Hell—this way

“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” claims an old adage. I have recently come to the conclusion that this is very true. I have people in my life, as I’m sure most of us do, who “just want to help!” (If you’ve ever let a little kid “help” with anything around the house, you’ll know what I mean when I say that some help is actually super unhelpful!) These “helpful” people desperately want to give advice or take over a situation no matter how little the recipient wants that. They might say unkind things or treat you in unkind ways “for your own good.” These people long to help, and I really do think that they mean well, but even when confronted about their behavior and the unintended consequences of it (often the hurt that it’s caused), these busy helpers refuse to believe that their actions did any real harm, sometimes excusing themselves with, “it’s the thought that counts,” or even becoming offended and reassuring themselves that despite the utter ingratitude they’ve experienced, they did their duty by trying (all the while thinking to themselves that if those silly people had just gotten out of their own way, their sage advice would have saved the day in the end).

The problem of the unhelpful helper is prevalent in the Bible. In a previous blog I mentioned Eve, who I believe thought she could help God out by eating the forbidden fruit. There are several other great examples of people who had a misplaced desire to help. King Saul thought that he would help Samuel, who was running a little late. Samuel was supposed to show up on a certain day to help Saul ask God’s blessing over a war the Israelites were losing. When Samuel wasn’t on time, the troops started deserting. Saul went ahead and made the burnt offering, feeling that someone had to ask God’s blessing, and since Samuel wasn’t there, he should step up and do it (1 Samuel 13). That doesn’t sound like a bad motivation, does it? “Someone has to do it, so I guess I may as well…” Isn’t that what David did when he stepped up to Goliath?

Speaking of David, in 2 Samuel 6, King David had decided to bring the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem with 30,000 of his men. On the way, the cart carrying the ark jolted because one of the oxen driving it stumbled. Maybe it hit a pothole or something. Uzzah pulled a mom-in-the-car and reached out to protect the ark from possibly falling out. Now, everyone back then knew that you never, EVER touched the ark except on its poles. In that moment, though, Uzzah felt as if God needed his protection. And he died.

There are other examples of people trying (and failing) to help in the Bible, but the examples of Saul and Uzzah are a great starting place. Saul’s big issue was that he didn’t trust God. Like David, Saul saw a need and filled it. Unlike David, who killed Goliath out of love for God and faith in Him, Saul took Samuel’s place at the altar out of fear. I don’t know if he even really believed that God would save the day or if he just thought that going through the motions of sacrificing to God would calm his troops’ fears. I do know that the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), so even though outwardly David and Saul seemed to be doing basically the same thing, something must have been lacking in Saul’s motivation. As for Uzzah, he disobeyed God. End of story. As annoying as this expression is, we need to obey God because He said so. We don’t always have to know why. Uzzah didn’t get that, and it cost him his life. All the good intentions in the world can’t change disobedience into anything but sin.

Fret not

I was driving my car the other morning on a rainy, stormy morning.  My car already pulls to the driver’s side, and in the wind, I felt like I was constantly fighting the car to stay in my lane.  It wasn’t a big deal until I went to pass a truck.  The extra pull from the semi made it necessary to grip the wheel even tighter, and my arms were already tired.  Being me, I passed the truck and decided to see what would happen if I relaxed my arms a little.  How fast would the car veer off track?  I was curious, and surprised when I realized that relaxing my arms made almost no difference in the car’s ability to stay on track.  It turns out that I was over-compensating for the perceived danger of running off the road.  Yes, the wind was still blowing, and I needed to be aware and correct as the wind came up, but gripping the wheel so tightly all the time wasn’t actually doing me any good.  I was so intent on preparing for the wind that, when it did come, it was harder to deal with since I was already tired.  I was wasting my energy on the danger I saw coming, thereby losing the energy necessary to deal with the danger itself.

I once saw a poster that said, “Worry is like a rocking chair.  It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”  The thing about a poster like that is that it doesn’t really convey what worry actually does.  It’s not like worry is a harmless past-time, a waste of time but no worse than computer solitaire or staring out the window.  Worry is a waste of time, but it’s far from harmless.  It turns out that stress has harmful effects on the body (who knew?) including affecting your brain itself.  Bear with me on this, because regardless of gender and age, this really does illustrate what worry does.  During menopause (seriously, stay with me!), a woman’s hormones get way out of whack, and the body uses the adrenal glands (the endocrine system) as a back-up for the body’s hormonal production.  If a woman has been stressed out a lot before she goes into menopause, the already over-taxed adrenal glands are further weakened, leaving the woman with much more severe symptoms of menopause.  Worry and stress can also lead to high blood pressure and heart attacks, we all know that.  In addition, it makes us miserable and weakens our ability to deal with what is stressing us out, so instead of being able to work through our issues, we end up too stressed out to remove the stress!

God, unlike me, never says anything unimportant.  He never just babbles.  The Bible, then, should be considered a source of what’s important, not a bunch of somewhat entertaining trivialities.  When the Bible says, “Don’t worry!”  (Matthew 6:25-34; Philippians 4:6), it’s not meant to be a cute little suggestion, like “Don’t wear pink and red at the same time,” or “No white shoes after Labor Day.”  No, what’s at stake here is life, joy, and peace.  And to be honest, your testimony to the world!  If you don’t actually believe that God’s got it under control, why would the world want what you have?