Difficult choices

Read Time:6 Minute, 8 Second

Difficult choices

I recently wrote about Gideon and his work to destroy idols. As I continued to reflect on this text, another dilemma appeared in my heart, which I had not touched upon while writing the previous article. Tomasz Ponikło in his text, “Beautiful genes” also touched on this topic, so I decided to introduce it to theseus’ readers and my friends from FB. This thread is actually a question. Why did Gideon’s father stand behind his son, thereby protecting his life, since he was the one who built pagan idols?

We live in a country where at least I have heard respect the elderly, love parents, God also offers us this approach. In the commandment from the tablets of Moses, which he received on Mount Sinai, we read – “Honor your Father and your Mother, that it may be well for you …” The Apostle repeats this commandment in Eph. 6: 1-3 and says that this is the first commandment with a promise. A simple mechanism, then, honor your parents, and you’ll be fine. You will not worship, it will not be well. It seems, however, that the emphasis is on the fact that not caring for our parents can have a negative effect in our lives. The fundamental question, however, is what it means to worship. Did Gideon disrespect the idols his father had set up?

Theologians and commentators agree that this commandment is about loving parents. With a wise love, respect despite their imperfections, the mistakes they make, not remembering them the wrongs that they sometimes did to us. It is not easy, of course, in the case of the fathers of pedophiles, alcoholics, who made a young man’s childhood hell. It is rather an attitude in which we have good and understanding thoughts about our parents, not hiding their mistakes and sins, but a love that only imitates the good things we could take from them, but rejects what is bad. I will say more against evil, for example, when an older child understands that his father or mother is abusing his younger siblings, it is not wrong to stop this phenomenon.

When I talk to my relatives , e.g. with most of my siblings, unfortunately already due to the death of the reduced, I hear some words, you remember what your parents taught you, it is holy. My father always said both. And my parents had both at home. Once upon a time I was so amazed, because indeed the words we heard at home didn’t matter so much to me, because my life undermined most of the truths I heard at home. My parents were simple people with their problems and struggles and the knowledge they passed on to us, though valuable was knowledge derived from experience and experiences, sometimes one-offs.

What outrage I saw on the faces of my loved ones when I once started questioning parental truths. I realized then that in fact these were the foundations and foundations of morality, customs and, in fact, the principles of life for my loved ones. This DNA code, imprinted through childhood and adolescence, is so strong that it has dominated the lives of my loved ones. Thomas wrote about God’s DNA, what does that mean? It is true that he claims that every man has it because he is a child of God, but our life shows something else. We do not carry within us the code of God’s DNA, but the code of our parents and educators. We can inherit God’s DNA code only if we are born of God, according to the biblical texts. Yes, when God genuinely and authentically becomes our Father.

I couldn’t understand in my relationship with my relatives why I have a different value system based on God, His nature and His Word . Why, I seem to have evaporated those value systems that were preferred in my family home, and I do not even agree with them too much. Hence, it is sometimes difficult for us to communicate or gain acceptance for God’s thoughts that shaped me. Even in their hearts there was some regret that why they did not want to confront their borrowed beliefs with God’s Truth. I think that it is so deep in us that only a new birth from God is able to change this DNA code in us, only God, making us sons and daughters, creates in us a completely new man, for whom what the Heavenly Father says is the most important .

Such a transformation cannot happen through human efforts, through what I see, but through a profound metamorphosis of our mind that God makes. These changes mean that our relatives no longer perceive us as from one nest, but as somewhat strangers, people who have changed their views, who identify with God’s origin and character rather than with people. This joining of God’s family can arouse anger and envy among people who have been favorable to us, because we have been torn from the template, from certain mental boxes and we have tasted freedom. This freedom is unfettered and its limits are love.

Gideon’s meeting with the messenger of heaven broke the fear of people, of the earthly father, and drew his attention to the fact that there were matters much more important than blind obedience to people, even the closest. Therefore, he was not completely afraid to smash the paternal vision of god, which was probably influenced by the mass of human beings, as was the case with the calf and Aaron, and on its rubble to remind everyone who is God. In this determination, probably Gideon’s father noticed God’s action, this expressive attitude of his son spoke more than these dead idols, he also saw in him the life that he also lacked. Breaking all conventions, he supported his son with his wisdom, which resulted in good for all.

So a few questions, do we prefer to blindly imitate our ancestors or ancestors of a nation when we know they were wrong? Are we ready to accept God’s DNA and change our mentality, morals and principles? After all, are we ready to resist the evil that God encourages us to abolish? Are we able to break traditions, customs and servile submission (for various motivations) in favor of freedom in God? And finally, are we brave enough to enjoy God’s freedom and grant it to others, despite the fact that those who have been favorable to us will oppose us and do evil?

These are not easy questions but we need to look at them and try to figure out how I want to continue my life. Is my life to be a life of changes, Gideon’s revolutions, or rather, as we read it – J. 42, “ Nevertheless, many members of the Council believed in Him, but for the sake of the Pharisees, they did not profess their faith lest they would be excluded from the synagogue; 43 They loved human glory more than God’s glory. ” Well, do we prefer the glory of God, which is often preceded by a life of obedience to God in sacrifices, sufferings, but also joys and love, though completely different things, God’s things, or we push our wheelchair of life without reflection and willingness to change, just to survive the next day somehow.