I’ve been blogging through the well scenes in the Bible. You can read previous posts here, here, and here.
Isaac makes me sad. His well scene is in Genesis 24:1-11:
Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”
The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?”
“Make sure that you do not take my son back there,” Abraham said. ”The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’ – he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.”
So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter. Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and left, taking with him all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water.
Isaac makes me sad because he is missing from his own story. It starts here in the well scene, but continues through the rest of his narrative. He is never the hero. He is never the main character. He isn’t ever really even the victim. Things are always happening to him. He is a pawn in the stories of others. A side character in his own biography. It is sad.
Yesterday I was having a rough day. I was stressed and tired. I came home and sat down at the kitchen table, pulled open my lap top, and began reading blogs mindlessly on google reader. As I read, Jude (my 2 year old) played loudly in the living room. Logan (my 4 year old) lay on couch watching T.V. Jackson and Wendy (my 8 year old and my wife) left for Jackson’s drumming lesson. And Julianna (my 6 year old) gathered her stuff for dance class…and I just sat and looked at a screen, detached from all of it, absent from my own life. I was like Isaac. And it was sad.
I think in our digital age of unlimited access to distractions it is easier than ever to become an Isaac – to turn off, to disappear from our own story. I find the temptation comes for me most when I’m stressed. I’m learning that to combat the Isaac temptation I need to force myself to engage.
God doesn’t want this for you. He wants you to be the hero of your story. He wants you to bravely go with Him on mission. He wants you to be present and find joy in others around you. He doesn’t want you to be a side character.
If you suffer from this as I do, maybe this will help. Recently I’ve been reciting this verse to myself:
Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong. Do everything in love. – 1st Corinthians 16:13-14
This post reminded me of Adam Sandler in “Click”