January 14, 2008, To Be Or Not To Be

Amended

To Be Or Not To Be

In every group, family, existing circle of people someone inevitably becomes a scapegoat. In our desperation and unconscious need to 'not' look at ourselves, to 'not' search out and confess our shortcomings, we find a diversion, the scapegoat. The scapegoat takes every imagined and real pain that we need to own for ourselves. The process for our healing then becomes diverted and prolonged.

I think about the difference of the scapegoat vs. the sacrifice. Aaron was to take two goats, one for atonement to set free into the desert and the other was the Lord's to be sacrificed. In the same way, Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice so that we would be set free.

The gentle, infinite love of the Lord in His giving of Himself as the ultimate sacrifice gives us what we need to have life more abundantly. To find that infinite 'safe place' to confess our shortcomings so we don't divert them to any other person. To help us keep our eyes turned within, to own, to search, to be truthful with ourselves. He gently and lovingly in that 'safe place' allows us to own our shortcomings, our deepest pain, our deepest damaging secrets, our abusiveness, our desperation and acting out that desperation.

When we look at Jesus our Messiah, the ultimate sacrifice, we are guided to look within ourselves and be purged and naked before Him. We now can look in the eyes of every human being and see His love in contrast to our own desperation and pain and realize no one is deserving of that transferring of what is ours to own. That love was freely given for us to be set free (within ourselves), to have that life more abundantly.