I Woke Up in the Seventh Grade (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

When telling the story of my life, I’m likely to start with, “I Woke Up in the Seventh Grade.” I don’t mean to suggest I slept through the first ten years or so. It’s just that by the time I entered the Seventh Grade, I had reached the conclusion I was on my own. Well, OK, I wasn’t actually on my own. I had parents, a sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; most of them living nearby. What I mean is this: in the Seventh Grade I realized I had no guide in this life. If I was to be successful —whatever that would come to mean— it was up to me to figure out what to do and how to do it. I would need to orient myself to the landscape, take charge of my day-to-day, devise the plans for my future.

So, I created some rules.

For example, I created this rule: I will always do my homework. Rarely in my life had anyone even asked if I had homework, much less had I completed it. I decided it was time someone did that; and that someone was going to have to be me. I also decided: I will never skip class, figuring I would learn more by being there. Do these sound like just what you would expect a normal student to do? Good. That was my goal. Over the years, I created many such rules; and they became the way I did life. These rules, by the way, were specifically for me, not for others. How could rules tailored for my personal development be applied to others?

In time, using my firm-but-comforting rules, I completed public school and decided to attempt junior college. For the most part, they continued to serve me in college. Eventually, I went on to a wonderful 4-year college and earned my Bachelor of Science. I only tell you about this piece of my life to make a point: for a long time, those rules were essential to shaping me into an adult.

Once I reached adulthood, though, I no longer needed those rules. I needed an entirely different approach to life, one that was far more flexible than the structures I had used to become an adult. Oh, it wasn’t the end of my interest in rules. But, my perspective on rules changed. I found rules interesting, edifying, and even humorous. In 1976, I discovered The Official Rules by prolific author Paul Dickson. He has written over 60 books, and quite a few on rules.* The book is chock full of all that I now cherish about rules: interesting, definitely edifying, and quite often humorous.

Here are a just few examples of the rules collected by Dickson:

• Clarke’s Third Law = “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic.”
—Arthur C. Clarke, famed science fiction writer

• Agnes Allen’s Law = “Almost anything is easier to get into than out of.”
—Agnes Allen (spouse of famed historian Frederick Lewis Allen and founding editor of Readers Digest Condensed Books ... not the women’s baseball player of the same name ... though both women are fascinating and absolutely worth your time to Google)

• Murphy’s Law = “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
—Murphy (There are so many variations on and corollaries to Murphy’s Law that Dickson created the Murphy Center for the Codification of Human and Organizational Law to collect and publish them!)

• Cole’s Law = “Thinly sliced cabbage”

So, though potentially fascinating and often funny, rules no longer provided the structure for my life and continued development. They moved from being the very fabric of my life to be habits, best practices, tools I could use as needed. My adult life worked on a totally different level.

This mirrors what we find in this week’s selection from Galatians. My early “life rules” restricted me, but they also guarded me until such time as I could learn an entirely new way to live. This is the role served by the Law of Moses. It set stringent restrictions on God’s chosen, shaping them into people who could receive Jesus when He finally walked among them; people who could embrace His radical, more adult approach to living.

But, if we continue trying to live our lives by the Law of Moses, then basing everything on love might seem impractical, unworkable, even impossible. Living a life made up of love rather than rules ... that would seem radical to a Law-follower. In fact, it only works properly if we start with faith. We cannot hope and we cannot love —we cannot even make sense of His teachings— without first believing in Jesus.

It feels like we’re breaking all the rules.

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* For more interesting rules and laws, take a look at Paul Dickson’s The Official Rules: https://www.amazon.com/Official-Rules-Principles-Deadlines-Inanimate/dp/0486482103/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/144-2982578-5138235?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0486482103&pd_rd_r=6f76ae95-9503-11e9-b044-7f958875ef7e&pd_rd_w=R28L0&pd_rd_wg=8n5bX&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=1EAFZA5KM07FM5J7ASRQ&psc=1&refRID=1EAFZA5KM07FM5J7ASRQ

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 7 (12) (June 23, 2019)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=267

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 42 and 43
Isaiah 65:1-9
Psalm 22:19-28
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

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When DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets Friday mornings, we enjoy good food, read challenging scriptures, and fellowship while sharing our thoughts. We meet in the function room at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant from 8:00 to 9:00.

It’s nice. Join us.

Blessings,
Steve