Shrapnel

 

Shrapnel

John 12:25 “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

     Sorry, this is not another fun one.  In fact, sobriety is much sought after.  It is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of mirth.  Wisdom is found in contemplation.

     From seventh grade on, I was indoctrinated by the tube.  M.A.S.H. was a religious event in our house.  A very fictional sitcom rooted in the Korean Conflict. It had very little to do with war and more with a half-handled cluster of characters vying for the camera lens.  Sorry, Alan Alda, I know you made money for your passion, but the script didn’t convince my military awareness.

     One truth they repeatedly brought was the incessant cleanup of shrapnel.  I could buy this one.  Exploding bombs meant fragments into a man’s flesh.  I remember a man from my youth being hit with a shot gun.  My dad joked that he’d never make it past the metal detector at the airport.  So in the T.V. show, we hear the clunk, clunk of extracted metal pieces dropped into the surgery basins.  It was a painful task, for both participants.

     Woe to us when we explode the bombs!  Not in blood, that’d be against the law.  Shrapnel goes forth to the soul ripping holes which only imploded back on themselves to plug the leaks.  The soul is like Jello. It absorbs much and closes in upon itself, but the inner streaks of former abuse can be seen.  So the soul can withstand much.  However, to shoot Jello with a shot gun totally overwhelms it.

     Jesus’ healing is needed.  He sees the years of abuse.  He even knows the tendency of the Jello to dry over time in self-protection as if to form a tight skin of unfeeling.  How He sees us dried up and in defense, unable to move to the gentle ebbing of joy in this life. Stones lay about the beach unmoved by waves meant to caress not threaten.  This is the picture.

     We have a responsibility.  Will we blow up and threaten those about?  Will our continual shrapnel zing through as a grenade in the watermelon?  Will we keep our person?  Lord, please help us not damage.

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