Sarah Laughed!

DAILY BYTE

Really, it is no wonder that Sarah laughed. She had lived with her barrenness until she was old and gray, and so the promise of a child must have seemed ridiculous. Evil and death are so prominent in our world, and sometimes God’s promises seem so far away that they are just about impossible.

The hard experiences we face in life teach us to read and interpret our experiences with some degree of suspicion. We all know that children aren’t born like that.

In South Africa today, we are struggling not to interpret all our experiences with a great deal of scepticism. “How could it possible get worse?” people are asking each other with rising interest rates, crime rates, and food prices. Then of course we are also struggling with the effects of xenophobia, morally fudged leadership, seemingly shaky infrastructures and the implosion of our neighbour Zimbabwe.

There is a lot of pain and hurt happening causing much frustration and also creating a hermeneutics of suspicion throughout our land. Like when Eskom stopped load-shedding, the rumour that went around was because the major power dealers all had shares in generator companies and now that their stocks had soared through the roof, they could stop the load shedding!

A hermeneutics of suspicion indeed.

The problem with living like this is, as Eugene Peterson once said: “If we narrow our eyes in suspicion, then the world is correspondingly narrowed down around us.”

If we read and interpret all of our experiences with suspicion, then our worlds will shrink down around us, as will our faith, and probably our souls along with it.

For as Peterson writes elsewhere: “The moment that we allow evil to control our imaginations, dictate the way we think, and shape our responses, we at the same time become incapable of seeing the good and the true and the beautiful.”

Is this true for you?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord, I ask that you would point out to me exactly how and where I may have been living with this hermeneutics of suspicion. Show me the areas of life that I need to bring to you for healing and renewal. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Genesis 18 : 11-15 NRSV

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” ” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”