Nathan

One time David was hanging out in the Old Testament being King and whatnot and he did something really bad. He watched a man... er allowed a man to die knowing it was unnecessary. More specifically, he put a soldier in the front line and asked the rest of the troops to draw back. And that's how Bathsheba's husband died. David did this because he had the hotts for Bathsheba and had already slept with her and gotten her pregnant.

Next thing you know, a prophet named Nathan heads over to set some things straight for David. Here's the story he told.

2Sam12- ¹ The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! ⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!..."

After this, David repents and writes the famous 51st psalm (Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me) and many people look to that Psalm today to aid them in their own repentance when they see bad in something they have done or with the attitude they have done it with.

I repent a lot in general. I think it's one of my skills. Interestingly enough, being in another culture and a different religious context in some ways reveals problems in the institutions and people around me... I'm not saying that there are a lot of problems, but it's easier to notice them because I haven't become inoculated to whatever form of disease may be here. I'm in the water, but I'm not a fish; so, I can see that it is water that I am looking at.

Anyone who's done any world-view or cultural studies will tell you that we cannot see our own biases and world view as clearly as we can see those things from another society. It's easy for me as an outsider to be outraged at the flippancy with which people make racial or racist comments for example. It's also easy for me to be annoyed with the lack of promptness here in general.

But there are deeper problems as well... like the fact that sometimes amidst all the denominations and religions here there is a lot of focus on the flaws of other groups... but wait: What am I doing right now? Am I not adding to the mix and in this very blog post focusing on the flaws of others just as I am frustrated that they focus on mine? We are like David... I am like David, I mean. I can see clearly the truth when it is taken out of my context, and then BAM, apply it to my context and I am guilty as well (for all have fallen short).

I know this seems depressing, but if you know me at all you know that I'm not very depressed. It's kind of nice repenting... it seems to take a lot of pressure off. Thank you Argentina for being my Nathan! in so many ways... I can't even begin to explain here.