Romans 14:13-14
Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
A few weeks before my Mam-ma Polly died, she fell one day and hit her head. The nurse at her facility called me and said, “Do you want me to put her in my car and drive her to the ER?” I told her that I did not want her to do that… Mam-ma was under the care of Hospice, and I had promised her “No more hospitals!” The nurse thought the head wound needed stitches. I asked her to call the Hospice nurses, and I got in my car and drove to the facility to check things out for myself.
If you have never experienced a head wound, they bleed profusely. It looks like every drop of blood in your body is quickly exiting via your head! I kept reminding everyone that when Mam-ma fell one Christmas Eve on our driveway and hit her head, the blood poured from what ended up being a tiny puncture wound. “Let’s get this cleaned up and see what we have,” I suggested.
The Hospice nurse cleaned the wound and we determined it was indeed small. Mam-ma insisted she was fine! She did NOT want to go to the ER for stitches. With virtually everyone except the Hospice nurse looking at me like I had grown horns, I opted to let things be. A loving and very competent aide checked on Mam-ma every thirty minutes through the rest of the night...the next day, she was perfectly fine.
Had I taken Mam-ma to the ER for stitches, we might have sat there waiting for hours… something that was very hard on a woman who was 100+ years of age. The doctor would have poked and prodded and ordered all sorts of unnecessary tests… and then the medical staff would probably have sewn up her wound and sent her home – exhausted - in the wee hours of the morning. As it was, she spent the night in her own bed, woke up feeling fine, and moved forward with her daily routine.
If I had opted to take my grandmother to the ER, I would have made her life more difficult than it already was. Believe me, I did not make any decisions concerning Mam-ma without a LOT of prayer. At the end of the day, Mam-ma made it abundantly clear that she was ready to go to heaven, and she did not want any of us getting in her way! She trusted God to know when and how to call her home…and I did my best to see that her “holy alliance” with Him was not contaminated by human actions. We were both at peace with this agreement.
Hopefully you are not making end-of-life decisions. But I would bet the farm that you are making choices that could go either way in the “holy alliance” battle. Maybe you are speaking out about thoughts and behaviors you view to be sinful… but you are doing so in a manner that makes others look at you and say, “If that’s how Christians behave, I don’t want any part of it!” Perhaps you have been critical or derogatory toward some who disagree with your beliefs, and you have failed to recognize that your own attitudes and behaviors are unkind, unloving… and borderline sinful! Suppose your conduct is less than perfect (HELLOOOO… NOBODY is perfect!)… yet you are quick to tell the other guy why he/she is wrong and “needs Jesus”!
Do you see that you may be “contaminating a holy alliance” with God? Do you see that you very well may be doing more harm than good when it comes to adding to the Kingdom of Heaven? Can you grasp that these are not attitudes and behaviors that foster an environment where God’s peace can flourish – for any of us? Please read this passage… more than once! Examine your heart – and your attitudes and actions – and see where you are trying to decide what is right for others. This is not God’s plan for us… and it does not create an atmosphere of peace and spiritual growth. And that’s really what we’re after… or it should be!
In order to please God and operate in His peace, we often have to move over and get out of His way. Where are you standing today?
©2013 Debbie Robus
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