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Real Answers™
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Copyright: ©2007 Debbie Thurman
635 words

WE WANT HELP BUT DON'T WANT TO CHANGE

By: Debbie Thurman

What odd people we are. We invent new technologies and gadgets to make life simpler, yet end up chained to them and in need of self-help groups to break the dependency.

Speaking of addiction, we have a love-hate relationship with our chief vice industries —alcohol, tobacco, gambling and porn. We rely on their revenues — even distribute some of it to our schools — but hate the monsters we become through their influence.  The preponderance of our support groups exist because of our hope somehow to break free.

We have a collective dissociative identity disorder in dealing with our weaknesses and vices. We segment our consciousness so the bogeyman is not so scary. How else could tobacco and alcohol companies create the appearance of actually caring about our health and welfare through reverse PR campaigns that address the harm their products do? Smoke our cigarettes, but remember the Surgeon General’s warning. Imbibe our spirits, but just say no to underage drinking or driving under the influence. Piece of cake, right?

Then there’s our love-hate relationship with government. Is it too large or too small? Where is the line of demarcation that separates our rights to free speech, association, self-defense and self-determination from the rights of those we may be harming when our freedom is excessive?  Whom do we trust to make sense of it all? Does this power reside in Washington, D.C.? Hollywood? Oprahland? Heaven?

Ah yes, let’s not forget our obsession with things spiritual. We write mountains of books (but read very few of them) telling others what to think, how to live and, most especially, what the Bible — still the perennial bestseller — says or doesn’t say. Never mind that we could read it for ourselves. In this microwave era, we want the one-minute version.  We have a hip theology for everything.

In our churches, we like to feed the sheep rather than reach out to the goats. Why? As evangelist Bill Keller says, “The sheep will come to you, love you and give you the wool off their backs. The goats will run from you, try to gore you with their horns and just want you to leave them alone.”

Both the sheep and the goats can choose to be left alone, of course.

In that Bible with the dusty cover are many teachable moments where Jesus addressed his disciples. He spoke both obscurely and plainly. Two such occasions were after his resurrection.

To his erstwhile disciple Peter — the one who had sworn his allegiance yet denied him three times — he gave the restorative, tri-partite command to “tend my lambs” … “shepherd my sheep” … “tend my sheep,” each time asking Peter to reaffirm his love for his Lord and his church.

Jesus’ last recorded words in the gospels are what we know as his Great Commission — a command to go out into the world and feed all the goats that are willing to be gathered and teach them to live in harmony with the sheep. That’s a tall order. The sheep don’t always get along, let alone the goats. Yet, we all have the same needs.

Who isn’t seeking something? Just when we think we have it firmly in hand, we can find it has slipped through our fingers. Wealth? Health? Happiness? No guarantees.

Contentment without needing to rely on a crutch is a rare thing. Being able to face our mortality without fear is rarer still. There’s a certain freedom in admitting we don’t have all the answers.

Perhaps we can slow down long enough to stop seeking those answers in a bottle or a game or a video or a career. Maybe we can figure out that the grass really is just as green in our own pasture as it is in the next — that being a sheep isn’t so bad after all.

Debbie Thurman is an award-winning commentator and author who writes from Monroe, Va. Her e-mail address is debbie@debbiethurman.com.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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