Are You Waiting for a Messiah Bailout?

 


A couple weeks ago, I met up with a friend who was with his family. During the visit, I observed the wife making sarcastic comments about her husband. He responded in kind, and the conversation continued.

After the visit, I sent him a message, attempting to give him feedback and share my pain witnessing it. 

His response was shocking. “Not even sure what you’re referring to”.

My response was “ouch”.

You see, here is the story of life: part of growing is experiencing pain. Our parents, teachers and others wronged us, sometimes willfully, but mostly out of ignorance. 

To manage the pain, we numb ourselves. Some of us revert to negative behaviors, substances, gambling or porn. Others get heavily involved in work, religion or hobbies, all to dull the pain (many times without realizing).

As we get married and have children, the pain increases, and we increase our numbness. To the point that we can’t even look back and remember a sarcastic exchange with our spouse.

Of course, if that friend were to witness another couple yelling at each other, or some other kind of more extreme dysfunction, they’d be shocked and shaken. Don’t worry though. That that other couple is just as numb & clueless about their yelling or domestic violence as my friends are about their sarcasm.

Part of making dysfunction tolerable is the messiah bailout phenomenon. “I know I have problems, but moshiach will have to solve these ones for me. I’ve done everything I can, I'm a good guy overall, and just can’t be perfect.”

The truth is you’re right! After 120 years, and the heavenly court rates your behavior, you’ll score 95% and get a first class ticket to heaven.

If you want to bring the moshiach though or raise a normal family, 95% isn’t good enough. Welcoming moshiach into our lives means becoming sensitive again. It means learning what normal communication looks and sounds like, and mastering it.

Moshiach is being offered to us on a silver platter. As the prophets say “the knowledge of G-d will fill the world like the water fills the ocean.” The key to successful marriage, habit change, purpose in life, managing money, and raising a family is all knowledge, much of which didn’t exist 50 years ago. And it’s free.

The only cost, is the 1% of ourselves which is satisfied with dysfunction and would rather leave things in the status quo and wait for a messiah bailout.

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