Zap Me, Lord!

 I don’t believe in pulling myself up by the bootstraps. I don’t think I have the ability to change myself. I believe true change comes only from God. However, I also believe I must cooperate with his change. I cannot continue to make bad choices and expect Him to zap me into goodness. This blog is about cooperating with God in becoming peaceful. I believe there are actions that I must take to allow God to sanctify me to become what he wants me to be. This is the basis for this blog.

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Why do we fixate on bad news? Why do we rubberneck at a bad wreck? Why do we gravitate to flaws in the opposition? Why do we gossip or sink into rabbit holes on social media? To deny this behavior would be ridiculous. We love celebrity or political dirt. We are drawn to it like moths to a roaring flame. 24/7 news channels, social media and even the local weather cash in on this truth. And is this behavior so wrong? Shouldn’t we stay abreast of the news in our world? 

But  the real question is why we prefer to let our hearts be troubled rather than peaceful. The fact remains that we cannot be troubled and peaceful at the same time. We cannot love our neighbor while we are judging their choices. We cannot have hope if all we feed on is catastrophe and chaos. Catastrophe and chaos will push out the faith, hope, love and peace in our hearts while filling us with hatred and fear. 

Remember Covid? How could we forget! We feasted on that news. We picked sides and drew lines in the sand. It heightened mental instabilities. We lost our way. I believe it was feasting on the negative that pushed out our sanity. You can probably name some folks that still haven’t returned to normal after Covid.

Do we really want our hearts to be filled with love or do we want our heads full of dirt? We are what we ingest. We must be careful about where our choices lead us. We all know we can be pulled down by hanging with the wrong crowd, but do we know that we can be pulled down by 24/7 news channels and the feed on our social media? Who knew that the wrong crowd can be a network on the TV? 

Pro tip: turn off the news channels, and do not like or repost any political posts on social media. In fact, scroll like the wheel on a slot machine when you see a political post.

What will fill this vacuum? Whatever good or bad thing you choose. Choose wisely. So many good people have become filled with hate and/or fear because they innocently tried to stay informed. And they don’t even see what they have become. Like the injected anesthesia of a leech, we can’t feel the blood being sucked out of our souls by 24/7 news channels and social media. And it doesn’t matter if your news feed is the right one, they all suck out our peace and this loss breaks my heart. But when we choose wisely, we will feel the fresh breeze of freedom from breaking those chains of fear.

The ball is in our court. Instead of feeding on the negative, play a game (maybe not Twister), listen to music, pray, bake cookies for a friend, walk your dog, anything! Just don’t allow your heart to be troubled so you can leave room for God’s peace to take root. 

Preaching to Myself: Politics and Peace

 Philippians 4:8-9 AMP

Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].The things which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things [in daily life], and the God [who is the source] of peace and well-being will be with you.

If you know me, you know I care deeply for Public Education and how state politics affects it. So deep down I worry that if I only stare at the honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praise-of-God-worthy, I will be like the ostrich who puts his head in the sand and will become a silly buffoon who knows nothing of the world around me. This is because when I manage more of what God asks me to notice, I have more peace and less political engagement, missing out on the latest concerns. I don’t get the political memes on social media and feel rather dumb. 

But is all this “engagement” fruitful? Is it about something that I have any control over? Is it more important for me to share the goings on of state government or to share the word of Christ? When I hear the news, does it really make me into a better neighbor, friend, family member, or wife? Yes, I need to be wise when I choose government officials. In truth, it is only the action of voting that has the tiny potential to change my world for the better and this only happens periodically.

So yes, I need to read and pay attention to godly sources before I vote, realizing how tricky it is to stay informed for the vote without giving myself over to angst and worry. However, it is no big secret that in many political resources evil lurks. Even if I could run out and hold a sign in protest, isn’t it better that I hold a hand? The true power to change my world is really in Christ. Because if there is one thing I know, it is through relationships that Christ works and not through violence, a yard sign, marches, protests or even voting. Jesus demonstrated this in his 33 years in flesh. 

So it comes down to this: Which makes me what God asks me to be? Being informed on the political goings-on? Or walking this difficult life in the peace of God? If thinking on all the beauty and goodness of God pushes out my political concerns, and replaces it with peace, it is most certainly a win. This is my prayer: May I think on the beauty of God all day long and with every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.

Hallmark Movies

 I am not a fan of movies where, in the end, the bad guy wins. And I don’t think many other people like them either. I am making this bold statement judging by the popularity of Hallmark movies. We want the good guy to win in our fiction as well as in real life. But more times than not, in daily life we see wrong appear to win over right.

You may have seen what happens to people who have allowed bitterness to rule their heart. Their thoughts become consumed with fear and malice and they slowly become isolated in their bitter world. All their joy has vanished. If we could trace the origin of their bitterness I believe we would find that it started when an unfairness, disappointment, pain, or injustice happened and they believed that wrong won over right. Do not discount this. Bitterness is a tricky ploy of the enemy and it begins with waving the flag of righteous indignation. At this point it is our response to this apparent injustice that matters. 

Guard your heart. We are told in scripture throughout the Bible to guard our hearts. But what does this mean? As we all know, our world is full of unfair situations and it is our response to it that matters to the health of our soul. We cannot control those situations but we can control our response to that unfairness.

I don’t know about you, but my gut response to unfairness and disappointment is anger. Then I shoot off my mouth. Then I internalize it. Then it plants a tiny seed of bitterness. Bitterness is an underestimated powerful, slow acting poison. The natural way animals know not to eat a poisonous plant is a bitter taste. This is a lesson from nature. If you don’t believe me, just feed a small child their first bite of broccoli and then duck. In much the same way as consuming poison, that seed of bitterness grows in my heart and slowly begins to taint my thoughts and words. If I continue to feed this bitterness with wandering thoughts and internet rabbit holes, it slowly poisons my heart and causes a long drawn out suicide to the spirit in me.

Praise God, there is an antidote to bitterness’ venom once it has a hold on my heart! It was given in the Lord’s Prayer. “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgiveness is the antidote to this poison. And Jesus must have known the destruction left by bitterness because he chose to address it in his model prayer. Forgiveness is anything but easy and it must become a daily habit until all the bitterness is gone.

Matthew 6:12 AMP – And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].

So what do we do to steer clear of bitterness when facing the apparent win of evil? Again we need to turn to the Bible. There are plenty of stories of injustice from Genesis to the New Testament. But my favorite response to injustice is in Psalms. Psalms is a book of prayers and praise to God. If you have read the book of Psalms through, you will be surprised by many of them. So many of them express fear, sadness and anger to God over situations in life. Some of it seems inappropriate by our standards yet those who were experiencing injustice boldly asked God for retaliation. They cried out to God in the honesty of their feelings. Here is an example from King David when folks were lying about him.

Psalm 5:8-10 NIV – Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies— make your way straight before me. Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies. Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.

I believe that is the most appropriate place to voice our anger and indignation. As we become more tuned in to the Holy Spirit we become more sensitive to the injustice of this world. So after crying out to God, we must remind ourselves of who is really in control and in his almighty power which we cannot begin to fathom. God does not tell us that this surrendered life will be a cakewalk. In fact he tells us that we will have troubles but he has let us have a peek at the final chapter and it will be far beyond that happy Hallmark ending we desire.

Weird Family Members and World Peace

 The media has given us an alternative name for the upcoming holiday by inventing “Friendsgiving”. More and more you see people forgoing family time to have their own private holiday excursions. Holidays have become uncomfortable because we are forced to hang out and have conversations with folks from differing opinions. I believe this is a symptom of becoming a selfish society. We want our favorite food and our favorite opinions blaring from our favorite source of news. It is all about what we want. We have our rabbit hole and we don’t want to go into someone else’s. So we have become escape artists for family get-togethers.

Spending time with family members that we don’t enjoy doesn’t sound like an appealing way to spend precious vacation time. But if we don’t start building bridges now, our children will suffer the consequences. We must put aside our entitlement, learn to love the unloveable and show our children how this is done by example.

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“But Uncle Fred is an intolerable bigot,” you say? Maybe we need to take the first step with Uncle Fred by letting him rant without our input. Maybe we shouldn’t try to fix Uncle Fred’s opinions and give him time to speak his mind in a safe environment. Oh, and did I mention that we need to look Uncle Fred in the eye and not stare at our phone or the TV? We need to engage with him. We need to pull some stories from his life and maybe we will discover a gold mine under his bravado. Or maybe we won’t.

Maybe we will only find our own personal gold mine of kindness. Maybe it is time to man-up and calmly sit and listen in a non-judgmental way to those with opposing values. Maybe this is where unity begins. If families can’t even sit down to a meal together in peace, how can we expect world leaders to fix this mess?

One Right Decision

I have been rescued. And I am rescued on a daily basis. No, I was not a drug addict. No, I didn’t suffer from alcoholism. My demons are covert, they are many and I am under the delusion that I hide them well. They vary and come at me from every angle. They resemble self-pity, anger, bitterness, selfishness, self-righteousness and a plethora of other chains all of which stem from pride. Any one thing on this list can destroy faster than a heroin addiction and I am inflicted with these demons on a daily basis. But God…

Yes, I have been rescued today. And I was rescued yesterday and I will be rescued tomorrow if I choose. All I have to do is make one right decision. I have to let go and give it to God. It is a choice. It is the one right decision. To let Jesus take the wheel even though I grab at that wheel during the stressful moments of a day. But making this choice consistently and daily over the last seven years has brought me peace and joy that has rooted and grown. Most of my days I am not aware of this change since it isn’t one of those bolt-of-lightning type changes. But sometimes I am given a glimpse of someone who is like me who hasn’t made that decision and my eyes see the miracle that God has produced in me and I want this so badly for them too. He is cutting my chains off one by one, replacing each with his peace, love and understanding and I am so grateful. 

I am beginning to understand this verse from the Apostle Paul. 

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Tired of Being Watched?

 Ad nauseam, I hear an ad that asks if I am tired of Google tracking me. Well, it is not just Google, my friend. It seems like we are tracked everywhere we go, with every move we make.(The song is going through my head right now.) We miss the freedom of “Be back home before the street lights come on.” Recently I sat and talked with a group of ladies who quickly recited four or five ways their husbands could track them when they were shopping. I was amazed. Then when I thought about it, nothing they mentioned was out of the ordinary. Holy Cow! What kind of world do we live in? Well, we live in a super safe world. We maintain contact, minimize risk and reduce our worry load with all our devices. 

                         

As I thought about the motivation of these husbands tracking their wives, I realized it came from insecurity, fear, lack of trust as well as love. Our obvious knee jerk response to being tracked is to throw out all our devices and move off the grid. But that is not realistic. 

If you have ever been a parent of a teenager, you know this issue from the other side. We worry about what they are up to and if they are safe because normal teenagers usually don’t tell us what they are thinking or why they are thinking it. As a parent we have doubts about what our child is like when we are not around so we resort to tracking them with technology because this world IS a dangerous place. We wish we understood what motivates them and we do not intend this to be punitive. We only want the best for them and it is our job to protect them in this world.

So what if we did with our spouses and close family exactly what we wish our teenage kids would do? What if instead of becoming more sleuth and secretive, we become more transparent and leaned into it? By transparent I mean honest. What if we told our loved ones the moves we make before we make them? And what if we shared our motivation behind our choices in a conversation instead of forcing our loved ones to depend on technology to figure out what we are up to? Of course that would involve taking the time to sit and talk, which is a whole other subject. And to set an example for our kids we need to be transparent ourselves. Ouch!

Here are a few ideas to get us started. 

1. Post some not-so-flattering honest moments of your day on social media.
2. Tell a loved one about a really stupid thing that you did that makes you anxious when you think about it. 
3. Call or text your love one before every impromptu choice you make in your day.
4. Make sure your next of kin has access to ALL your accounts. 
5. Let your significant other know what you are buying and why before you make your purchases.(This is not the same as asking permission to do so.)

If this list makes you very uncomfortable, you are not alone. I believe that transparency is the key to freedom in our technologically advanced world. Take baby steps to be more transparent and I believe you will find that with honesty comes peace.