Breaking The Ten Commandments

I've broken four of the Ten Commandments. It's best to be honest about such things and get it out there, otherwise you might be bearing false witness which gets real close to breaking one of them.

Just so everyone remembers, they are: Worship only God, don't make graven images, don't take God's name in vain, keep the Sabbath day holy, honor your parents, don't kill anybody, don't commit adultery, don't steal anything, don't bear false witness, and don't covet other people's stuff.

This morning at the Breakfast Club, I felt it my duty as Chaplain to my friends who work there, to ask how many of the Ten Commandments have you broken? Every single one admitted to breaking some in their life.

Phil asked if you break the same commandment multiple times does it still count as just breaking it once. After all, once it's broken it's broken.

I told him that I'd get back to him.

When I asked Val, she simply started laughing and left the room.

"Which Commandments?" Nick demanded, I think as a way of avoiding answering the question.

Jodee ignored the entire conversation and concentrated on his crossword puzzle. Then again he has his own mail order ordination to the ministry which hangs on the wall of the restaurant.

The point being I think that we all are doing our best to get through life in the best ways that we know how. We all want the same things I think --- a safe place to be, love and acceptance, to feel that our life has meaning, and to be happy.

We're not perfect though so we screw up from time to time. Sometimes the screw ups can be of Biblical proportions! And it is at these broken places where we experience God and not rules. Grace trumps judgment! Forgiveness is the thing that allows us to move on.

Maybe it's because I spend all of those years working with people who were homeless. They would come in as broken people. They had lost family, love, homes, and most possessions. Many had been arrested for breaking various laws. Most had lost hope. Each had felt the wrath of the judgment of society for merely being ... who they are.

Each was looking for someone to say to them, "I know you screwed up. We all do! It's OK. Try not to do it again. I'm pulling for you."
Through the years I've learned to not be especially judgmental because of this. I try to accept people as they are because it is silly to want them to be anything else. I want to be accepted just as I am too. We want the same thing.

I think that there is too much judgment in the world. I understand that Commandments and laws are needed and necessary but it's just as true is that we are going to break them or come very close sometimes. I am always amazed at how stern and self-righteous people can be when judging the faults and failures of others. We'll all doing the best that we can. Lighten up!!

Sure if someone keeps doing things that hurt themselves or others and won't stop then judgment is deserved. But I don't think that this is most people. Most of us are wanting to be forgiven for any wrong that we've done. But in order to get it, you have to give it.

The thing is that we all need one another so that forgiveness can occur, grace is experienced, hope is rekindled, and we have the chance to start over again. And this is a more important truth than Commandments.