"Breaking" the commandments to keep them

Today in Sunday school we were speaking about Matthew 12 and how the Pharisees accused Christ's disciples of breaking the sabbath day.  Christ then explained that His disciples were doing His work and that their actions were justified. 

Our Sunday school teacher then mentioned how the Pharisees took the commandment and put parameters around it. This caused the Pharisees to focus more on the parameters of the commandment than the actual commandment itself. 

I had the insight that often, we like the pharisees, become so obsessed with not breaking the commandments that we lose sight of making sure that we are keeping the commandments. As we become so focused on not breaking the commandments it becomes easier for us to judge other people.

A good example of this would be that if we were driving to church and saw a man working in a yard pushing a wheelbarrow of dirt, many of us would automatically assume that he was not keeping the Sabbath day holy. But in reality we don't know his real situation.  He may be helping out a neighbor, who has to get the yard work done before a certain deadline.  In this case the neighbor is really loving and serving his neighbor, an appropriate Sunday activity. In this example, the man appears to be breaking a commandment when in reality he is living them; perhaps even better than we are ourselves.

If you sit too close to a fire you migh get burned.

 The following is a list of descriptions trying to describe my surroundings on a camp-out I was on several years ago.  Hopefully my attempt to describe what that night was like helps you to see in your mind's eye what I saw those several years ago.

I was sitting on a freshly cut oak log, stood on its end, about three feet in diameter.  Its hard, freshly cut surface was clammy from the moisture inside the tree. My bottom was starting to ache from sitting on the steel like surface for so long, but my throbbing body was enjoy the opportunity to relax after a long hard day’s work so much that it refused to move. 

The audible wind pushed through the towering fortress of nappy cedar trees and wildly danced around the clearing as if celebrating its accomplishment of breaking though the dense wall of tangled branches.  

The trees all around were creaking as if being played as musical instruments. 

The wind carried with it the sharp scent of cedar which rushed up my nostrils, fighting through the particles of cedar dust that had accumulated like barnacles clinging to the post of a pier to the inner part of my nose.

The stars, like tiny focused spotlights, lit up the ground in the clearing. Their light abruptly ended at the thick tree line, as if obeying a law of nature. 

The moon was showing true majesty as it glowed in the night like a nightlight for the Universe.  

Tiny insects, camouflaged with the ground, could be faintly heard as they scurried about their evening activities. 

The warmth of the fire embraced my weary body like a soft blanket caresses every bend and curve of a new born baby. 

The flames of the fire were dancing wildly as if trying to communicate with the surrounding elements, by casting shadows on the ground in every direction.  

The large, double truck-sized pile of tree limbs and branches, which were only a few hours previously growing where I was now sitting, could be heard settling under the weight of gravity and the lashing of the wind. 

My body ached as if every muscle in my body had been pulled out, stretched, and played with like a child plays with play dough.  The scratches covering my skin throbbed like a sun-burn in a hot shower.  

A good test score and a test of courage.

This week was exciting.  Starting last Friday, up until Tuesday night, I spent a total of more than 20 hours studying for my accounting test.  The good news is that I did very well on it.  So even though the 20 hours was hard, they were all worth it for the A on the test.

Shayne, gave everyone in my Mcom class an assignment to buy a "coke" for a stranger.  I took the liberty of buying a box of Nutter-Butters instead of a coke for my stranger.  The story is that I went to the Creamery on Saturday night and told the cashier that the box of nutter-butters what for whoever was in line two-people behind me.  She was confused and gave me the look that said, "Great,  I don't need to know who you are buying things for."  I explained that I needed her to give the treat to the people, and she started to reach out and hand them the box of Nutter-Butters.  I quickly stopped her and explained that she was to give it to them when they got up in line.

The cashier still didn't understand the concept, but agreed to do what I had asked.  I then walked out of the story and watched as the cashier gave the box of Nutter-Butters to the couple, obviously on a date.  I expect eh conversation went something along the lines of this:

Cashier: (Handing the box of Nutter-Butters to the girl) Here, these are from the nice man standing outside.

Girl: (Looks out the window at me and sees me wave) I don't know who that guy is.

Cashier:  Oh, well he told me to give these to you.

Girl: Well he must be mistaken, I've never seen him before in my life.

Cashier:  No, he made it clear that I was to give these to you.

Girl's Date: (Still looking out the window sizing me up) Well, they are a free box of Nutter-Butters . . . we better take them.

Girl:  Ok, we will take them, but I really don't know that guy.

Cashier:  Alright, well have a good night.

Then I got in my car and as I drove past the front of the Creamery, I saw the couple walking down the street with the guy carrying the box of Nutter-Butters.  I assume that He was going to keep the Nutter-Butters, and not share many with his date for the evening.

Explainations

First, due to the few requests I received, I need to refer back to last week’s entry and explain what my favorite punctuation mark is.  It is the comma.  I’m not sure if “favorite” is actually the best word to describe my relationship with the comma, because I’m not sure how fond of it I really am, but I am most interested by the comma because  it has the most rules and nobody really knows when and where to put it.  My thought process is that if I can learn to use the comma well, then I can do well on future grammar exams.  So that is why, currently, the comma is my favorite.

                This week I need to thank my sister-in-law, Julianna, for creating a new background for me.  She is currently in Illinois, as I understand, at the most prestigious cake-decorating school in the United States.  With the large snow storm, which is covering a good porting on the United States, she had one day of her classes cancelled.  After practicing a few cake-decorating techniques and other things to keep her from being board, she texted me Wednesday evening to tell me that she found several new blog backgrounds and wanted to know if I wanted a new one.  What she didn’t know is that I was waiting for her to come home before I asked her to help me find a new background.  So I was happy to look at several of the backgrounds that she had selected and to pick my favorite.  The baseball theme won because it was my favorite, but my plans to watch “Field of Dreams” (A baseball movie), later that night, helped it to be the definite winner.  Julianna also added the button (that is what she called it) that has the flashing quote that reads, “Life is a baseball game, When you think that a Fastball is coming, you gotta be able to hit the Curve.”  Julianna doesn’t understand what this quote means so she wanted me to explain it in this week’s blog entry. 

                In order to understand the quote you have to have to first understand that a fastball and a curveball are two different pitches in baseball.  In baseball the batter doesn’t know which pitch the pitcher is going to throw, and therefore, has to be able to adjust his swing if the pitch he thought the pitcher would throw is different than what is actually thrown.  The quote is trying to say that we can’t know what is going to happen in life, and when we expect one thing to happen, we have to be able to adjust when something else actually happens, otherwise, just like the batter wouldn’t hit the ball; we won’t achieve whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish when life throws us the “curveball.”  Hopefully this explanation helps to clarify to the few other people who will read my blog.