Tug O’ War

 A perpetual tug-o-war can often feel like the modus operandi of daily life.  Not necessarily against another person, though sometimes someone emerges from the fog encompassing the other end of the line and appears as if they are the primary impetus we are tugging against, whether this be passive aggression or flagrant assault, verbally or otherwise.  But I think we all sense that there is a greater force tugging the line at the other end, as if a large boulder is tethered to the line we are constantly tugging and has be hauled over the precipice of a large cliff.   Thus, we are left straining with persistent vigor, exerting energy on a task that cannot be completed.  I think we would all be surprised if we were to ‘win’ the tug-o-war battle and pull the opponent across the line, out of the fog that has enshrouded our ever-evasive enemy.  I believe we would each find ourselves, like the deadweight of a dead corpse, at the other end.  Somewhat like when Luke Skywalker encountered his own face behind the Darth Vader mask in his vision on Dagobah…but not quite, because George Lucas was drawing much more from an Eastern worldview (Yoda, was supposed to be like a Zen Bhuddist master)... We are very good pretenders; far better than most children.  We pretend the primary source of our problems is exogenous, when quite the reverse is true.  Like  ‘dead’weight we will ultimately bring on our own demise without intervention on the divine order.   Just like when the imminent loser of an actual tug-o-war game lets go of the rope to send his opponents tumbling backwards under the weight of their own force, perhaps the way we win our own tug-o-war game is to stop attempting to hold the line, and let go.  That is to say, letting of the attempt to balance our devious, sinful acts with our own fabricated self-righteousness, and rather cling to a weight that won’t pull us off the other edge of the cliff but lift us off the ground.  “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:30)