don't trivialize the small stuff - 13th week Tuesday

Today we reflect on our first reading from the book of Genesis.  Today we focus our attention on Lot’s wife.  She turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the burning city of Sodom.  Later, a thousand years later that is, Jesus would use this story to teach his disciples to learn from her mistakes and weaknesses when he said, “Remember Lot’s wife?”

What should we remember about Lot’s wife so that we will not fall to the same fate?  What should we learn from her?

Let us reflect on just two things. 

First, it is important to choose the people you are with, it is important to choose the environment you are in.  Consider these facts.  Lot originally settled his family near Sodom, not in Sodom itself but near Sodom.  But then in time we already find them living inside the city itself.  Probably they might have slowly crept in, perhaps attracted by the convenience of living in a city, probably attracted by the fast life of the city. 

Consider also the fact that in the whole city not even ten righteous men could be found.  So who were her friends then, who were their acquaintances?  Remember they have to be dragged out of the city by the arm.  Ginbutong sila pagguwa, they were dragged out because they hesitated despite the warning of the angels.

So what happened to Lot’s family?  Ano ang natabo sa ila?  They were religious people – a close part of the family of Abraham, who obeyed God the same way Abraham did.  Did their living in Sodom made them compromise on their belief in God and his commands to them?  Were they affected by the twenty years they hang out with the people of Sodom where not even ten righteous men could be found?  Remember Lot’s wife, Jesus said.  I think we should be careful with the company we keep.  We should be careful in choosing our friends.  We should be even careful where we live, where we work, where we have our recreation.

Second, we should take God more seriously even if the command God gives seems trivial to us.  What did God command Lot and his family?  Do not look back.  Do not look back.  It is so trivial, kagamay man lang sina nga butang, nagbalikid man lang gamay, nagsid-ing man lang to sia siguro.  And yet look at what happened to Lot’s wife because she did not do what God said.  Let us not belittle God’s commands to us.  

Ti gamay man lang kawat ko, ang iban da daku gid.  The point is not daku or gamay.  The point is God said, do not steal.   Kis-a man lang ni, kaisa man lang ini.  The point is not kis-a, ukon kaisa but God said do not do it.  We have this nasty habit of ignoring what we think or what we see as God’s little commands.  God told us to pray always, God told us to worship him - to go to Mass on Sunday, and yet we belittle these nga daw sa waay lang if we fail to do them.  If there is anything Jesus wants us to remember in Lot’s wife it is this:  do not belittle God’s commands.  It may be trivial but it is God’s commands.