2 Kings 9-11 Systemic Failure, Systemic Healing

April 24th, 2 Kings 9-11

       Systems are everywhere. They are part of life. There are living systems...our bodies, there are relational systems...our families, there are inanimate systems...our cars. Within each system there are systems... our bodies digest and think, our families have parents and sibling, our cars have brakes and engines. When things break down they have impact on other systems.
       For the last several years my back has gone from being annoying to being a problem. It was explained to me that too much sitting over the years means your hips rotate out of place. Systems have to work so they compensate for a problem with a solution. The solution is your muscles begin to strengthen and tighten to to try to hold something that should be different. The tightening of those muscles could be an irritation so you begin to try and sit another way, which is also wrong, so your body has to figure out a way to solve that, round and round it goes... A Doctor (a great young man in my case), then comes in and tells you how things ought to be(like a prophet). Years of messing it up, won't be cured instantly. This is also the nature of systems.
       Systems get off course, don't diagnose the real problem, come up with bad solutions, work hard at something that doesn't solve the problem, reidentify a symptom(not the core problem), failed diagnosis, pain, frustration, blaming. Sound like government...sound like some churches, sound like some families(relationships), sound like the Old Testament...sounds like life...I can't wait for heaven.
       Today's story sounds a bit brutal. Where we are in the history of Israel and kings is at a point where the whole system is so toxic( it could take a pageful of info to express the toxicity), that something radical has to take place to even bring it back to life. Like chemotherapy and high doses of radiation. Treatments that can kill the host if doctors aren't careful. In the case of Ahab and Jezebel's family line, it had to come to an end so that something new could start. Now it's going to have a restart with the youngest king in Israel's history. King Joash, seven years old.
       You and I have to pay attention to the system of our lives. What sin are we tolerating and allowing to incubate inside of us? What cancer cells of gossip, control, greed, lust, jealousy are welling up inside of us. Better to take some vitamins now than chemotherapy later. Better to listen to the Spirit's voice when the issues of life are budding, than to need to cut off a main trunk 10 years from now. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so let's take good steps. Here's some good midwest United States advice...

"Ain't no use being in a hurry....if your going the wrong direction."