Kicking against the goads.

The single most fun part of setting up a blog is coming up with a name or title. Not the color schemes or perusing  the templates. It's all about the name. Its gotta be catchy. Its gotta be unique. It should be personal. So, why kicking against the goads? Here's why.

In Acts 9, Saul is traveling when he has his conversion experience with Jesus. Jesus asks, "Why art thou persecuting me? Is it hard for thee to kick against the goads?" The part about the goads is only mentioned in the Kings James Version and a few other English translations. The reason? The goads is not mentioned in the earliest manuscripts of the text which were found after the KJV was translated.  It is however mentioned by Paul later in Acts 26 and was a popular proverb used by both Greek and Latin writers.

Goads (or pricks) were long blunt sticks with a sharp mental point on one end. The end would be used on an oxen to guide the way they were supposed to go. If an oxen became stubborn and deviated from the path they would do so going into the goad, cause a tear in the skin. Goads were used as a parable to compare authority. Whether or not Jesus mentions the goads in Acts 9 is little of interest to me concerning the blog title. What is important however is the image the texts expresses: learning to be guided and not cause pain to oneself.

I know. I can almost hear my contemporary contemporaries, "What a violent image! Where's the free will? First its sheep, now oxen!" And on some level I agree. But for me learning not to kick against the goad isn't about learning the rules and being uniform with the rest of creation's order, it is about learning to be human, redeemed by ever-sacrificing love of God. It's about making mistakes, and hopefully learning from them. In fact, if I had to guess most of what will follow in this blog will reveal that I am always in a state figuring out whether or not I am actually with or against the goad.

God spoils me. His mercy has endured in ways that I don't understand. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten off the hook with something I did (or shouldn't have done) and the consequences were minimal or next to none. And I am so ever thankful. But that doesn't mean that when I really need a reality check that the prod won't come along and give warning that I'm veering. Its happened before.