control freak

I admit it. My name is Krista and I am a control freak. I need to feel in control of the things that happen to me in my life and I feel very disrupted and disturbed when I don't have that control.

Sadly, I don't have as much control as I like to think I do. I can't control other people, only my reactions to them. I can't control world events like tsunamis and earthquakes and hurricanes. I can't control death.

It's funny how I often become obsessive about the little things I can control, like the neatness of my apartment or the amount of work I do or the kind of food I eat. It gives me that sense of being in control when I might not be. I've always said that you can tell the state of my mind my the state of my desk. If it's neat and clean, I usually have a lot on my mind and need to keep my desk orderly or I start to feel like I'm losing it. If my desk is a little messier than usual, that usually means I don't have as much to think about and don't feel that desperate need to keep my desk as clean.

Reading today's passage, it occurred to me that maybe I'm not the only one who picks on the little things in order to avoid the bigger issues that feel more out of my control.

The Jews have a whole system of rules and regulations surrounding food. I don't know them all, but I do know some of them: no pork and no mixing dairy and meat in the same dish. There are more, but I can't recall them all. Anyway, Jesus comes along and tells them, "Look, God gave you those rules for a purpose - to keep you healthy and to help you recognize your separateness from the pagan nations you were coming into contact with. But food does not make you more or less holy in God's eyes. Nothing that you put into your body makes you more or less holy to God. What does make you 'unclean' is what comes out of you - your words and actions and behaviors."

Food is an easy thing to control. We all decide what we will and won't eat every day. The Jews thought that if they were careful to control what they put into their bodies, then they would be acceptable to God. This abdicated them from the responsibility of being 'good people' in their words, actions and behaviors.

Christians don't focus on food necessarily, but we do have a number of easily controllable rules and regulations that we often cling to so that we can ignore our guilt about not being good people in our words, actions and behaviors. We go to church. We give our money to charitible organizations. We get involved in a ministry. All good things, but sometimes we're in danger of believing that these things we do make us more or less holy to God.

Let's pay attention to the state of our hearts first...