In Response to our Compulsive Nature

Scripture passage that caught my attention today: Luke 3:19-20 But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added to them all by shutting up John in prison.

Observation: Luke presents Herod as a person purposely inclined to evil.

Application: The other day a friend of mine opened a fortune cookie and found the following adage just in time for the new year: “avoid compulsively making things worse.”

For many of us, this would be good advice. We don’t know how to quit while we’re ahead, hold our tongue, resist clicking the next link, leave well enough alone.

“Co-Dependent” was a big buzz-word when I was beginning ministry and one of our more useful assigned readings was a book entitled: “Co-Dependent No More.” The author encourages taking responsibility for our own actions and feelings but not to be consumed with taking responsibility for everybody else’s actions and feelings. It’s good general advice. Otherwise we become like an overly enthusiastic ‘handiman’ who begins with intent to fix a simple kitchen leak and ends up remodeling an entire aging house that we don’t want to keep and is now worth far less than we’ve invested to ‘fix’ it.

Herod, according to Luke, kept making things worse. He had done lots of bad things and then “added to them all” by putting John in prison. Agh! What’s next?

Answer in a word? Jesus.

Luke takes some genealogical pains to make sure we understand Jesus’ lineage. Biblical scholars will take issue with a few of Luke’s assumptions, but not with his ultimate conclusion—Jesus is the Son of God.

Perhaps that it why, from what I can tell, Jesus is the first person to walk this earth who compulsively makes things better rather than the other way around. Even more impressively, Jesus makes things better without falling prey to a co-dependent nature of trying to meet everyone else’s expectations to the exclusion of his own. Yes, Jesus actually knows when to stop talking, when to retreat for prayer, when to—as youth say today—“chillax,” and, of course, when to take a path others might suggest he avoid.

Perhaps someday we’ll have the wherewithal to follow suit.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for being Lord. Help us to recognize such things. In Jesus' name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Genesis 6-8 and Luke 3)