Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.
In a mutiny at sea, the crew decides to override the rule of the captain, by taking away his authority by force. There’s just one captain, he’s outnumbered before he even gets started!
The mutineers must face the fact that they can never again go to their home port; by rising up against the captain, they are rising up against the King.
Even out there on the ocean, so far away from home, there will inevitably be those who are loyal to the crown, who will either end up dead or in the dingy as it is set adrift alongside their captain.
“Are you for us or against us?”
That will be their call to the crew!
This whole all came to mind as I wrote out Genesis 37’s account of Joseph and his brothers. Reuben in this case tried to save his brother, but they worked outside of his influence. The lie was employed to keep the father in the dark about it.
I had an opportunity, not too long ago, to be on the ship with the mutineers, but I chose instead to be set adrift with the one who was being abandoned. All I had to do was HATE the one they hated, and I’d be in with them and the rest of the crew. And I can’t take credit. I wasn’t even tempted in my heart. I would love, and continue to love this one that they were abandoning.
You still want more, right? Who is it? Well, I have 3 brothers and a sister. One brother’s life situation hit the lowest one can go. He was homeless, addicted to a prescription drug, and suffering life altering side effects from that drug. The side effects led to the loss of his livelihood, he’d already lost his wife and child. He was in South Korea when all this happened. His ex-wife being a good lady, put him on a plane for Canada on April 15, 2023. My oldest brother and I picked him up from the airport.
I didn’t know what we would do. But I knew one of the options was NOT “too bad for you, work out your own problems.”
Yet, another of my brothers, and his wife, while on a call seeking their prayers and support, told me to leave him to the result of his choices. The picture they drew for me was looking out the window of a warm house, with him out in the snow, soon to die of exposure. He got himself to where he was. Let him die there, or live there, but leave it up to him. I couldn’t do that. Not too long after this, they cut themselves off from all of us. They had already abandoned our oldest brother whose life had also fallen apart a couple of years previously, but we his family here, didn’t give up on him, and he’s doing well now.
This one who came on April 15. Its a long story, with many details. But eventually his medications were altered, and the one he’d become addicted to was removed from his regimen. The side effects went away. They had been a voice tremor, and hand tremor. He had been a voice actor in Korea. And he could no longer use his voice.
But his writing is also vital to who he is. He has journaled all his life. And the hand tremors made his hand writing completely illegible. Add to this a life long technology challenge. His use of computers is very limited. So using one to write isn’t the right tool. But the physical act of writing is irreplaceable.
But this brother’s physical, natural world progress isn’t so much my concern, as the eternal one. He is a dear, sweet soul. And I owe much of who I am to this brother, as well as my other 4 siblings. I am the little brother.
Running Down Vimy 