1 Kings 21:36
Then said he unto him, because thou hast not obeyed the voice of
the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay
thee. And as soon as he was departed
from him, a lion found him, and slew him.
Instant
gratification.
We see our favorite
candy bar in the checkout aisle at the grocery store and, even though it was
not our intent or plan to purchase and eat that chocolate that day, we
immediately want its deliciousness. So,
we buy it, unwrap it before the bagger has finished packing our last item, and
eat it all up while loading the car, before we even drive away. And, for those few minutes of time, we
experience pleasure. Unconsciously, we
develop an understanding that feelings of desire can be instantly gratified
with pleasing results and, so, the things that we want for ourselves we get for
ourselves – no wondering, no worrying, no waiting.
When our monthly check
on our bank account reveals a lower-than-expected dollar figure, we lament over
how fast money disappears.
When our next
visit to the dentist reveals a cavity in need of filling, we groan with dread
of the impending pain and bill to pay.
And
when our clothes start to fit a little too tightly on our bodies, we become
upset and frustrated, wondering what lengths we’ll have to go to in order to
lose some weight – a gym membership or that tedious new diet people are talking
about?
A lottery win would solve our
first problem.
A filling then and there
to get it done and over with would help us at the dentist’s office.
And buying new clothes would cancel out our
third problem.
Because we’re used to
instant results and getting what we want.
The results of that
impulsively acquired candy bar go beyond the immediate feelings of
pleasure. What if we experienced those consequences
as instantly as we taste its deliciousness?
What if the candy bar cost three times as much and, as soon as we put it
in our mouths, our teeth would hurt and buttons pop? I’m guessing that we would think twice about
grabbing the chocolate the next time we saw it beside the cash register. And what if this was true about more than
just edible treats? What if the second
we told a white lie to our employer, we got fired? What if the first time we took our
frustrations out on a loved one in unkindness and unfairness that dear person
left us and never came back? What if, in
walking past someone who has fallen without assisting to pick him up, we found
ourselves beaten in an alley by thugs with no one in a cold, selfish world
answering our cries for help?
In the Bible we hear
stories of instant punishment.
When God
is disobeyed, the earth opens up and swallows the wrongdoers or storms of fire
rain down on the heads of the unjust.
This thought terrifies us, but also delights us, in a way.
For we understand the language of instant
gratification.
We want to be able to get
what we want, when we want it.
And we
imagine God being like us in this – if He wants to smite us for our wickedness,
then He will smite us cold, sending a lion to slay us or turning us into
pillars of salt.
For this is the kind of
instant gratification that we want against our enemies, against those who we
see as hurting us or as standing in the way of our own glory.
But, though God, in His Divine love for us,
reaches out to reveal Himself to us in the language that we understand, He is
not as petty and impatient as we are.
Throughout
time, God has led us by the hand like little children, teaching us in ways that
developing humans are taught, with instant reactions to our actions so that our
little minds can make the connections between cause and effect.
But, we do not remain undeveloped
forever.
There comes a time (in history
as well as in our own individual lives) when, if we are to be fulfilled as
human beings, we must understand to the best of our abilities the wide range of
connections, the vast consequences of every small act.
We are called by God to see that we are
connected, in the present, to both our pasts and our futures and that we are
connected, always, to one another.
Nothing exists in a
vacuum of time.
Nor in a vacuum of
space.
Everyone and everything relates
to each other, is connected.
Like it or
not, everyone and everything leaves a mark of some kind.
We are not little islands living lives of
little bubbles of time.
No one is
isolated or removed from the interweaving of reality, for life is whole.
And we are all inextricably linked to our one,
common source that flows all through us – “the ultimate reality that everyone
calls God.”
Christina Chase
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