Though these didn’t send at Christmas,
the principles remain the same
Legend tells us that The Twelve Days of Christmas
was a secret catechism during times of persecution.
For these twelve days let’s focus on twelve teachings:
The Tenth Day of Christmas
Ten Lords a Leaping
Yesterday we said, “If you want to dance, allow the Spirit to help you live according to the nine fruits of the Spirit.”
Today we say, “If you want to leap … to soar … to hope and fly and aspire … allow the Spirit to help you live according to the ten commandments.”
Human nature makes us want to chafe at the Law. We want to do what we want to do. But the path to true blessing is the exact opposite.
When we are loving God – which is what the first four commandments are about – we are following God’s life-giving priorities rather than the world polluted principles. As we said yesterday, these principles may not seem to get immediately be rewarded; but when we follow God’s path (including his rules), we begin to see God (as well as discover greater love, joy, and peace).
And when we are truly loving our neighbor – which is what the final six commandments are about – we are creating a life-giving relationships … and it’s that one of life’s greatest hopes and goals. Loving our neighbor has another positive effect: It recreates the world! In small, gradual, wonderful ways, loving people tend to create around them a world of love, honor, dignity, forgiveness, and selflessness.
Most people live like this: If I break a law, if I fudge and cheat, I’m not hurting anyone but myself. Not true. We are polluting the world. We are contributing, even subtly, to the disintegration of society. People joke about “raising a little hell,” but the fact of the matter is that fudging and cheating causes us to reap a whole lot more hell than we realize. Compromise breeds the disintegration of society.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who wants to leap
rather than be grounded
by the anchor of sin
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