{"id":7515,"date":"2013-08-30T08:50:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T15:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=7515"},"modified":"2013-09-09T19:44:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T02:44:00","slug":"on-turning-70-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/08\/30\/on-turning-70-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"On Turning 70, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earring\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here it is, barely visible, but to me a reminder. Photo by Allison.<\/h6>\n

I said I’d continue the story from last time. And about my birthday, it’s not till September 1, Labor Day. (Wasn’t everybody born on labor day?)<\/p>\n

In my morning meditations of late I’ve come across the Apostle Paul’s metaphor of slavery. Actually it was Jesus who first said, \u201cHe who sins is a slave to sin.\u201d Paul went another step, renouncing \u201cslavery to sin\u201d and instead adopting \u201cslavery to righteousness.\u201d*<\/p>\n

These are words we don’t use much. I rarely hear about sin<\/em> unless it’s in a joke. Righteousness<\/em> seems like a starched collar and just as out of date. And the word slave<\/em> has no good connotation at all.<\/p>\n

But that’s how Paul saw it. Living in a time when a third of the Roman empire was slave, the metaphor was relevant.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the slave population looked pretty much like all the rest. A Roman senator once proposed a dress code to identify them but the idea was rejected: The slaves might recognize their numbers and revolt!<\/p>\n

There were abuses in the system, of course, but not always. And a slave’s work was not always menial; some were teachers and physicians. Their lives were just not their own.<\/p>\n

Going back further in time, Moses instructed on slavery . . . about limited-time ownership. But if a slave loved his master he could opt to stay. They went before the elders and pierced the slave’s ear.**<\/p>\n

It was voluntary, and for life.<\/p>\n

And that, friends, explains my 70th-birthday ear piercing; my loving and trustworthy master is God himself.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the professional I went to asked why I was doing it and I told him. He said he liked that story, that he’d never heard one like it.<\/p>\n

He asked me, when he did it, how it felt. I told him, “meaningful.”<\/p>\n

The next day, just happening to have been asked to speak at my church, I made the whole thing public. They, too, found it meaningful.<\/p>\n

It’s a public thing, yes; but its reason is personal. It’s a reminder. For the remaining years of life, I’m not my own.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By several commenters last blog, that “talk” was well received; again it’s linked here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_________________________
\n* \u00a0 Romans 6:18
\n** Exodus 21:5-6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the rest of the story on the earring idea, and its connection to “voluntary slavery.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7515"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7702,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions\/7702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}