Your the only Phar-I-See

So i think i know now what it is like to be a 1st century pseudo-religious-zealot of the type that Jesus had such strong words and compassion for. It wouldn't even surprise me if the joke about Tennesse and girls wasn't started some 2500 years ago deep in the recesses of some horny pharisee. I think the modern day sect of these types of people (i am speaking as one who claims unintential allegiance) look scarily similar to their distant relatives. But maybe not in the way you and i think.

It's true you don't have folks in the church wearing boxes of scripture on their heads and competing for who has the most verses memorized. Instead we have tshirts and bracelets to let the world know that we wear Christ on our body but not in our hearts. But a shirt alone isn't enough to make a modern day pharisee. The unifying concept of ancient and modern pharisee is the degree of fervor with which they strive continually after vanity. The very thing they know doesn't provide or bring life they pursue more passionately than anyone else on the planet. There is some kind of pride at least in our minds that somehow, someway, against all odds our intensity will count for something in the end even if its in err.

The hardest thing a pharisee can do is admit that all his efforts and striving have been completely useless. Worse than useless even, completely pushing him in the opposite direction further than from where he started. But yet this is the very thing God does throughout the scriptures starting with Israel and into the present era. Turn, change your ways, don't just think different be different, follow, be transformed.

Maybe maturity in being a sincere follower of the Lord means quickness to yield to turning away from my own pursuits and acknowleding the better way.