Issue 479
I’m going to suggest to you that one of the most important tasks in life is to become aware or conscious. People who are aware become sensitive to their own needs and the needs of others, as well as much more effective in everything they do. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote of the importance of looking in a mirror (the word of God) and then not forgetting what you look like. It is this forgetting which is so dangerous because we then do and say damaging things without realising how we’re coming across. In all walks of life and, perhaps, particularly at work, this can be disastrous. So I want to ask you what has shaped you? Maybe more accurately who has shaped you? To help you do this I invite you to look in the mirror of the word and spot your reflections. I’m going to start with the Jewish King David. He was a man who put his reflections into poems and songs. In his 69th Psalm he describes a time in his life when he is really struggling. When you read it, try to identify which part of his life he is describing. Today we have the benefit of Biblical and other historical writings about his life so we know a lot of his story. But in this Psalm he lists a catalogue of struggles, I counted at least 20, and by the 29th verse he simply says “I am in pain and distress”. There are plenty of times when David experienced pain and distress but the more closely you look at this poem the more you can pin point the era that it fits the most. The clues come in the catalogue. “Hated without a reason”. “Stranger to my brothers”. “Alien to my own mother’s sons”. “Forced to restore what I did not steal”. These are deep wounds and go back a long way. Check out the history and you will find connections which make sense. So I will give you two clues. The Prophet Samuel asked Jesse (The father of David) to assemble his sons for an immensely important and significant event. Jesse assembles seven sons but he does not even bother to bring his eighth – David. When asked where his eighth son is Jesse does not even use his name, just offhandedly says “He is out with the sheep”. Second clue. When David is sent with some cheeses and bread to his brothers on the front line of a war zone his older brothers mock him, insult him, accusing him of conceit and wickedness. It is quite clear that in his early years David was rejected by his own Father and brothers. Other Jewish writings describe how he was considered illegitimate, even though he was not, and how he was accused of theft when he did not. Now the Psalm makes sense. For his first fifteen years he was treated like an outcast and for the next fifteen were a titanic struggle until he was made full King aged thirty. It is these formative, painful years that are the subject of his poem. My point is this. His early years, like yours, shaped and transformed him. His first few years of rejection shaped his first fifteen. His first fifteen years shaped the next fifteen and these first thirty shaped his forty years of future work. So profound was the impact of David of these formative years that you can see them emerging in his life shaped and transformed by this traumatic beginning. David was a man who was constantly striving to be approved. Read his Psalms. He labored under a cloud of rejection. Even in his relationship to God you find him not feeling himself up to the mark. So David, like many in today’s work place, maybe like you, was on a mission to achieve and strive and succeed. Nothing, however, was ever quite good enough. And the source of David’s struggle? Go back to Jesse and you will find a man who did not really respect his eighth son. Before you judge Jesse too harshly go back and bit further and you will find a marriage between Boaz and Ruth which was also questioned. By the time you get to work many of your actions will have been shaped in your early years and perhaps even generations before you were born. Back to my first point – being aware is the first step to harnessing the good and jettisoning the bad. Bible Section Psalm 69 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. 3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. 4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal. 5 You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you. 6 Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me. 7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. 8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; 9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. 10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; 11 when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. 12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards. 13 But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. 14 Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. 15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. 16 Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. 17 Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. 18 Come near and rescue me; deliver me because of my foes. 19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. 20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. 21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst. 22 May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. 23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. 24 Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. 25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. 28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. 29 But as for me, afflicted and in pain— may your salvation, God, protect me. 30 I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. 31 This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves. 32 The poor will see and be glad— you who seek God, may your hearts live! 33 The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. 34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, 35 for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it; 36 the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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