(Anne Monique and her best friend Rebecca with me at the October book signing launch for Bear Speaks.)
For some reason Anne Monique and I were talking about the story of Abraham and Issac yesterday. She brought it up as evidence that the dictates of the Bible are just plain cruel. I've always found that story enigmatic, probably because I see so many parallels between myself and Abraham. I can relate to the guy - he's getting older, trying to follow the dictates of Truth - God - the inner voice of guidance inside, and he's got this only kid he loves more than anything, more than all of that. So his inner voice, the voice of Truth, in the story it's God - God tells him to kill the kid, and Abraham is thrown into the ultimate dilemma: does he protect what matters most to him, or listen to the Voice of Truth? God only lets Abraham off the hook when he's ready to do it - kill the kid - the knife's at the edge of Issac's throat when God finally tells Abraham he can stop.
Anne Monique hates that story. She says it reminds her of soldiers in an army blindly following orders, or disciples slaughtering innocent people because they think God told them to do it. I'm struggling with the thematic of that story also; it'd be easy to just dismiss it as dated literature with no relevance.
But if I take out the killing your kid business, I get it. For me it's simple things I don't want to do - stuff like visiting my mother-in-law instead of my own parents this Easter, sharing supplies I horded at the beginning of the year with other teachers at school, being more loving to people who cut me off on the freeway, sitting here writing this blog when my own private will wants to sleep in late and spend the day eating chocolate. Usually my inner voice tells me to stop acting like a spoiled child. For me sitting in prayer or meditation and telling the prattle in my noisy head to "shut up" gets me to a place where I am less hurtful, more real.
There's still the killing your kid business. As I struggle with this story I think of other dictates from another part of the Bible: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind," and "love your neighbor as yourself." The big idea is to expand our definition of family, stop being territorial and clinging to what we label "ours," especially our best beloved "only" children. Instead, the idea is to allow the love we feel for them to spread to all people and things around us - to have an expanded view of that love instead of a contracted, clingy one.
It's a tough call, but worth working on today...
