What Isaiah 22 has meant to me

¹⁰ You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

¹¹ You built a reservoir between the two walls
for the water of the Old Pool,
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

¹² The Lord, the LORD Almighty,
called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.

¹³ But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
"Let us eat and drink," you say,
"for tomorrow we die!"

There is a lot of stuff going on in this passage.

- Israel is depicted as under attack. Worse than under attack-- they are under siege. The chariots and horsemen described earlier in the chapter are not Israelites, because Israelites typically did not train horses for combat or have the necessary means to field a regiment of chariots. So, to have a massive army in the valleys of the country may at other times be a mark of splendor or strength... but since they have those horses, it's a sign of defeat. Think Sennacherib (except that story ends a lot better for Israel than this one).

- The actions of Israel then mean more than ever. In this situation, they need to have the ability to make correct choices. Emergency preparations are made, and what is left of Jerusalem is being apportioned out to withstand the siege. The wall is reinforced. Water is gathered. At the surface, it looks like the Israelites are digging in and not going down without a decent fight.

- But the Israelites have instead lost heart. They have a party. Defeat is imminent, so they have as much fun as they can before the invaders snuff them out for good. All of those preparations to hold out during the siege were just rituals... what anyone should do when under this kind of attack. The building of this facade gets a huge amount of narrative time, though, while the exposition of it is only a few verses. How come?

- The end of the chapter is an ironic end of a solid leader. He has made all the right choices and planned all the right moves. But in the final moments, I make the connection that Eliakim chooses not to seek after God, even in the advent of total defeat, and especially when his choices matter most. And though the history books of the nation of Israel speak of victory after victory won by God himself, it just doesn't seem prudent to Eliakim to look to what is intangible or possibly useless against the onslaught. It seems impossible to beat these odds, so he figures his chances of living it up one last time are way better. You can see how he places his wager.

I think this chapter speaks volumes on hollow leadership. And I believe that actions define my values for everyone who doesn't know what I'm thinking. Yes, I read a lot of books about leadership. I've been to quite a few conferences and meetings on how to develop my relational abilities and communication skills and conflict management and visionary thinking. I have been in a position of effective leadership for three years. I am well on my way to knowing all the right moves--

like perseverance. Endurance. Consistency. Integrity. Dialogue. Perspective. Selflessness. Proaction.

But do I look first to God? Or am I building up a wall to be torn down tomorrow?

No Complaining

That's actually what this post is all about. I've decided that it isn't very healthy to keep negativity inside and building. As a matter of fact, a ton of stuff worth complaining about has piled up over the course of Lent so far. It's starting to make me physically sick. Here is where I'm going to try to spill it and see if it makes a difference. At least here, no one will be forced to listen to it. Here goes, starting most recent:

- Sometimes I wish that I could just march up to important people in charge, grab them, and just shake the daylights out of them. I really don't think that powerful people always realize what kind of influence they have over the lives of others. What's worse is that they usually utilize their power to obscure what they're doing from other people. How many people my age in America know about the UN Security Council? About how there are five permanent, powerful members who can veto any kind of intervention at the drop of a hat? Or how the last health care bill submitted to Congress by the Democrats was almost 2,000 pages long-- and it didn't even provide a way to reduce any costs? It is totally unfair that our generation has not only been charged with taking care of this obscene mess that the one before us created, but that we have to deal with the fact that we don't know anything about it! Partly because:

- People on the news are paid to obscure what happens in the world. Cline said it best on Wednesday when he said, "Using language is not a neutral act." It makes sense that news stations should be on 24/7, because people will watch this garbage over and over! When there's nothing happening, they pay random "experts" to sit at a table, whether real or virtual, and shout at each other. It's like an ideological coliseum-- and even though we pick our favorite mental gladiators, all we really came to see is blood. Part of that stems from:

- We live so inconsequentially. Our lives have purpose, but absolutely no meaning. We don't take care of ourselves. We say we need more sleep and end up getting even less. We say we really need to exercise, laughingly, as we open a bag of Doritos. Doritos aren't inherently bad, you know. And I'm not nominalizing my culture as "we" so that I'm exempt. I do it, too. The power is in place for us to buy what they make and work our nails off to get it and eat what we "deserve" and never question their necessity. What would heaven even look like for us?

- Would it just be relationships? Or the relationship? Would it be the myth of a soulmate, the one true love we are destined for since before we were born? The perfect match to our terribly flawed, incomplete, undeserving, but still somehow deserving personalities? Please. Your favorite Nicholas Sparks character is just that: a character. He's not going to materialize from the pages of your book and ask you to spend the rest of your life with him because "that's the way it should work." And Jennifer Aniston/Megan Fox/whoever-your-favorite-stunning-actress-is is not going to walk off the screen to you-- nor would you ever have a chance with her if she did. These people don't exist! It's insulting to everyone else that you believe they do exist! Why should I want to be like that? I don't want to be that guy! Guys who want to be those guys and girls who want to be those girls end up making themselves crazy/sick over it, which is really, really unfair. Stop making a list of what you want in a mate. Stop taking cues of what's attractive from the dominant culture. Just trust God and live your life and don't worry about what's next. Loneliness sucks, but a crappy relationship is worse-- trust me. I'm glad I can't complain anymore.

This didn't help me much, but it has shown me that I've changed what I complain about.

Electric

An assignment was postponed until next week.
A conversation with the smartest person I've ever heard speak.
A presentation on overcoming failure as a leader.
A particularly successful piano lesson.
A letter of acceptance from the University of Louisville.

They say God gives us joy in any circumstance, but all this surrounding goodness is making me want to burst.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, he's alive in me today =)