible carefully, not even putting anything on top of it. When we wrote about God we used the part of speech called the "divine pronoun" (do they even teach that in school now?) which was to capitalize pronouns that refer to God. Bibles are not even printed that way now. Most people go to churches where they can dress down from work and behave very casually. I'm told that is the way to reach people now. If that is true wouldn't a larger percentage of people go to church? I don't know the answer or if this is a question, just sharing a thought.

The one thing that I might have to offer that is different from the many wonderful posts I've read is to look at the word "as". "on earth as it is in heaven" Could that mean "in the same manner"? Are we to respond to God's will and do His will with the same attitude and completeness that the angels do? Joyfully, happily, without reservation, totally, completely, all the way, nothing held back. In total awe of the majesty of God. With total reverence. With all that is in within us. This is a new way of looking at if for me and one I will be trying to make part of the fabric of my being.