be-musings

At last week's study we talked about Moses and the Israelites. Man those people were sure reluctant and had excuses about why they couldn't do things. Moses said on more than one occasion that he wasn't eloquent enough to address the Israelites or Pharaoh. Funny, for a man who was educated in the ways of the Royal Family and would probably have practised addressing audiences as part of his grooming. Then there are the people themselves. Each miracle or plague that came, they were impressed so briefly then critical. They wanted out, but yet didn't want what it meant.

Scott told me about a man who was at Miracle Valley, the recovery place at which he works. He was removed from his family when he was 4, and placed in a residential school. His family didn't visit him for the first year, and came occasionally after that. He was denied practising his First Nations culture and had to comply with the system.
When he was 12 he went to juvenile detention for a minor crime. If he was your kid he probably wouldn't have gone there, but because the residential school didn't want a fire-starter, he became a ward of the state and spent 3 years in juvie. At 17 he went to prison for stealing a car with some buddies, to take a joy ride into town. At 25 he was briefly released, then was returned for theft. He is still in prison, except for this past year in recovery where he is monitored and not allowed on out-trips. He is 54 years old.
You might think that he is the perfect example of a "bad egg" who has received just punishment for your behaviour. If you've heard this kind of story before you might be the person who thinks it wasn't his responsibility but rather he is a product of his environment. I can't say which is the right opinion, if we even should have one.
This man has been institutionalized for his whole life. For most of his adult like he hasn't experienced common freedoms of walking down the street, going to the pool, making his own decisions about where to eat or sleep, choosing how to spend his money. In fact, money is somewhat foreign to him, though he has some. He admits that if he is released he honestly won't know how to survive in the outside world. It reminds me of the old guy from Shawshank Redemption who hung himself because he couldn't handle what we call "real life".

This reminds me of the Israelite people during the time of Moses. Captives to the Egyptians for 450 years, the ideal of freedom ran strong as it would in a downtrodden nation. Perhaps stories of the past glory and of future hope were told around their fires in their houses. Their reality was one of a ghetto life. Imprisoned in their communities, unable to leave the nation, slaves who were beaten, killed, forced to work for a people who flaunted their affluence and their pagan religion. It would have stuck in their craw. Of course they wanted out.
But at what cost? They knew of nothing else, and to change their lives so drastically would mean an abrupt change. Welcome in one way, but frightening in most ways. How would they do it? Why wouldn't God make it so miraculously easy for them to leave? Or better yet, to take over the territory?
The Israelites were institutionalized, like Scott's client. I haven't had the same experiences as them, so I can't say for sure how I would have reacted in their position. Initially I thought they were whinier than I would have been, until I thought about their history. Sometimes I think they were unfaithful, but then I know I'm a wimp and I might respond the same way if I were in their situation. Fear and uncertainty. Take me away, but make it easy. And tell me where I'm going and how we'll get there. But then, that's not always a luxury we have. Sometimes a next step has to be taken before anything else can be seen.