Maintaining a Balanced Perspective

Holy Cow, I just. can’t. even. right. now. Also, gotta apologize again that this post deviates from my blog’s stated purpose. But apparently delusions might be a side effect of working in this industry, so I figure we better talk about this.

Dad went into the market today and started yelling at people to repent. I don’t know what’s happening to him. He’s become very critical of the Jews and our leaders. He seems to focus incessantly on the negative, the errors, and where everyone else is going astray. I mean, everyone obviously has areas they need to improve, but most of the people I know around here are generally decent, God-fearing people.

Heck, we follow the Law of Moses, we keep the appointed sacrifices, and we listen to the counsel of our leaders. Laman said he thinks Dad is just a fool, but I think there’s more going on than that. Dad’s been around for awhile, and has done really well in business and in the community. He’s clearly no fool. So there’s something else...

I’ve noticed that the Jeremiah-following antis seem to focus too much on the words of the dead prophets. They try to pit the words of prophets of old against our current prophets and priests. The thing they don’t seem to understand is that Isaiah was writing for his time (about 100 years ago), not ours. Just because Isaiah condemned Judah for relying on “Egypt for help" back then doesn’t mean Egypt can’t help Judah repel Babylon today. But Jeremiah doesn’t seem to get that. Luckily, God has chosen our current leaders to provide us with correct direction for our current circumstances. Moreover, Jeremiah might be a priest, but he's just one priest and so his negative influence can be counteracted by the vast majority of the leadership. That’s why it’s important to listen to the majority, not the fringe.

So I don’t think Dad is a fool, I just worry that in listening to Jeremiah, he’s lost his balance. A balanced perspective comes from keeping our eyes on God’s chosen leaders. These anointed men are so close to God, and they know what we as a people need.

Anyway, as a result of all of this, Dad got thrown out of the market and kind of banged up. I feel bad for him; his knee looks pretty bad. I hope he takes care of himself and doesn’t pull something like this again.