Day IV: "What they can't control . . ."

 

 

The Coronation of Queen Cleopatra

I’m afraid the difference of hours and the experience of cultures finally caught up with me. 

 

I thought it was because I am not as young as I think I am but, you know, even one of the young members of the staff who was delayed because of a difference about COVID testing was a bit off her mark. In her case, the hours got to her.

 

I am more overwhelmed by the richness of the experience of being here, in the cradle of civilization. They don’t call it that for nothing, you know. I mean, name it: Engineering. Agriculture. Architecture. Writing. Religion. Medicine. Surgery. 

 

All of that happened in Egypt long before the country of my birth was even considered as an idea, much less and ideology.

 

Here’s the truth of it: It’s humbling to be here.

 

And the experience of all that humility is part of the exhaustion.

 

I am constantly – in my mind and when I’m not actively thinking about it, in my body – deconstructing my own assumptions and expectations. 

 

For example, this morning, Saturday, October 9^th, I walked into a Temple – Kom Ombo, which was just a short walk down from where my luxury boat hotel was docked – and discovered that the person who finished the temple was Queen Cleopatra.

 

I took off my shoes and put my feet on the path where Queen Cleopatra once walked.

 

When I visited the area where confessions were heard, and saw the hieroglyphics and realized that sin was confess and forgiveness and mercy promised, I realized that I was on holy ground. I took off my shoes and as I felt my feet touch the floor I found that I was weeping.

 

And then, I was sobbing. Because for whatever sin I held in my heart for which I will perhaps never be forgiven by the those I have wronged, I knew that God has forgiven me and is and has been and will always be merciful.

 

Oh, my dear friends, God is so much bigger, so much more, that we could ever imagine.

 

I knew that. I’ve known that for some time. But, rediscovering it here, in Egypt, has been most humbling and invigorating and exhausting.

 

One of our guides said something this morning that startled me. He was talking about how there were many crocodiles here on the Nile, and how they were so admired because they would quickly snatch their prey and drag them off to be even more quickly eaten.

 

The guide said, “What the Egyptians couldn’t control, they worshiped.”

 

What they couldn’t control, they worshiped.  And so, they worshiped the crocodile and made him a God and mummified their bodies and worshiped them.

 

I have been examining my relationship to Jesus and I must say, I don’t worship the God I know in Christ Jesus because of lack of being able to control the God I have come to love. I don’t even worship God because I think God controls my life.

 

I worship God who sets me free in Christ to try to love as God loves me.

 

What they couldn’t control, they worshiped. I don’t think that dynamic is limited to ancient Egyptians, however. I think some of us do that today, don’t we? Even those of us who say we follow the Way of Jesus.

 

Those of us who don’t often feel overwhelmed and humbled.

 

It’s exhausting. But, I’d rather that than misplace my adoration.

 

I hope I’ll be able to have more to write – and post on my blog – later on. It all really depends on the WiFi. Which I can’t control. And I definitely don’t worship.