clingy

You must fear the Lord your God, and worship him and cling to him. | Deuteronomy 10:20 {NLT}

Be careful to obey all the commands I give you; show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and clinging to him. | Deuteronomy 11:22 {NLT}

the ESV translates what the NLT calls 'clinging' as 'holding fast'. a much more politically correct way of looking at it, i think!

when you think of someone who is clingy, it is rarely ever in a good sense. clingy usually means needy; someone that you cannot shake loose from, like a static-filled something that wants to be part of whatever you are wearing and annoyingly won't leave.

as i said, nothing good.

but here, God wants the Israelites to cling...to him! he desires—no, commands—that they hold fast to him throughout their days. it seems that in God's book {unlike mine}, clingy isn't annoying, it's obedience.

i fancy myself independent enough that i never want to be known as clingy or needy. if i err in a direction it will most likely be uber-independence and wanting to go my own way.

but when i examine the true state of my heart, my hyper-propensity to sin, then i know that on the most base level, i am needy. there is no way that someone as hopelessly human as i am could ever hope to save or rescue herself.

so, i need hold fast—to cling—to God with all i've got, if for not other reason but to protect myself from my own better judgment, which history has proven a bad idea far too often.