The Last Straw

It’s about letting go.

Have you ever, as a parent, been so frustrated with your child that you wound up just releasing them and saying to yourself… “They’ll learn…” The only difference is that, they’ll learn the hard way. It’s one of the most difficult things to do as a parent. To watch your child make a bad decision, or several in a row, and not intervene.

It almost takes a certain level of frustration in order for this to happen. When we say, “enough is enough.”

Now, I’m not talking about with little’s. Sometimes, it’s not an easy distinction though, is it? Once they turn from being a little human to growing into a slightly less little humans that have to own certain responsibilities “When did this happen?” we might ask. And what do we do now?

There is a chapter in the Book of all books that talks about the Father’s “frustration” with two of his own. Daughters named Oholah, and her sister Oholibah. One represented “Samaria” and the other “Jerusalum.” It is in Ezekiel 23… read it for yourself here. These daughters were relentless. It speaks of them playing the prostitute, seeking after the well-to-do men. Wasting their “goods” and that of their families on lewd affairs.

These type of examples are used many times to display Israel’s fall from God’s grace. Each time God let’s go and let’s the culmination of events, of their doing essentially… take it’s course. It’s hard to imagine. We almost want to say it’s not fair. And if we’re on the side of the kind of “girl power” our culture has so embraced, get ready to cue the feminist fury.

But what’s really going on here?

Even if we were not able to decipher what is happening in this example, thankfully we are given a representation of two grown women who are depicted as someone, nations, that do know what’s going on. In fact, that is the essence of their problem… They know… yet they continue to do.

The Distinction of Intention.

This is where we turn the corner. From being deceived to becoming the deceiver. We believe that we are fooling someone while in reality, we are (and we’ve heard this before) only fooling ourselves. It is the point where these two sisters realized what they were doing, and yet continued in it. It is the point where we realize what we are doing, and beyond making excuses for it, we exalt it. We promote it, we glorify it. It may not look as raw and gruesome as these sisters, but appearances are at the top when it comes to this kind of deception.

So how many times do we try to hold onto our kids, by letting them get away with believing they are deceiving us? Deceiving anyone? Once, twice, three times? How many times do we attempt to hold onto ourselves by deceiving ourselves? Is it enough to say that our way is the right way… Enough to start believing our own deception, and then having others do the same?

How many straws before it’s the last? And when it’s the last, will we be able to step out of the way?

The Last Straw

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