Y Not I

The title for this post is a famous quote from Albert Einstein, only that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results was a definition of Insanity. However with God I don’t see this in the same way. I think we are called to keep on trying to live a righteous life even though that is something that basically we will never attain. We sin, we are told to get back up, repent, and start again. Do the same thing over again. As I consider sin and how Scriptures handle it, and how many religions handle it, it seems that the only answer is from God, and that we come to Him, repent, and then go and follow the words of Scripture and try it again.

Does this mean that we never change our approach or try different methods? I don’t think so, but basically we are doing the same thing over and over again. From what I see, as we are getting closer to God and closer to His power, which as that increases in our lives it helps us to walk more righteously. So as we decrease and He increases, we are better able to do the same thing, and we can actually get different results. But it takes prayer, and faith, and quite often a great deal of time.

Derek Lehman had a very interesting post about sins and habits that I think had great insight. He quoted from Rabbinical sources which spoke of the good inclination and the evil inclination. I think that is an interesting topic and one that I agree is often overlooked in believer circles since we focus so heavily upon being forgiven of our sin, and that we know have the freedom from bondage and thus the implication is that as believers we no longer sin. I think we all realize that this is just not true, and thus ignore the fact that we have inclinations and desires towards sin are something we should not whitewash over and ignore.

The Days of Awe are a time to reflect. As believers I think we have a calling to always be in reflection on our lives and our choices and to repent when sin is pointed out in our lives by the Ruach. However just as we are to always celebrate our lives, we do so maybe a bit more when our birthdays come, when the High Holidays come I think it is appropriate to evaluate our lives a bit more than usual and see how we can grow in God, how we can do the same things again, pray, read Scripture, grow in faith and by doing so get closer to our Creator and get closer to achieving the goal, even if it sounds like insanity to others.

May you have a wonderful rest of this High Holiday season. I would certainly encourage a fast for Yom Kippur starting this Friday evening at sunset. While we know our sins are forgiven by our faith in Messiah, we are to still pursue righteousness, as well as we should have a sorrow for our non-believing Jewish brothers and sisters who look at this time with anticipation and hope that they can be written in the Book of Life for another year. So while their thoughts are on repentance and on their sin, we should be praying for them and that they find the everlasting forgiveness in Messiah Yeshua.

B”H