Posts Tagged: a spirit of rebellion

“LIVE LONG AND PROSPER”

My father-in-law was very fond of the Star Trek T.V. shows—with the exception of those shows that featured the character “Q”.  (I suspect that Dad thought that Q was both too much and too little like God, although I don’t think I ever asked him why he felt the way he did.  I wish that I had now.)

One of the most famous repeated lines in Star Trek is “Live long and prosper.”  I’m not a trekkie, but even I know this line.

But from where does this greeting come?

Those words likely came from Deuteronomy 5:33.  The whole of vs. 33, along with the preceding verse, is as follows:

“32  So Moses told the people, ‘You must be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God, following his instructions in every detail.

33  Stay on the path that the LORD your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.’ ” (New Living Translation)

“Live long and prosper!” is a good wish, but perhaps the obedience part matters as well.  I have a tendency to want to live long and prosper, but not necessarily to obey.  (You probably don’t struggle with that, but I most certainly do!)

Why is it so difficult to obey?  I’m afraid that I know, and sometimes, wish I didn’t know.

I don’t obey because I want to have my own way.  No, I know that, in the long run, God’s way is best.  But I don’t want the long run; I want what I want right now!

I knew a lady who described herself as “Little-Miss-Gotta-Have-It-Right-Now.”  Change the Miss to Mister in my case, and you can’t miss!

However, it isn’t just the immediate gratification thing.  It also this: My way is my way, and that’s what I want.  I struggle with a spirit of rebellion, which I try to baptize and rename “a spirit of independence.”  However, you can baptize a rat, but it’s still a rat.

But I do have my better moments, moments when I realize that obedience is in my own best interest.  There are moments—and I am having more of them, thanks to the 12-step recovery program and thanks to 12-step friends—when I obey God with a good and glad heart.

There are times when I can say, with the psalmist, “I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

May those times increase for you and me and all of us!  Then we can, with complete confidence, pronounce the blessing on one another, “Live long and PROSPER!

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