For The Monkeys Among Us

When I was five I had a monkey. Actually, my father gave my mother a monkey for Christmas. Yes, it was a bad idea, and I am sure he suffered terribly for it, but dad was a lot of fun and our home had a lot of moving pieces. It’s also important to know that according to Mark 5 and Luke 8, animals can be demon possessed. Our monkey, Elliott, was a certain case. 

Elliot would jump on the table and pick the food off our plates. He would pounce on my grandmother and run off with her wig. We would spin on the lampshade, scattering dung as he screeched, just to drive the nail an inch deeper. Throughout the mayhem my only instruction was a clipped, staccato imperative: “Don’t / even /  look / at / him!” For a period of time Elliot was the polestar around which all other objects moved.

Enter the Psalmist: 

“So teach us to number our days,

So that we may get a heart of wisdom”

There are some firm, immovable boundaries that we live among. Birth and death are included, but so are things like God’s work, our sin, Christ’s return (come soon Lord Jesus!), his adopting love, the church as his bride, the reliability of scripture, etc. Some things are first principles, inevitable directions, and wisdom starts by accounting for these at the outset - “teach us to number our days.”

I can hear a lot of screaming monkeys so I am hoping to narrow my “resolutions” by remembering the immovable things like: 1) the church is his bride, 2) the Bible is his word, and 3) kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. The point is that God’s kingdom is moving toward a consummation - how do I get on board with that?

I’ll start by asking a few questions.

1. God, what does your kingdom coming to my neighborhood look like (Jer 29:7)?

2. God, what does your kingdom coming to my thought life look like (Phil 4:8)?

3. God, if I lived 364 days the way I lived today, would I be happy with my kingdom-progress a year from now (Psa. 90:12)? 

That last question was mostly stolen from Kevin Kelly.

Here’s a bit of encouraging trivia: A plane is off track 90% of the time. Weather, turbulence and unexpected shifts are always nudging in different directions. It only arrives at its destination because it is constantly making adjustments. 

Monkeys can be adorable, but they are never subtle. Somehow, my family ignored ours a lot longer than we should have. So my question is: what adjustments do I need to make today, because I know I am off course somewhere.