The question that's been haunting me for the last several days is, "How are we doing this again?" How is it possible that in the U.S., after witnessing the antics of an inept leader, there's still enough support to consider him for the presidency once more? People's choices baffle me, driving me to ponder deeply about the stark dissonance they create within me.

This introspection brings me back to my upbringing. Whether consciously or not, I was instilled with the belief that people are inherently good and well-meaning, that the world is a safe, wonderful place, and that I could achieve anything I desired in life. I was indoctrinated into the U.S. upper caste in other words.

The election of the 45th president was the final challenge these deep-seated beliefs. I still vividly recall the shock of realizing that a person with such apparent malevolence could gather enough support to be elected. It shattered my belief system, confronting me with a reality I couldn't ignore or rationalize away—a moral reckoning, indeed.

The aftermath was equally shocking. The disillusionment continued as friends, family, and mentors I respected aligned themselves with this figure, making me question my own sanity. How could these loving people, known for their kindness in other aspects of their lives, suddenly display such apathy or even cruelty? Each news cycle, I hoped for a revelation of the truth, only to see further entrenchment in deceitful narratives. It dawned on me that this leader merely exposed a worldview many held secretly: a perspective filled with greed, selfishness, and fear, deeply rooted in the U.S.'s historical caste system of white dominance.

Since the loss of his reelection, the rhetoric of fear has only intensified, with attacks on immigrants, DEI initiatives, women's rights, and more. This fearmongering is aimed at preserving the status quo, maintaining a narrative of uppercaste heroism and righteousness that is increasingly being questioned.

This brings us back to the current political battleground: old, white men contesting for leadership, clinging to a narrative of supremacy. But there's a growing awareness of the absurdity and injustice of this system, challenging the status quo.

The champion of the U.S. caste system and the embodiment of white fear has been 45, an orange man. Yet, the facade cannot hold forever and the fake tan will fade away. History and reality will prevail, as lies are unsustainable in the long run. Yet the old guard is resisting change.

Now, we are left with a critical question: will the dominant caste destroy everything rather than share it? History suggests they might try, as they have done before to maintain social hierarchies. However, it doesn’t have to be this way, change is possible. The caste system is being challenged and that scares the hell out of those at the top. We must continue to challenge the fallacy of superiority and work towards dismantling the caste system.

The resolve I've found, transforming the dissonance within me into harmony, lies in awareness, empathy, and action. We possess the power and even the responsibility to question, challenge, and change the narrative. Our goal should be to reject the caste system and construct a narrative that is inclusive, fair, and just for all. If others prefer to uphold a system of oppression, it saddens, angers, and sometimes paralyzes me, but I must proceed in the reality and manifestation of the dignity of all people. There is no other way that will stand the test of time.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

Exodus

20:8

So, commandment Four…

I think there is a lot of confusion around this commandment, or at the very least, an abundance of strange manifestations to “keep” this commandment.

The Sabbath in essence has two references. The first is the creation story where God rested on the seventh day. The second is the giving of manna for six days and none on the seventh, but twice as much on the sixth day.

So what is the Sabbath, why should we remember it, and what does it mean to keep it holy?

The Sabbath is the rest day. The most obvious reference for the Sabbath day is the seventh day of creation when God rested from the work he did for six days prior. The not so obvious reference, or at least easily forgotten, is the second reference mentioned, the giving of manna and how the practice of the Sabbath day originated.

The Sabbath day originated in practice when Israel was in their exodus from Egypt. During this mass exodus the hundreds of thousands of people obviously needed food to eat, so each day God provided a substance they called manna (or “what is it?”)  The manna would form with the morning dew and Israel would go out and collect it each morning. If they collected more than they needed it would rot and not last till the next day, except for on the sixth day. On the sixth day they were to collect enough for two days and on the seventh day the manna would not form. And on this day, unlike the other days, the extra manna collected would not rot. This was an enforced rest from the work of gathering manna, a training of the people of Israel to learn to trust in their God, and a sign to the rest of the world of God’s ability to provide and sustain. God sums up the reason for this enforced Sabbath as, “so you may know man does not live on bread alone, but from every word of God.”

It’s in this context and reference that God issues the 4th commandment, to remember the Sabbath (the rest day) and keep it holy (set apart to Him.) For one day Israel would be weened off this enforced Sabbath with the manna and would be responsible for remembering it themselves. The training wheels would come off and the enforced (or practiced) time-outs should ideally give way to mature people who could recognize their need for rest and reorientation to life with God. Israel was to become a people who knew their lives were sustain and provided for by God and not by their own efforts and work alone. A people who practiced a Sabbath to recognize and remember there was more to this life than what is seen, more to this life than getting ahead and accumulating wealth, more to their subsistence than the natural.

And almost comically, in giving further explanation of the command, God preempts how some of our minds will inevitably work to try and get around the command, how to still get ahead while presuming to rest and be dependent on God. So God follows the command of you shall not work by saying, “nor shall you spouse, children, servants, foreigners among you, nor your animals.  Ha!  🙂  Can you see it? It’s exactly what we would be thinking… “okay, I can’t work, so I’ll have my spouse work. Oh she can’t work either, okay, my kids. No? Well then my employees. No again? Foreigners? My Ox and horse at least? No?”  🙂

So what does this mean for us?  Does it mean I shouldn’t work on Saturday (or Sunday)?  Not necessarily.  Here’s the point.  We need to remember that these commands are God starting to teach and train his people how to live in His kingdom. He’s teaching people how to live in community with Him, how to live in a good way… good for themselves, others, and creation.  He’s teaching people to remember where our life and subsistence come from, that they come from a life lived with Him.  And this is easy to forget if 24/7 we are caught up in the various cares, riches, and pleasures of this life.  So, God in this command, calls us to regularly step out of the daily grind for periods of time.  He teaches us to have regular times of putting all work and other things aside to spend dedicated time with Him (aka keep it holy.)  Now that may be a Saturday or Sunday, but may even be a Monday or Friday.  The point is (among many other benefits) that by having this rest time with God you will learn to know Him, how to depend on Him, and that you CAN depend on Him, on the day of rest and all other days as well.  

So finally, what does a Sabbath day look like?  Well, I think that’s different for different people.  For some it might be going to a church gathering, and for others it might be not going to a church gathering.  For some perhaps it might be going on a hike or to the ocean, and for others it may be sitting in a chair with a cup of coffee and a favorite pen and notebook and Bible and a burrito (or two) bought the day before so he doesn’t have to be interrupted making lunch.  I don’t know who that could be though.  😉  Ha!

Whatever the case, find your regular Sabbath, time with God apart from everything else.  And if what once you found restful time with God isn’t so restful anymore, don’t be afraid to change your routine. Remember, the goal is restful time with God, not maintaining a particular practice, tradition, or routine.  You are in a relationship that will grow and change with time, so adjust accordingly.    🙂    May God meet you in your time with Him!

What is the greatest human predicament?  I’m venturing a guess that most would answer along the lines of disease, war, hunger, poverty, etc… But that’s not it. The greatest human predicament is so massive and inevitable a predicament, a fate that befalls us all, that it’s hardly even recognized as such. We are so accustomed to this predicament that we overlook it, try to ignore it as long as we can, and then are stunned and upset when we encounter it. That predicament is death.

Death is the elephant in the room. We age and try to stay young, fall ill and hope it not something more serious, and gain possessions and status hoping they’ll satiate and distract us in the meantime. With death ever looming and no one winning against it we begin to live for consolation prizes like living to the fullest, accumulating all we can, and having our name carried on.

In this vacuum of not knowing if this life is all there is we start to imagine and make up ideas of what could be, some ideas getting more traction than others. We imagine we are reincarnated, reconstituted, resurrected, reintegrated into a universal energy, or there is nothing at all and this is it. But certainly they can’t all be true.

How would we even begin to determine if there were an answer to our predicament? Should we listen to the words of a science fiction writer such as Hubbard? Should we listen to the plethora of supposed prophets like Joseph Smith and Muhammad who have not beaten death? Should we listen to theorists like Buddha or Shirley McLain? How about scientists like Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson? Have any of these given us good reason to trust they know what they’re talking about regarding death? Are we truly at a loss and in the dark regarding our predicament?

Who could we trust? What would be the qualifications someone would need to validate they know what they are talking about? Certainly, I would hope, whoever has a true answer to our predicament of death would be able to overcome the predicament and not die themselves by food poisoning (Buddha), an illness (Muhammad), or a stroke (Hubbard). What if a person were to intentionally die and then live again while claiming he came from the beyond? What if that person also brought others back to life from the dead? Have Tyson or Sagan done that?

And that leaves us with only one that I know of, only one that I have ever encountered with credentials strong enough to merit paying serious attention to and turning all others into mere fictional entertainment… Jesus, the most intelligent, powerful, and wisest person to ever walk the earth. Most everyone knows the events of his dying by crucifixion and living again 3 days later. Few however know what he taught. And so I leave you with this… if you want a credible answer to the most pressing human predicament we have, check him out. 😉

“… but what will you do at the end of it?”

Jeremiah

5:31

What will you do at the end of it?

Good advice when contemplating any engagement or decision.  What will it lead to?  Is it a place you ultimately want to go or end up?  If not, then perhaps go a different direction.  😉 

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Exodus

20:7

Vain – Without real significance, value, or importance.

This commandment for the longest time has meant for me be careful how you use the word “God” because of course, God is God’s name, right?  🙂 The most outright application of this commandment then, since the time of being a child, has been, don’t say, “God damn” unless of course you are really wanting God to damn something.  The essence being, don’t unthinkingly use the word God or any other word for Him.  

Though this can have some value, I don’t see this really fitting the full intent of the commandment.  I think the fullness of the commandment stems around the taking of the name, not in the sense of how we use a name, but in the sense of entering into a relationship or a family and taking on the name of that family for our own.  

I heard an example of taking on a name with a family member recently, an aunt, who after getting married was told, “Remember, you’re an [insert name here] now, you don’t have to take shit anymore.”  🙂 

You see, Israel, as we’ve laid out already in commandment one and two, is leaving behind the world of Egypt with their many gods and entering into a new world.  Israel is learning how to relate to this one God who has just delivered them from Egypt and slavery.  This God is teaching Israel that they are to take their relationship with Him seriously, that they are becoming His people.  He is taking them on as His own, as He says over and over, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” And with this command, God is informing Israel this is not a meaningless label or a loose affiliation, it is a marriage and to be a deep and primary identity.  

For our day, I don’t think this needs much translating but does need clearer understanding.  Taking God’s name in vain is not merely, “God Damn,” or “Oh my God,” or even cussing “Jesus Christ.”  Taking God’s name in vain in our day is more akin to a politician claiming to be in Christ to secure Christ follower’s votes, a religious leader using their position for their own gain, or someone viewing God as just one of a handful of things that will help them get what they want in this world.  

When one truly grows in this command, grows in learning from God and living intentionally in His ways, they will find other identities, other names, begin to slip away… political party, nationality, ethnicity, gender… That is why Paul says so definitively that “IN” Christ all our worldly distinctions are meaningless. In God, if we continue in Him in all seriousness and not in vain self-serving displays, we learn among many other things that all are loved, even our enemies. That knowledge then begins to change us from the inside out into a people who truly are God’s people, but it begins with following this commandment, “follow me in earnest and above all else.”

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

Exodus

20:4

Okay, lets take a look at commandment 2. God has set the initial foundation with commandment one, “I alone will be your God.” Now he follows it up with, “Don’t make any carved images or likenesses.” What does this mean? Those of you who have had some history with the church will know this has led to some pretty radical interpretations at times. It seems we often focus on the ‘image’ part of this commandment and so there are whole churches without any kind of ‘image’ in their building, some going so far as to not even have a cross on display. I think however the more important part of the command, the essence of it, is to “not make for yourself…” That’s what I intend to explore with commandment two.

So, to get to the understanding of how to apply this commandment to our day we need to again take a look at how and why this command was applied when it was given. Israel is coming out of Egypt, a land with MANY images of a plethora of deities. Egypt also had a highly established religious system and flushed out understanding of their many gods. Much of this system were practices developed to appease the gods for good favor and blessings that life may proceed well. Israel is now being pulled out of this and into a life with the God of Abraham, their forefather.

God, in contrast to the culture of Egypt, has not only said, “you shall only have one god” but is now also saying, “you shall not have an image of me or anything else.” Can you see how this would throw Israel for a loop? This is a huge change! How then are they to relate to this god? How are they to appease him to assure their crops will grow, the rains will come, and the rivers won’t flood? God is having to teach Israel how to relate to him. God is having to change the dynamic of the relationship from, “you must appease me” to, “I am nurturing and raising you.” He is changing it from, “show your loyalty and dedication to me” to “seek to understand and know me and my ways.” It’s a relationship no longer of a god demanding from a people but a god giving to a people. And in this dynamic God has to teach the people of Israel not make things up, either imaginary images of him or ideas, but instead to listen to him.

Let’s try putting it another way, maybe by answering the question, “why not an image?”, “Why give up having images to worship as in Egypt?”

For starters, how could the creator of all things ever be encapsulated or adequately represented by some thing he created? Also, if God is real, living, and active, it stands to reason that he would want to be in a relationship with us, and not have us be in a relationship with some thing or object. Let’s put it this way, what spouse would want their partner more infatuated with their ring than themselves?

But this, not having images, is still not the crux of the command or the big change that God is bring about in Israel. The big change is, “don’t make for yourselves…” images just happens to be the context of their day. So how about the context for our day?

Admittedly in our day we, at least in the western world, we don’t really have carved images of deities we venerate. We do however fall into the same trap of “creating for ourselves” systems, ideas, and practices by which we think we can appease some kind of god or the universe. We create and follow ideas by which we think we can have some measure of control over the outcome of our lives. We think positive, we follow a law of attraction, we conjure up faith to try and alter reality, we align our chi, and we make sure to confess a belief in Jesus to get our ticket into heaven. I’m sure you can come up with many more examples of things we create for ourselves to try and get whatever it is we want.

But God says, do not create for yourself an image of him. God is wanting us to know him as he really is and is willing to teach us and show us who he is. Time and time again there are stories and accounts in the scriptures that are followed with the phrase, “… so that you may know.” And there are abundant passages to the theme of, “my people perish for lack of knowledge.” And there is no lack of encouragement to seek truth, seek understanding, seek knowledge, seek wisdom, and seek God and his kingdom. This is a God who wants to be known and understood, not appeased and placated.

I think the final reason for us not to make images of God for ourselves is because he planned to give us an image, an image that would be true and accurate. A living image since He is a living being. An image that could convey and carry the most important thing He wanted us to know about Him… that he deeply loves and cares for us. This image is his son, Jesus. In Jesus we have the love of God personified. Like a child being a “spitting image” of a parent, we have a son who is an image of The Father.

And so today, perhaps, the second commandment may be better understood as “You shall look to the image of myself that I have given you, and stop making shit up.” 🙂 Sorry, couldn’t resist. Okay, I’ll tame it down a bit… “Seek truth and the real Me, not made-up theories and practices” He wants to be found and He wants you to live in what’s real with you.  Why?  Because He loves you. 

“You shall have no other gods before me”

Exodus

20:3

The Ten Commandments… The Ten Commandments get a bad rap today. I’ll be the first to admit though that I myself when hearing about them often think, “old… outdated… a bad movie…” But recently, after spending some time reflecting on them and reading through Exodus, I’ve come to have a different take. In fact, I think the Ten Commandments in their day could have been somewhat akin to the love & peace message of the hippie days.

You see, when you take into consideration the culture and context of when the Ten Commandments were given you’ll find that they were really moving the people to a different way of living. A way that was much more caring and considerate of others than the way they were used to living. And in fact, when Israel entered into their promised land they were supposed to post the Ten Commandments at their border and I can imagine those not so inclined to be as kind and loving as the commandments called them to be would have even been a bit embarrassed at this mushy love stuff that they were now supposed to live by.

So what were these commandments, how were they in contrast to the practices of the day, and how could we better interpret them in our day? For surely God constantly and consistently works to move us to higher understandings of peace, goodness, and love. That’s what we’ll attempt to take a look at with the commandments.

So, commandment one…

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3

With this command, the first and most obvious contrast was that the people had many other gods they considered more important than the god of their fathers who had just brought them out of slavery in Egypt. If this weren’t the case God would not have needed to say it. 🙂 Essentially God is saying, “Look, I know you don’t really know me that well yet but I just saved your butts from being slaves another 400 years while those other so-called gods you knew of in Egypt really did nothing for you because, surprise, they don’t really exist. So, let them go the way of wood in fire and I will be your god and you will be my people.”

And can you see it? How embarrassing in a social sense this might be? That they would all of a sudden only look to this one deity, new to the scene, that no one really knew? That Israel would turn away from all the well known, accepted, and established deities and practices of soliciting help from them and look only to this one new-to-town deity? It would seem like foolishness. And if this god had just shown up and given this command, it might be foolishness, but that’s not what happened.

What happened was this god showed up and acted with power. He acted in such a way that each of the powerful signs he did to bring Israel out of Egypt corresponded to the supposed power and domain of an acknowledged god in Egypt. The god of the Nile was powerless to act when the god of Israel acted on the water and so on, all the way up to the god that Egypt offered their first born to was powerless to save when the god of Israel acted. Not only this, but the god of Israel then showed Himself as care taker and able to protect when He parted the sea, provided food and water, and manifested his guiding presence in many different ways.

After all this however, the people of Israel still found it hard to change the things they believed and the way they were living. They even went so far as to make a calf out of gold and start soliciting it for help at the same time this god of their fathers was manifesting his power to them on a mountain top. Ironically Israel ran away from God to a piece of metal while He was trying to reveal himself because that’s what they were used to. And so, is it any wonder why God had to spell it out for them in words since they still didn’t get it? And so He says, “Don’t have any other gods before me. Hello. I’m the one here actually talking and acting. Do you see that piece of metal doing anything for you? Has if ever talked to you? It’s not going to help you. It can’t. Stop wasting your time with it. You’re doing yourself no good with it. I’m trying to actually help you here if you’d pay attention and let me.”

But of course, a real God can indeed be a scary thing. An actual and alive being with that much power? And an encounter with Him is likely to send one running for help if he is not seen as good, or still running for help if he is seen as good and we know ourselves not to be good. But that’s for another discussion.

So to recap, God, really quite unknown at this time, intervenes in the life of Israel rather dramatically, and pulls them out of Egypt. He then begins to nurture their new relationship, explaining He is above and before all these other god’s they have known and they now need to leave them behind and follow Him.

So how about for us now, many centuries later, and in a day where its not the norm any longer to solicit a handful of deities for help? A day where instead, the belief of the existence of any kind of deity is easily looked upon as foolishness?

To this day does the first commandment still speak? I think it does, but perhaps not as, “Have no other gods before me.” Perhaps instead something like, “Have Me as the Father of fathers before you.”

You see, in our day we don’t relate to gods in the same way anymore, our culture is different. We do however relate to and can understand the idea of mentors, teachers, or fathers. We can innately recognize, at least in part, the difference between a good father and a bad one. Perhaps that’s why Jesus, when teaching his disciples to pray started with, “Our father…” instead of “Our god…”. Perhaps this ultimate deity known to us as “God” is bringing us to a further understanding of Himself something like this… “Great, you’ve understood me as the God of gods, now understand me as the Father of fathers, for I am so much more than a god.”

Consider for a moment the idea of “have no other fathers before me.” Consider the idea of an actual, real, and living deity being your father. That could be a pretty scary idea given what power He has already shown Himself to have and that He could use that power to grow His children. But that too is another discussion.

And so as we consider this first commandment for our day, does this deity this time show up with just words and say, “I will be your father. Have no other fathers before me?” Does He ask us to just go along with it, looking like fools? No, he has again in this day and age shown up and acted in a way as to prove himself to be the only good father. He has proven his power even over that which all other fathers wish to save their children from but can’t… power over death and power to give life forever to His children.

This god/father, in our day, again manifested himself to His people. But this time sending His own son (Jesus) who, being rejected to the point of death, was then raised to life again. What other father can do that? In so doing, this Father of fathers assures us of His ability to indeed be the Father of fathers. And they (the Father and Son) in essence say, “Look, don’t run away from us again. We will love and care for you and show you how best to live this existence called life. We know you don’t fully understand, but we will help you, show you, and teach you, and we have everything at our disposal to help do so. We are overlooking and pardoning all that you’ve not gotten right, both intentionally and unintentionally. Only let God be your father now, not anyone else, and We will keep you in life even beyond this life. There is so much more We want to show you.”

And so still in our day, even today, as God has said and acted in the life, death, and life again of His own son… all people everywhere have the invitation and opportunity to enter into a relationship with the Father of fathers. And His first commandment still rings true… “Have Me as the Father of fathers before you.”