Charles
Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol is the famous tale of Ebenezer Scrooge,
an old miser who is visited by spirits representing the past, present and
future. The novel, while set during the Christmas season, is a story of
redemption. It’s a wakeup call. It’s a lesson on making amends. And it has the Twelve Steps all over the place.
Steps 4-12 heavily
involve the “other” of wronged people in our lives, hurt by our destructive
choices. They speak to our rebellion of the changed life we need to experience.
4.
We made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.
5.
We admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to
another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
7.
We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
9.
We made direct amends to such people wherever possible,
except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.
We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were
wrong, promptly admitted it.
11.
We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Most High as
we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the
power to carry that out.
12.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these
steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these
principles in all our affairs.
Ebenezer Scrooge
is front and center and in dire need of applying those principles.
“But if ye have bitter envying and
strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom
descendeth not from above, but is
earthly, sensual, devilish. For
where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil
thing.”
James 3: 14-16
James 3: 14-16
It can be argued Charles Dickens
paraphrases the scripture this way...
“‘There are some upon
this earth of yours,’ returned the Spirit, ‘who lay claim to know us, and who
do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and
selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all out kith and kin, as
if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves,
not us.’"
“A Christmas Carol,” indeed, via its cautionary tale and no-nonsense Spirits,
paints a bleak portrait of our miser. I don’t know about you, but I can easily
see myself in his selfish, unenlightened ways...
"Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge
liked it."
As
we revel in our addictions and passions, we like it. We are like a pig in muck.
We
are not big fans of truth, transparency, confrontation and change. Just like
our Scrooge here.
Hence, an intervention
is required within the story. And it’s a DOOZY!
Scrooge’s longtime
business associate, longtime DEAD business associate, Jacob Marley pays a
supernatural intervention-y visit to old Ebenezer...
“‘It is required of every man,’ the
ghost returned, ‘that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his
fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in
life, it is condemned to do so after death.’"
Now, Marley is
directly speaking of the miser’s lack of charity.
But I see how it
also encompasses the amends issue, largely highlighted with any recovery
program.
“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and
tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast
gained thy brother.”
Matthew 18:15
We need to be held
accountable for our actions... and our inactions. Both are inflamed by our destructive
addictions. Scrooge is obsessed with greed and gain. Likewise, are we not also individually
obsessed with our damage-inflicting vices, vices which cause pain to others?
Scrooge
experiences both unawareness and lack of concern about what his deeds have done
to others. And this evidence of his life, shown as “unmanageable,” this
evidence of how his selfish choices have also caused others to suffer an “unmanageable”
effect in their lives. This therefore, prompts the disturbing
ghost-intervention.
Again...
“‘There are some upon
this earth of yours,’ returned the Spirit, ‘who lay claim to know us, and who
do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and
selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all out kith and kin, as
if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves,
not us.’"
There was no
overreaction whatsoever. The severe supernatural encounter was much-needed.
After all, if
Scrooge responded, “Humbug” AFTER the ghost of Marley appeared to him, it was
abundantly clear he still didn’t get the lesson.
“But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect
to hear them, tell it unto the
church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen
man and a publican.”
Matthew 18:16-17
Cue the Spirits
then. Let’s get the show on the road.
So, ghosts
representing his past, present and future all give Scrooge some unpleasant
reality checks: missed opportunities, unrequited love, the tragic heartbreak of
a special needs’ child (Tiny Tim) and of course, death. Ebenezer operates in
stubborn denial, bargaining, shock and fear along the way.
How many of us in
our addictions can find ourselves experiencing similar responses and similar ramifications?
“There is a way that
seems right to a man. But its end is
the way of death.”
Proverbs
14:12
Are we disturbed
by how others have some version of death because of our disorders?
Are we disturbed
by how we kill the good things in our own lives?
By the time the
Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come pays its visit, our curmudgeon is disturbed
enough by his “moment of clarity,” so much so, he is begging for mercy...
“‘Ghost of the Future... I fear you
more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good,
and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear
you company... Lead on!... The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to
me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!
Now, if our carnal
dictates of justice, let alone, the spiritual perspective on action and
consequence were fully enforced, it’d be a very bleak situation indeed.
“Be not deceived; God is
not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
But, fortunately
for Ebenezer (and for us), there’s a loophole to cruel, enforced law: mercy.
“...‘I will make all my goodness pass
before thee... and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy.’”
Exodus 33:19
Still, with that
being said, there’s also another necessary ingredient: repentance. Even our
miser cannot escape its necessity.
“‘Men's courses will foreshadow certain
ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,’ said Scrooge. ‘But if the
courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you
show me!’"
But, before we
condemn ourselves, asserting how the kind of repentance that’s required is too
hopeless for our situations, let’s remember one reality even the Most High is
constantly aware of...
“For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are
dust.”
Psalms 103:14
Mercy and
repentance are both heart issues. Our Creator is not wanting our perfection in
our repentance so much as He is wanting our heart, even in its deceived, hopelessly
wicked, state. He just wants us to TURN to Him in the Truth of the real heart
moment.
We all have a bit
of Ebenezer Scrooge in us: our apathy, our addictive tendencies, our greed, our
bitterness and our unresolved issues. We are all dusty, dependent on Divine
mercy. Sometimes, that shows up as “tough love.”
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be
zealous therefore, and repent.”
Revelation 3:19
So, if it takes
the paranormal to get the job done, then it takes the paranormal. If we are to
be ready for the amazing Divine life, plan and future (Jeremiah 29:11) the
Almighty has for us, sometimes we have to confront the bleak possibility of a
way that ends in death (Proverbs 14:12).
We can only
experience the changed life if we face how ours is careening toward
destruction.
The happy ending of
our crusty miser is that, he, indeed, finally gets the revelation to a changed
life.
“‘I
will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live
in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive
within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach...’"
10.
We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were
wrong, promptly admitted it.
11.
We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Most High as
we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the
power to carry that out.
12.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these
steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these
principles in all our affairs.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of
it are the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
“...the
lessons that they teach...”
He
has a change of heart; he has a profound change of life. He gets the lesson.
This
time of year, with its emphasis on self-reflection and resolution, we need to
embrace the lessons that our Divine Savior teaches. Dickens writes about the
true Christmas spirit...
“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better
than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.”
Indeed,
this is a new beginning, no matter what time of year it is.
Let’s
learn and live the lessons.
Copyright
© 2017 by Sheryle Cruse
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