Little Things

Generated by a man of God, rationalization became a serious matter in Abimelech’s kingdom.  Abraham presumed it a little thing.  The human mind muddles lives when it casts belief and conduct beyond basic truth in linear contexts of thought. The Zeigarnik effect is an illustration of the way the mind works in variegated ways.  That effect, named after a Russian psychiatrist who ferreted it out, shows that a waiter can remember orders he has not served more readily than those already served.  Elaborated studies show that as many as ninety percent of the persons studied could remember tasks that are not done better than those they had completed, and to which they had given closure.  That which is undone offers some stress and holds attention, whereas accomplishment, with stress now removed, holds less memory.  There is a very important lesson to be learned here.  Some persons live only in currency.  The present day is all they hold in value related to others.  A friendship that included mutual interests and benefits is abandoned for one recent offense or oversight.  It appears commonly in many marriages.  Forgotten are the years of mutual accomplishment and effort, the ax falls on the violation that seems too great to manage, to help solve, to forgive – today.  This apparently happened to King David and his wife of years, Michal.

Michal was the daughter of King Saul, and the sister of David’s best friend, Jonathan.  Saul preferred that David marry his eldest daughter in the joining of families, but the love between David and the younger Michal triumphed.  She went with David, even into exile that lasted for some years, and the story may be extended with the record of a marriage of love.  She found some difficulty in meeting David’s gifts as soldier, rancher, leader, musician, poet, and dynamic personality.  Of a sudden it was all over.  (2 Samuel 6:20-23)  David, full of spiritual exultation, demonstrating his faith, doing his duty, offering celebration gifts to the citizenry, turned to his home to share privately with his wife of years, his joy, love and intimacy only to be met with shrill response that set him back on his heels.  They exchanged words so hurting to each other that when David left the apartment he had provided for them, he determined never to visit it again.  What a gross ending to a love story, and to a witness of the victory of God for the kingdom, once ruled by Michal’s father.  She had seen her father’s duplicity, probably managed it well in some ways as did her brother and David.  She failed in the moment of high achievement, and it is likely that David failed in not gaining the higher ground holding to their investment of mutual life to this moment.  They had delayed having a family until there could be a settling environment.  Now, he could address their personal interests and plan on family legacy.  When Solomon took over his father David’s throne many years later, the king was birthed from a different wife – and, Michal . . . had no child unto the day of her death.

What little thing turned Judas . . . or Demas . . . or fathers, mothers, children from each other?  What will divide neighbors?  What thing breaks up religious groups in variant institutions, sometimes with fierce words of conflict?  I have read an excellent dictionary on the history of the Christian church, and find it appalling that some difference, not vital in the difference, could lead to trial for heresy, even to execution – many executions.  We may wonder what there is in the human condition that permits good people on differing sides to feel the world is not large enough to manage all of us.  In this understanding of human fault is part of the reason that God calls on us to leave judgment to him.  He really is the only one who can evaluate fairly, knowing the facts, the purpose, the culture, and all else so to reach a fair and just conclusion.  If he wants my enemy dead, he can take the enemy out in a moment – as he can determine rightly.  So it is that we can prepare ourselves for a good report, by taking responsibility for who we are, blaming no one for our missteps, offering forgiveness and solutions for problems, and all that with good will to one another.  The most striking line I remember from the film of Billy Budd is the one just before Budd jumps from the yardarm to his death, an execution: God bless the Captain.  The Captain is the one who sentenced him to death.  In this meaning we are informed from Scripture – love your enemies, bless them . . . do good to them . . . pray for them.   (Matthew 6:44)  If for enemies, why not family and neighbors?