A matrix, according to the Urban Dictionary is, “A computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human-being into a battery.”
We human beings generally are a fearful lot, embedding our drive for certainty in expressions of power rather than in the risk of trust and relationship. We create (dream up) institutional systems and organizations of hierarchical power—be they religious, social, ideological, political, educational, financial etc—in order to extend our desperate need to control.
Sadly, as these systems evolve, they often use human beings as batteries. We created the Matrix and without the empowering presence of human beings, any Matrix has less life than a rock. Even with the best of intentions, the Matrix is still the Matrix. We have populated the entire planet with them—including the Sabbath.
One day, a group of Matrix guardians arranged a little meeting with Jesus, ostensibly to air specific grievances they were having with the motley crew of undisciplined and uneducated disciples following Jesus. Seems this rag-tag gang of malcontents weren’t very good at keeping the rules that had long been part of the Sabbath Matrix.
The religious systems forming around Sacred Scriptures had effectively reduced the Word of God to a set of defensible propositions—in this particular instance revolving around the very holy subject of the day of God’s rest.
The Sabbath Matrix had been developed over centuries and had become increasingly complex—complete with roles, expectations and duties, and provided a significant element of job-security for the experts.
Keep in mind that Jesus is God comfortable inside his own skin. And Jesus cares as much for these “protectors of the Holy” as he does for all those who have been turned into batteries. So, with a twinkle in his eye, and in one sentence, he dismantles the entire cosmos as we have known it and reveals that the matrices we have built are fundamentally a lie.
“The Human Being was not made for (to serve) the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for (to serve) the Human Being!”
Did you see it, or did you only feel it? Everything changed in this moment.
The Human Being was not made for (to serve) the Matrix; any Matrix is made for (to serve) the Human Being.
The Human Being was not made for (to serve the Matrix of…) Marriage, Marriage was made for (to serve) the Human Being.
There are many who try to hand us a one-size-fits all approach to this very unique relationship with a spouse. After all, we are well adept at creating matrices—and the rules of engagement for each.
However.
Marriage—as a matrix—exists to serve you and your spouse. And for it to serve you well, it’s best practices and proposed mindsets must be authentic expressions of who you uniquely are—and they must change as you change.