bruised reeds and profit yields

i was reading in Matthew 12 today where it quotes from Isaiah about Jesus saying, "a bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench."  those lines really hit me as i read them.  i thought to myself, "how often is that not the attitude i have, that Christians in general have?"  its so easy to relate to people with what i'd call a utilitarian christianity; a cold, mechanical and morbidly logical approach to others.  see, utilitarianism (for those who are unfamiliar with that idea) says "the greatest good for the greatest amount of people with the least amount of pain".  sounds nice, right?  but it stresses the actual "utility" or usefulness of an object, action, or person to the exclusion of other assets.  it is the basic law employed in economics and business today: an object/action's intrinsic worth is measured by its "profit yield", how much money it will make you.  and if it is an endeavor whose yield doesn't outweigh the risk of failure or justify the time/resources put into it, the endeavor is canned. 

"gee, i didn't expect to get an economics lesson out of Matthew 12" you might be thinking.  you're right: you won't.  see, that is the way that this world thinks.  it is the way that we think, whether we realize it or not.  we've been taught it since grade school and its only gotten worse from there.  especially in the profit driven, corporation-ruled 21st century in which we live it seems near impossible to even consider another approach.   but Jesus' way of thinking is decidedly different.  i'm not trying to debate one economic system/philosophy over another here (i actually hated economics in school).  the issue that  concerns us as Christians is when we allow this utilitarianism to leak over from our wallets and infect our relationships with other human beings; when this philosophy begins to dictate not merely where we put our savings (albeit also an important spiritual question) but how we treat our neighbor.

so now we come back to the words written to describe how Jesus relates to people, words spoken by the Father Himself to describe His Son: "a bruised reed He will not break and a smoking flax He will not quench."  think about those pictures in your head for a minute.  a "bruised" reed - that is, the stalk of a plant that has been crushed.  some careless passer-by has trampled it in his rough haste, or perhaps it has been rolled over by a cart carrying what some merchant thought to be more precious... or a number of other scenarios that could have damaged the tender plant.  and then picture a man coming by and seeing this bruised reed.  now, i know if this was me my tendency would be to simply, without hesitation, take that limp, crushed, barely-hanging-on-to-life stalk and snap it clean off.  after all, its highly doubtful that the reed will recover from such a blow, and to try and nurse it back to health would take an immense amount of attention, time, care.... and in the end it'd still be possible than nothing would come of it.  wouldn't it be easier to just go on to the next reed and try to do a better job of protecting that one?  really, what kind of man would go to all that trouble with such a great investment of himself and such an unsure chance of success?   Jesus, that's who.  with each of us who has been trampled, crushed, beaten aside by those who are too busy, too greedy or just not watching Jesus does not snap us off, but slowly, patiently pours over us His love and care to nurse us back to health.

the "smoking flax" - the smoldering wick of a candle or oil lamp.  it was burning bright at one point, but for one reason or another that fire has gone out.  there is now only a faint, phantom hint of what used to be.  perhaps the wind of a storm has picked up and extinguished the flame.  maybe the flame was smothered by something set on top of the lamp, or maybe its just come to the end of the wick.  now, think far back in your minds to the days before bic lighters...  even further back to days before matches.  it was not a simple task to get a smoking flax burning again.  the person who set himself to this had to blow and blow with all his might till he was blue in the face.  again, why not just let it go out?  why expend so much for what seems like such a little (and unlikely) result?  but Jesus is that Man who came and comes to each of us as the weight of the world has smothered us, as the storms of life have diminished our blaze to weak glow, when we are at the end of our wick, and He lovingly works on us, pouring out His own life till we find ours again. 

i am so thankful that Jesus does this, is this.  if He were not so nurturing and patient, i would be without hope.  but here's the question: do i pour over, pour out to others in the same way?  or in a utilitarian fashion do i just say "he's too much trouble, forget it"?  am i snapping off bruised reeds, brothers and sisters who are barely hanging on?  am i ready to just let those whose fire's gone out lose the last glow of life, or will i breathe what life is given me into them and pray they might ignite once more?  it costs much, the result is unsure if not unlikely, and if successful, the outcome is not something that will impress most people in our utilitarian society, even the all-too-utilitarian church.  not one for the economics textbooks.  but that is who Jesus is.  that is what it means to walk like He did, to experience Him working through me.  God, give me a heart to neither break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. 

"mo-mo"

... is a mutated form of "monkey" which became our pet name for abby after she passed the "krotik" stage (if you don't know that russian word, i'm not gonna bother explaining it).  she is just over a year old now.  i figured it was about time to put up some pics of her and time to post in general..... sorry.  i've been traveling for what feels like all month to different cities and countries for reasons as varied as a being in a wedding, buying curry paste (okay, so i also did my required ukrainian registration on that trip.  i was blessed to have some sweet travelling-buddy-time with my bro, nato.  thanks dude!), and MMR vaccinations.  i'm leaving tomorrow to go up to kiev for a 3-day leadership conference that the calvarys here are doing and next weekend to teach at the church in poltava that sunday.  so PRAY FOR MY WIFE! as she is with our sweet lil ankle-biter all by her self.  here's some pics of abby.  they're from a little post-bday celebration we had with a couple from our church.