{"id":34831,"date":"2021-08-17T23:52:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T04:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=34831"},"modified":"2021-08-18T00:33:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T05:33:51","slug":"god-watches-humanitys-struggle-and-says-youre-doing-it-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=34831","title":{"rendered":"God watches humanity\u2019s struggle and says, \u2018You\u2019re doing it wrong\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently watched a little boy trying to get candy from one of those old-fashioned gumball machines. I rarely see such machines now, but I was in a neighborhood hardware store that hasn\u2019t changed much since the 1950s.<\/p>\n

The boy was frustrated, because he couldn\u2019t figure out how to work the machine. He kept trying to place a quarter inside the chute where the gum or candy comes out. He tried to turn the crank, but he didn\u2019t understand that the quarter had to be placed into a slot.<\/p>\n

I attempted to show him where to put the quarter, but he wouldn\u2019t listen. He was angry at the machine and ignored me \u2014 and kept making the same mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll never work that way,\u201d<\/em> I gently told him in a friendly way, \u201cbecause you\u2019re doing it wrong.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In the last few days, I\u2019ve found myself thinking about that little boy. I\u2019ve been watching all of the unhappiness and anger and misery of the world around me. I\u2019ve been thinking about the things I see people doing that I know are never going to give them peace and joy. And I keep thinking about what God must think when he looks at his creatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour lives are never going to work this way,\u201d <\/em>he must think, \u201cbecause you\u2019re doing it all wrong.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re like the little boy. We want what’s inside the gumball machine. We even have the quarter to exchange for the candy. But we keep doing everything wrong — and we never quite get what we vaguely know we need.<\/p>\n

In times of honesty and insight, we somehow know what we need. At least in a vague way. We crave love and connection and acceptance. We want to reach out to others and connect in loving ways. At times we try. But we make so many mistakes that we lose sight of what we need.<\/p>\n

The Hebrew book of Genesis tells us that a serpent offered Adam and Eve a fruit which would give them something other than what God had offered to them. God told them they needed the things he had provided — and that they were to leave that tree alone.<\/p>\n

Humanity has spent most of its existence in a metaphorical pursuit of that fruit. We see the others around us already pursuing the fruit, so we join in the mad rush to get to it. But God is watching us — metaphorically speaking — and saying with love and compassion,\u00a0“You’re doing it wrong.”<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re doing life wrong. We\u2019re so lost about what matters. And we get angry at life for not giving us what we want — just like that little boy was angry at the gumball machine. And we don’t realize that we’re to blame for making this life so difficult.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re really good at technology and commercializing our devices, but we\u2019re terrible at wisdom and meaning.<\/p>\n

We’re really good at chasing material things, but we’re pretty terrible at building loving communities.<\/p>\n

We’re really good at placing a high value on substitutes — fruits from that tree that will never bring us happiness — and we’re terrible at living our lives in the ways we’ve been taught will bring us joy and satisfaction.<\/p>\n

The result is that we have fantastically luxurious lives \u2014 especially by historical standards \u2014 but we\u2019re bored and miserable, having less meaning and understanding of life than ever before. And we\u2019re incredibly proud of our empty-headed tradeoff, because we don\u2019t have the wisdom to understand what we\u2019ve done. Most people simply have no context — intellectually, emotionally or spiritually — and we don\u2019t generally care. We even teach each succeeding generation to live the ways ways.<\/p>\n

But some of us still hear an inner voice that whispers, \u201cYou\u2019re doing it wrong.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We have a gnawing suspicion that we\u2019re wasting the short lives that we have here \u2014 and we\u2019re desperate to find the meaning that we know is there.<\/p>\n

Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. He came to teach people how to live in ways that were radically different than most of them understood. He told the people of his day that they were “doing it wrong.” He taught them to value different things. He taught them to love others, including their enemies. He taught them to stop loving material things so much.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that his followers built a powerful church in his name, they’ve frequently perverted the message. That’s why you will find people today who claim to be Christians who hate all sorts of people, who love money and material things more than anything, and who have no loving connection to anyone.<\/p>\n

Despite the clear message he taught in the Gospels, that message is ignored or explained away by most people today. Those outside the church completely ignore the message — and those inside the church give lip service to the message while they live lives that are mostly empty and lost and meaningless.<\/p>\n

We’re doing life wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n

This life is relatively short \u2014 and it takes many years before we start to get a real inkling of what \u201cdoing life right\u201d really means. That’s my experience. And as I look around me at others, I see people who are just as lost as I spent most of my life feeling.<\/p>\n

Wisdom sometimes comes with age. Not always, but sometimes. The culture has marginalized the genuine wisdom that can come from life experience. Instead, our culture has glorified the shallow confidence that comes with youth.<\/p>\n

I don’t understand all that I need to understand. I’m a lot wiser than I was 20 years ago, though. I still feel like that little boy with the quarter. I’m still trying to fit it into the machine. I’m still trying to get life to give me the things which I vaguely know will give me peace and joy.<\/p>\n

I’ve gone through all sorts of things which I know won’t work. I’ve failed many times. I’ve taught myself how to be unhappy, how to make others miserable, how to squander my assets.<\/p>\n

But I’m closer than ever to getting it right. I’m going back to things I should have learned — and should have listened to — years ago.<\/p>\n

And I know that when I’m finally humble enough and wise enough, I’ll drop my little quarter into life’s gumball machine — and I’ll finally find the bounty of love and connection and joy that I’ve always craved.<\/p>\n

I hope you find a way to do that, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently watched a little boy trying to get candy from one of those old-fashioned gumball machines. I rarely see such machines now, but I was in a neighborhood hardware store that hasn\u2019t changed much since the 1950s. The boy was frustrated, because he couldn\u2019t figure out how to work the machine. He kept trying Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-93N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34831"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34851,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34831\/revisions\/34851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}