Still Sunday!

This post is sort of going to be all over the place I think. I'm sorry haha. Okay, I'm just gonna do it chronologically, so Proverbs will actually come last.

I have been reading this book called "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder. It's about this doctor, Paul Farmer, who is the kind of guy who thinks about what he should do and then bam, he just does it. A lot of self control (of which I am lacking)! His life's constant mission is to help out the people who are in most desperate need of his help, so he picked Haiti as the most destitute country in the western hemisphere, picked the region with the most destitute Haitians, and set up a clinic there to provide them with medical services for free.

Well I was reading today, and there was a point at which Dr. Farmer went to visit a prison in Russia where prisoners were dying of tuberculosis and the author of this book, Tracy Kidder, went with him. To be witty, Kidder attempted to quote from the bible Jesus' teaching - that one like "whatever you did unto the least of them, you did unto me". And Dr. Farmer isn't even really religious but he quoted it exactly back to him, like "Oh yeah, Matthew 25 - yada yada".

And so then I realized that this guy who isn't even religious has mustered the strength and will to live out exactly according to Jesus' teaching - loving his neighbor, doing everything within his power to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend to the ill, visit those in prison. WOW. It just made me realize the tangible things that we can do with our lives to serve God through serving others.

OK, so then compare that other ways of using your life. Dr. Farmer specifically says that he is just fine with people living out their middle class, or upper class lives, purchasing "luxuries" for themselves, just as long as they do not try to ignore the massive amount of human suffering happening elsewhere, just as long as they do something to try to help. Not everyone should or could play the same part as him.

But then I think about Matthew 25 and think back to the other day, when I walked out of the GR main library and refused to help out or talk to a homeless man. In that specific instance, am I really serving God more to smile and walk away? Where is the line here, because the more frequently I justify NOT serving my neighbor, the farther away I get from doing it, right?

That reminds me of reading my virtue book, and the chapter on prudence. The author suggested that although the Pope during the Holocaust has been harshly criticized for his perceived lack of action, he was really just exercising the virtue of prudence. If he tried to take more risky, dramatic action, it would have paralyzed the ability of the Catholic church to do many other different good works. Hmm.

So now to the Bible. One passage from Proverbs 3 sort of directly relates to how literally we should follow Matthew 25:

28 Say not to your neighbor, 'Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give,' when you can give at once.

So I take that to mean, whenever an opportunity to serve comes up in the moment, just go ahead and do it, don't say to yourself that you will make it up by doing something different later.

Another passage that I like and that relates to Sav's whole thing about seeking wisdom even knowing that you can never completely understand life, is this from chapter 4:

5 Get wisdom, get understanding! ... 7 The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom; at the cost of all you have, get understanding.

That's pretty extreme, isn't it "at the cost of all you have". Sometimes it seems like the authors of the Bible tell us to do so many different extremes that they don't even really expect us to do. So it's like, should I feel terrible about myself for being unable to follow these "commandments" or should I feel peaceful knowing that I am just a human and could never really do it? Probably somewhere in between, as usual. haha

Oh yeah, the other thing I wanted to mention was that I randomly came upon a copy of the Jefferson Bible on one of Bethany's (the girl I live with) end tables today. Thomas Jefferson made his own version of the Gospels, cutting and pasting what he "liked" from the different gospels/ translations. He basically took out all the miracles and called it "the life and teachings of Jesus". In the introduction, it says that Jefferson, along with a bunch of other Unitarian Universalists at the time, disbelieved several parts of the Gospels, such as Jesus' virgin birth. And they viewed the apostle Paul as the guy who screwed up Christianity and made it into a doctrinal, exclusive religion by making it a religion centered on Jesus' resurrection instead of a religion made up of Jesus' moral teachings. Obviously, Paul was an amazing dude who dedicated his life, just like Dr. Farmer, to doing exactly what he felt was the right thing. But I really like reading about such different perspectives.

Today, Bethany and her friend Michelle and I went to Lake Michigan! It was wonderful and like 80 degrees, but my back is totally sun burnt. I'm feelin the pain right now. Also, tonight was the LOST finale! I watched the two hour pre-program special with Bethany and our two neighbors, but left as the actual finale was starting because I have to watch it with (stupid) Miriam this weekend. Also, we ate deliciously gigantic calzones for dinner.