Addictions, Collapsing airlines, and storms
So what do these have in common? They all point to the way things are changing, and then quite suddenly (if you’ll pardon my language) all hell breaks loose!
These are nothing new; I had all of these in Babylon (if you count Icarus[1]). First you get the mild indications (gotta have that coffee now!), then the symptoms become stronger (the engine falls off the wing), until you get the release of catastrophe and suddenly your house starts pretending to be a sinking boat in a flood! Today the signs are all too clear that something is brewing, especially in the lives of the world around us (and maybe even in ourselves). Do you have to read that email right now? Find you can’t go a day without that doughnut? Gotta have that fix of whatever it is? And tell me, what have you displaced to get that fix? Can’t miss that TV drama/comedy series? Find yourself saying “just one more”? How much have you displaced God out of your life?? How much?? Go on, tell me, how much???? Oops, sigh, sorry, I get a bit hot under the collar sometimes, must be all those argumentative genes God gave me. No, the real trick is to read the signs, to recognize what’s coming down the line and take preventative action. Here’s an amazing story from one among you … read and learn! Yirat Adonai
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Good day, Mordecai: I read your letter in the St. Barnabas’ church leaflet about the pornography and other distractions you had in your day and your observation that not much has changed, that we have the same nowadays. But … you did not have SUDOKU! Without going into detail, Sudoku is a numbers puzzle that keeps one going until a solution has been found. Innocuous, one might think. And it is. Until it becomes an addiction, as in my case.
I had to do Sudoku every day, had to solve it and then start the new one. Once started, I begrudged putting it down too quickly to do whatever needed doing in my daily life. I did Sudoku in the Cape Times, the Burger, the Argus daily and also had a book full of Sudoku puzzles. Finding quiet time to spend with God was not the first priority, I needed the time for my puzzles. Then everything else had to be fitted in because I wasted so much time. If God wanted to spend time with me, well, I wasn’t home! By listening to the testimonies of Christians, I came to realize that God and I could not talk to each other because I did not have time to ‘be still and listen’. I acknowledged my addiction to myself and decided to stop ‘tomorrow’. Didn’t happen.
Then new people joined our small group and we all had to share something previously unknown about ourselves. I confessed my addiction and just by the public admission it went away. I don’t feel compelled to look for the puzzles in any publication I see and actually feel like I’ve shaken off a burden. I still enjoy Sudoku but can now take it or leave it. I now have much more time to talk to God and look forward to hearing from Him! To all the Sudoku fans out there, don’t misunderstand me. Sudoku is not evil but in my case it was a definite obstacle in the path of my walk with God.
[1] And if you don’t know who Icarus was, shame on you – go look it up on Wikipedia. And if you don’t know what Wikipedia is, shame on you – go Google it. And if you don’t know what that means, then, well … oh, forget it!