Ecclesiastes 7: 15-18
7:15 All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
7:16 Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise; why should though destroy thyself?
7:17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish; why shouldest thou die before thy time?
7:18 It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all.
Having grown up in church, I pride myself on having at least a working knowledge of the Bible. So imagine my intrigue when I read the above scriptures the other day that when paraphrased in the New Living Bible, basically said, "I've seen good people die young, and wicked people live to a ripe old age. So don't be too good or too bad because if you love God, he's going to take care of you either way."
Wow! Now doesn't that just fly in the face of "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because your are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16 NRSV Bible)
This is what drives me nuts about the Bible, and about churches. They take one scripture and translate it literally, and then they take another and try to translate it into a metaphor that they live by. Either the Bible is literal or it isn't.
At any rate, I've decided that this is how I live my life--not too good, and not too bad. If I were to put my life on a balance, I hope that I far outweigh to the Good side, but who knows?
However, lately I might be adding to my Bad balance because I've been sneaking out at night watering my yard and bushes even though there is a complete watering ban in my county during the week. I get it that we all share the water and if I take more than my share, others suffer, but Dangit! I just spent $2K on new bushes and such and I'll be darned if I'm gonna let them die. Plus, if my grass dies, my home owner's association says I have to immediately fix it. And then what? Put new grass down, water it with a 30-day permit, which might take me through middle-August, and then it dies again because I can't water it but one day a week.
Ya know...just sue me...cuz I'm gonna water my yard. I just hope God doesn't hold it against me.
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1 comment:
From what I can tell, the ban allows for watering "new sod" and "new landscaping'. I think you would probably be okay on that with all your new bushes. Also it looks like the citations are only for about $100, so even if you got several over the course of a month it would be cheaper than replacing all your shrubbery.
Gotta work the system, babe.
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