Takers and Leavers

I've recently been given a new alarm clock. It's pretty simple to use. I go to bed at night and make sure that I am thoroughly asleep. Then the sun rises and a tribe of squirrels begins to rocket acorns towards the section of rood just above my head. It would work great as an alarm if only the squirrels could outlast my half-conscious patience. They were at it again this morning and I simply wondered their names.

So as I've already mentioned, Ismael showed me some familiar thoughts from unfamiliar angles. He really could use some help on some topics, such as his illogical construction of the idea of gods. In his mind gods make the decision of which creatures die and which live. If we shift gods to God then I can agree with that thought. However, I do not think it makes sense that his gods hold life and death in their hands, yet they cannot keep man from mucking things up. Ismael describes two peoples: Takers and Leavers. Takers have taken their lives out of the hands of the gods and into their own hands. Leavers have chosen to leave their lives in the hands of the gods. He refers to these two people groups as living out two different stories. He links things, at one point, to the creation story in Genesis, albeit with an erroneous interpretation or two.

And it is in his description of the Leavers that Ishmael begins to get something write. He defines Leavers as those who leave their lives in the hands of the gods. A little bit of the Sermon on the Mount is even pulled in and correctly so because as Jesus talks about the lilies and the sparrows we are reminded that they leave their lives in the hands of God and suffer no want, nor any worrisome thing. And this is when the words on my wrist gleam again from the light of a different angle.

Leave your life in my hands. Abide in me. Both are saying the same thing, yet in a slightly different way. When you leave something, you leave it and are done. Abiding is a can be misconstrued as something that is present, progressive, and active. However, when Christ is telling us to abide in him he draws a parallel to grapes on the vine. Grapes are doing nothing progressive or active to remain attached to the vine, they are merely and profoundly being what they are intended and purposed to be, grapes. And so to leave your life in the hands of God is nothing more than being who we are intended to be, leavers in the hands of a good God