Spiritual Direction?

There is an urban myth which we had recounted to us by the leader of our Faith and Science group yesterday.

Here is a written version from 1993:

Many have heard the story of the man whose devotional reading consisted of cracking his Bible at random and reading the first verse his finger touched. One morning this was his verse for the day: “And Judas went out and hanged himself.”

That can’t be it, he thought. So he tried again. “Go thou and do likewise” was his second hit.

Chagrined, he thought, The third time is a charm! It wasn’t. It read: “What thou doest, do quickly!” (From a post “Read Your Bible!” by Art Farstad)

Hubris?

I believe this story has to do with a puffed-up individual whose ego allows him to think that God speaks directly to him. In the version we heard yesterday, he was a minister who was quite proud of his ability to be led by the Holy Spirit.

But we weren’t given the punchline…

Then Jesus said to him…

I can totally see the point of this story. I get it, I really do.

We build up this wonderful image of ourselves and we try to project it out into the world, so that our fellow human beings can see it, too.

But that is where we are mistaken. We need to see ourselves as we truly are: humbled before God.

Without humility, we will think ourselves to be as God. Heaven forbid!