Confession: After reading Genesis 19:15-29 chronicling the events in Sodom and Gomorrah, sulphurous (sorry spell-check that's how it is spelled in the Good Book) fire, a weirdly reluctant Lot, and his wife who just couldn't let it go, I went to shmoop.com (click here) and re-aquainted myself with the whole narrative of Genesis! It was quite a morning read but, then again, I like Criminal Minds.
So the visitors to Abraham's tent, where he and Sarah showed their great hospitality, and where the revelation of Sarah's post-menopausal bearing was met with laughter, move on to Sodom, where Lot also shows them great hospitality. But Lot is in the suburbs; a little too close to Sodom and he has clearly been influenced by the cities smut and riches and overall propensity for all things lecherous. It just gets juicier and juicier which, while interesting, isn't prompting any kind of reflection on my part.
But Lot and his wife do. Why did Lot hesitate? The "messengers" are so clear, "ON YOUR WAY! Take your wife and your daughters and run!" And then the instructions are so clear...don't look back at the utter destruction. That hesitation and that looking back are evidences of the human attraction to evil…why do I like Criminal Minds anyway?
As St. Paul writes: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." Romans 7:15;19
That's quite a confession. And, as it was for Lot and his pillar of salt wife, and as it was for Paul, so it is with me. I'm trying to find some good news here! I can't just be satisfied with the awareness. I have to figure out how, by prayer and by practice, I can lessen the attraction of what takes my eyes off the good. A little lessening…that's all for now. Please.
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