My computer went down yesterday. Tried to fix it myself. Made things worse. Now can’t even boot it up. Am hoping I didn’t lose a bunch of photos and articles I haven’t backed up. Using my wife’s now just to stay in touch.
Real smart. Wasn’t doing back-ups. Then too impatient to wait a couple of days for the help of our IS people on Monday. Now I really have to wait…
Meanwhile, we are heading into the Jewish holy/holiday of Passover (beginning at sundown on Wednesday April 8), and a week long “Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Leviticus 23:5-6). In Jewish houses all over the world what looks like Spring cleaning is really an attempt to make sure that there are no loaves or even crumbs of leavened bread left in the house. For a readable description of how complex the “unleavening of a house” can be, there’s a good explanation at this “My Jewish Learning” site.
In preparation for Passover, many Jewish people boil their pots to get rid of any residue of leaven, bring out their “Passover plates” and do a “burning of the bread” event in a neighborhood empty lot, or on an outdoor grill.
Have found that New Testament people tend to think of leaven as symbolic of personal evil because of the way the Apostle Paul writes about leaven in 1Corinthians 5:6-7 and Galatians 5:9. But most Jewish people that I’ve talked to just see leaven as a reminder that their ancestors were told by God to leave Egypt so quickly on the night of their rescue that they didn’t have time to let the bread rise– that they were making for their escape to freedom. Have found some Jewish people, however, who do see removal of leaven as symbolic of removing “evil influence.”
So as I take my own bit of Passover Inventory today, even though I won’t be boiling any pots, or burning bread in the driveway, does seem like a good time to take some inventory. For openers, am thinking that the “maybe I can do this myself attitude” that I used to “burn” my computer over the weekend, may be worth thinking about. Wonder how often I try to replicate the attitudes of Jesus, and what Paul calls the “fruit of the Spirit” by my own effort. Wonder how many “broken computers” litter my life in the form of “I can do this myself, don’t need to pray, can’t wait” hametz/leaven?