Gritting Our Teeth

“Do you want a gummy bear?” I ask little kids muscling their way through the door into my Sunday school room. They pretty well always do. Who can resist a little sugar so early in the morning? Well, I can usually resist it. “The Law is sweet, like honey,” I say as they reach out their grubby hands. They look bemused, as well they should. Honey? And the Law? I don’t think so.

Laws are there to make us unhappy, just like fire is there to burn. We believe that so strongly that we cannot very well act otherwise. But we are wrong. Our knowledge is foolish and deathly.

While the law is true unhappiness when we try to keep it by the gritting of the teeth and the power of the will, it isn’t when we stop trying and ask someone else to keep it for us—a person, perhaps, who could go along perfectly, unburdened by the desire always to do the wrong thing in every situation. Imagine him there, close beside you, constantly taking the wrong, difficult, shattering thing away from you, and giving you the desire, and ultimately, the ability, to do good. Were God’s own law, or perhaps God himself, to take hold, to give out the goodness drop by honeyed drop, the happiness would be so sweet.

Anne Carlson Kennedy holds an MDiv from Virginia Theological Seminary and is the author of Nailed It: 365 Sarcastic Devotions for Angry or Worn-Out People (Kalos Press). She blogs at patheos.com/preventinggrace. Excerpted from Nailed It © Anne Carlson Kennedy, 2016. Used by permission.