Daily Prophets
Day 37
“Whoever is wise, he will understand these things; whoever is sensible he will know them. The paths of Adonai are forward moving, the righteous walk in them and the wicked stumble in them.”(Hosea 14:10)
As I leave the Book of Hosea for now, I wanted to end on this, the last verse. Throughout Hosea’s prophecy, love, intimacy, attachment and covenant have been constant themes.
This last verse is the culmination of everything that God has been saying through God’s Prophet, Hosea. God’s love for Ephraim finally was understood and accepted. All of the calamities that Hosea predicated, unfortunately had to come true for Israel to truly accept this message and this truth.
Wisdom leads to understanding and when put together they lead to common sense and knowing. Too many people think that facts (even alternative ones) speak for themselves. Hosea is teaching us that facts, ie wisdom, have to be understood before they can truly make sense. Too many of us don’t go through this process before acting, speaking, etc.
Adonai’s paths are right, straight, good, forward moving. There is a plan for living that moves us forward that God has given us. Even when we fail, we have the opportunity to fail forward. Decent people walk in this paths because they are smooth and inviting. Wicked people stumble because they can’t bring themselves to accept these paths as serving them.
Who is a righteous person? One, in my estimation, who keeps doing the next right thing, admits when they err and doesn’t need to beat anyone else down to feel better than. A wicked person, IMO, is one who constantly needs to make bad guys to feel good, takes advantage of the vulnerabilities of others and cares more about optics (how things look) than substance and truth. We all fall into both categories!
The actions of our Senate this past weekend proves the last phrase. McConnell, et.al are stumbling all over themselves to clean up their dereliction of duty. They are all trying to drink at the cup of Trump and appeal to the majority of the country who did not nor do not support the actions of Jan.6. These liars and power-hungry individuals are only trying to use ‘facts’ as they interpret them rather than using the facts to gain better and deeper understanding, using common sense to have an attachment to the principles proven by the House Managers and follow the ways of Adonai. They proved themselves wicked and power-hungry and obstructionistic. This is not the “America to Me” that Frank Sinatra sang about nor the one composed by Lewis Allan and Earl Robinson in 1944. Senators, I pray you find your way back to Adonai and not the false idols/gods you have been worshiping(Trump and friends).
In recovery these ideas, concepts, words are fundamental to long-term recovery. The 11th step says “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s Will fo rum and the power to carry that out”. We have to constantly be in touch with God in order to continue to fulfill God’s Will. Only by doing this will we be able to move forward in our recovery.
Many times I have been asked, what is God’s Will and my recovery has taught me that it is kindness, compassion, truth, justice, love. These are the fundamentals of the prayer attributed to Saint Frances: “Lord, make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred let me bring Your love” etc. These actions can only come from deepening our understanding of the facts that God gives to us and using our common sense to know God intimately and how to help and serve another(s) human being.
In my own living, I have found myself on both sides of the last two phrases. The joy for me is that over the years, I have found myself much more often living in the understanding of the facts and using common sense to have intimate relationships with the people around me. In fact, this has been the joy of the past 32+ years; having intimate relationships with people who have needed me and who I have needed to serve. These intimate relationships are all about growing our inner lives, connecting to Adonai/Higher Power/etc. and our own souls.
Stumbling has been a great source of strength and learning to and for me. When this happens, I am awakened from whatever revelry that I have lulled myself into. I see that these stumbling were not caused by God, they were caused by me because I stopped understanding what was/is in front of me and did not use common sense to attach to God’s Will. I am grateful that these stumbling have been less and less over the years and sorry that the ones I commit now are more devastating to me and those I love. How are you walking in God’s paths and how are you stumbling in God’s paths? Stay Safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark