Sunday Behaviorial Syndrome

The authority our Lord obeyed was an internal authority, not an external one, that is, His inner life and the life He exhibited were one in the same, and the purpose of all external authority is to bring us there.
The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers, Oswald Chambers, Discovery House Pub, 2000, pg 91

Imagine for a moment (likely with great horror) that everything you do in "secret" is also done in public. The most "private" thoughts, actions and beliefs come surging to the surface in your life that everyone might know. Honestly, most people "guess" what goes on in the secret parts of our lives...but I doubt that every secret is truly known.
Except by that of God.
Some of the most hurtful experiences in my life where those having to do with the Sunday Behaviorial Syndrome. SBS, as we shall henceforth call it, is the wonderful transformation many of us go through on a bright, Sunday morning. We make sure we are cheerful, friendly, loving, caring...we force (at times) the "fruits" to shine forth for appearance sake on Sunday. Never mind the rest of the week when we beat the dog, scream at our employees, or shun those less "worthy".
It is this SBS that makes many people despise disciples of Christ. Why, for goodness sake's, would they want to be like you or me? We, if anything, are worse than "they", for we profess we are saved and holy---and yet our behavior, apparently, is even worse than their own?

"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." 2 Cor 4.10

I think, considering my own lovely, sinful nature, that we all have moments of SBS. We begin to think how righteous we are, to be sitting in the best spot in the pews (front center, left side four spots in, or whatever), to be singing the best, or being so wonderful to "forgive" that hateful person two rows over. We have our Bible--which to all accounts MUST be underlined, noted in, and adequately (and respectfully) crumpled to prove we read "enough". Oh, yes.
And as we sit with our SBS shining through, we feel the momentarily shadow of sadness pass over us---that rather than be humble, truly exhibiting our King, we chose to exhibit the deeper secret of ourselves.

We must take charge of ourselves, and, when the SBS begins to rise like such noxious venom in the fangs of a snake poised, stop the strike from hitting. We must charm the snake, as it were, by addressing the SBS that moment. Ask to see the sins in one's life---an intriguing experience, even if one we cringe away from doing.

I have been reading "A Nun's Story" by Kathryn Hulme. A rather interesting book--and while I do not think many of the servitude ideas or punishments are exactly what the Word inspires, I do greatly appreciate the behavior of noticing. The sisters in the book are never allowed to ask anything for themselves; that is, if they are not given a fork, they must wait until another sister notices and asks for one for the forkless sister. I do love this, the love for each other that is nourished into the lives of nuns. Our love for our brothers is often sadly tainted, filled with SBS, so that if we run into a person we dislike at the market...we turn the other way to avoid talking to them. Watch and pray against such behavior...Su It is painful to be the shunned one, and wicked to be the shunner.