The Thank-You Cure

When I was a kid, when the fall colors started to appear and the weather grew crisp in the Northern Hemisphere,  we began to look forward to a holiday that we in America simply call, Thanksgiving.  It was a time to celebrate God's mercies to us throughout the year and to join with extended family members and spend a weekend enjoying food and each other's company and to discover your place in a shared family lineage as the stories were piled one on top of the other and laughter and love seemed to rule the day.  

It seems as though, in our current era, we have no time to celebrate Thanksgiving, as the retailers would have us jump from Back to School Sales to Halloween Sales and then straight to Christmas.  And we have all but forgotten Thanksgiving.  Were it not for grocer's who still want to cash in on the reminiscent holiday, it would probably totally be skipped.  But the Thanksgiving holiday is not what I am trying to champion here.  While I think it is still an important holiday, I would suggest that it is what is behind the holiday that is really important.  Thankfulness.  The act of being truly grateful for what we have.  I even believe that being thankful could help us with the worry fear, anxiety and other things that we struggle with on an almost daily basis now.  Which reminds me of A. J. Cronin and a story he once wrote.

A. J. Cronin was born in 1896 in Cardross, Scotland. He was educated at Dumbarton Academy where he received baccalaureates in medicine and surgery. In 1914, he entered the Glasgow University Medical School, graduating in 1919. During World War I Cronin served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. After the war, he worked as a ship's surgeon on a liner bound for India, and then served in various hospitals. In 1930, his health broke down and he turned to writing as a profession. In 1931 he produced his first novel, "Hatter's Castle," which became an immediate success. He followed it with several best-selling books including "The Citadel," "The Stars Look Down," and "The Keys of the Kingdom." 

Once Cronin told about a colleague who gave an unusual prescription to patients afflicted with worry, fear, discouragement or self-doubt. The doctor called it his thank-you cure. "For six weeks I want you to say thank you whenever anyone does you a favor. And to show you mean it, emphasize the words with a smile." Within six weeks most of the doctor's patients showed great improvement.

Are you down to try it?  As you consider your answer, here are a few other things to think about.

"Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies." - Charles E. Jefferson

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." - Colossians 2:7

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Giving thanks should not be a once a year event. Nor does it necessarily need to be smothered in food and feasting.  Rather, it should be practiced daily for all the blessings that we receive. Are you feeling worry, fear, discouragement or self-doubt? Today in prayer, thank Christ and thank others whenever anyone does you a favor.  And to show you mean it, emphasize your words with a smile!

Will You Yield? NEVER!!!!

Storms are a natural part of life.  Small storms, like frantic searches for car keys when you are due at an important appointment.  Medium storms, like not having enough money to pay rent, or someone slamming into your parked car, putting your patience to the test as you walk through mountains of insurance issues and getting your car fixed or totaled and finding a replacement.  Finding a broken pipe, or a rotted floor or some other headache that you hadn't planned on dealing with. Then there are those HUGE storms.  Storms that threaten to do us in. That phone call that lets you know a loved one has been in a bad car accident, or has passed.  That doctor's report that tells you that you have cancer or COVID or some other equally bad piece of news.   How do you hold on then?  How do you not only hold on, but how do you actually grow stronger?  I believe it is in learning to yield your circumstances to God..

But that is much easier said than done, since yielding requires giving away even the last bit of the control we have.  But yielding to your circumstances to God can actually help you grow stronger as you meet the challenges of life. 

Yielding.  It means to “give way, to acquiesce.”  A more personal definition would be: to surrender or relinquish to the physical control of another : hand over possession of : to surrender or submit (oneself) to another.  

But we don’t like to yield (except, perhaps, to our temptations!)  It is not in our nature.  Everything within us revolts at the sound of yielding.  Oh, we do it when we have to…like when we come to a busy street and there is a yield sign.  But we don’t do it readily.  As a matter of fact, if the truth were to be known, we are approaching that yield sign to see if we have enough room to squeeze out in front of that car that is coming.  If we have just enough room, we will usually gun it to pull out in front and let them step on the brakes rather than yielding.  

In fact, as I have studied human nature, we don’t even value the idea of yielding, because we think it makes us look weak.  We, like Robin Hood, when presented with the question “Will you yield?” quickly respond...at least in our hearts, "NEVER!"  We would rather fight and go into the water before we would allow someone else to get the better of us.

So when someone says you can grow stronger through yielding, it almost sounds impossible.  But it is true.  Part of growing stronger as you go through the storms of life is realizing that God can use whatever circumstances you find yourself in if you will just rest in His care and yield to His will for you.  And if you’ve learned to trust Him in the good times, it is much easier not to panic in the storm.  

I had a mentor once, an older retired minister, named Sam. He still worked part time at the church I was at for a small stipend, but he loved people and he loved God and wanted to continue to spend his time bringing the two together. Sam was married to Dorothy.  And Sam and Dorothy had weathered many storms in life.  Family problems, many deaths of those close to them, financial pressures and at times, their own health challenges.  

One day Dorothy began to experience some abdominal pain.  She chalked it up to something she ate and figured it would pass.  But instead of going away, the pain got progressively worse, so she scheduled an appointment with her doctor.

A few tests, and the diagnosis did not take long.  She was already in stage 4 of pancreatic cancer.  I watched as Sam took care of her over the next few months, spending less time at the church and more by her side.  It wasn’t long before Dorothy died, her abdomen having swollen to the size of a basketball from the cancer inside her.

I will never forget that funeral and especially the graveside service.  Sam was there, and though he shed his tears over the one he had spent so much of life with, he wasn’t angry, he wasn’t questioning God and he wasn’t particularly trying to keep a stiff upper lip to put on a good show.

I walked up as he watched them shovel the dirt onto her casket and I put my arm around his shoulder.  He looked over at me and said, “I praise the Lord that He gave me such a good woman to go through life with.  She was my sweetheart.  The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. I trust Him to do what’s best. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

That spoke volumes to me of a trust in God that can develop in a person who chooses to yield to the will of God for their life.

What about you?  Have you learned to yield your impossible circumstances to God?  Your suffering can make you bitter or better?  Closer to God or farther away.  It depends on what you choose to do.  Yield or retain control…But I think if we can learn to yield, we will find that our lives will be more in control and make more sense and we can have a peace about us that does not flee in the presence of bad circumstances.  And no matter what, we can say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  

The question I (and you as well) have to answer as I meet each of life’s challenges: Will  you yield this circumstance to God?

Who Filters YOUR Air?

So I changed my a/c filter the other day and it was filthy. I couldn't believe all of that stuff would have gone through my a/c unit if not for the filter. And then I began to think of all of the filters on all of the A/C units in the Western part of the US in recent weeks, working hard to filter out all of the smoke from the forest fires, leaving people able to breathe much better than if they were out and about with nothing to filter the air in their environments. It was then I came to a brilliant conclusion on the matter: Filters are good things.

It's true in the spiritual realm too. By spending time in God's Word, you allow God to put filters in your mind that will help you screen out a lot of the noise and the peace-wrecking static. God-filters can give you perspective that filters out the minutia that destroys the bigger picture that lets us know that God is in control even if things appear bad. When we run the noise of the world through God-filters, a lot of the junk just won't go through, which leaves us breathing healthy, purified and peaceful spiritual air. You don't have to be subject to every wind of fear that blows through. You can live a life of peace by breathing the air from God's life-giving filter.

But the devil has filters too. He will filter out the good and cause you to believe the worst of others. He will create suspicions and angst and cause you to be short of temper and long on criticism. He will only let you see what causes you to despair. His filter system will lead to panic attacks, heavy heartedness and a loss of focus as he gets you to hone in on hearing all of the wrong voices. Worse yet, the devil specifically filters out the calming, peace-giving voice of God leaving you with spiritual air that is as toxic as smoke over the Western US during forest fires. You can't live on it long without succumbing and going down.

In this age of where the news blows in rancid, toxic air on an hourly basis, and where people have breathed hate-filled, or despair-filled or conspiracy-filled air for so long that they have become increasingly polarized on issues and many are now ardently defending things that they once said they detested and abhorred.

See, without a God-filtered perspective, the devil can twist our minds and bend them to accept logically-based conclusions that only make sense if there is no God. And it doesn't matter whether you say you believe in God or not, as long as the devil can filter your spiritual air, he can lead you to a functional atheism that concludes, "well, if that's the case, then..." without ever questioning whether that indeed IS the case.

What if Daniel had only accepted the devil's filtered air when told he could only pray to the king? "Well if that's the case, it's only for 30 days." (And some of us have gone longer than that without going back to God to breathe His air.)

What if Joseph had said, "Well she IS my owner's wife, therefore, also my owner...so I guess I have to do what she says."?

What if Moses had said, "Well, that's it folks...it was a good 3 days while we had it...but looks like we are trapped between the sea and the mountains now."?

Each of these was able to keep their perspective, because they filtered their circumstances through a better, bigger filter! The filter of God's life-giving, life-saving, peace-filled, redemption-based reality.

Question: Who filters what is currently going through your mind? Not sure? Look at the air on the other side? Is it peaceful, focused and calming or are you given more to fear, anxiety, and suspicion? If you aren't getting the results you desire, change filters.

Of Facebook Cannons and Twitter Bombs

The issues are the same: We get wronged and we want to tell everyone about how wronged we were and how unfairly we were treated.  But the weapons have evolved through time.  From face to face to telephones and now social media.  Facebook cannons and Twitter bombs. If you wrong me, (or I so much as perceive that you oppose something I might hold dear, thus creating, at least in my mind, the offense) I will BLOW you off the face of the social media map by turning the tide of popular opinion against you

and then, not only allowing, but encouraging others who agree with me to also get their shots in, until you are totally pummeled into submission.  And even after you wave the white flag of surrender, I will come back and drop another bomb just for good measure before I finally turn and fly off.  But allow me to digress.

It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Take, for instance, what happens when someone truly wrongs us...or even if we just perceive that we have been wronged.  What happens?  We immediately want to let people know that we were wronged and we try to gain more people to agree with us about how badly we were treated.

Back in the day before technology, when people were wronged, they told their family members, or their friends or maybe even a judge.  Some even took justice into their own hands and developed "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" mentality.  They wanted to make sure that they exacted their "pound of flesh!"  There are many examples throughout the Bible of people seeking to "get even" or make someone else pay or at least to come out of a scrap without losing anything.

Think Joseph's brothers after being told another wild dream.  Think Jezebel after her prophets were done away with.  Think of the two mothers in Solomon's court arguing about a baby.  Think the priest who lost a concubine to rape and cutting her up and sending a piece of her to each tribe to show what the men of the tribe of Benjamin had done.  They all wanted to let people know how much someone had wronged them.  There is nothing new, as King Solomon said, under the sun.

You've done it.  I've done it.  It's only natural that I want YOU to know how much I hurt and have been WRONGED.  And let's be clear.  There are legitimate hurts that need to be addressed.  There ARE wrongs that need to be righted. But there are also right ways and wrong ways, if you are a Christian, of going about it.  Likewise, even if you aren't a Christian, there are more productive as well as less productive ways of going about things.

Which takes us next level.   There are two main motivations to make changes.  Force and choosing to change out of Love.  In our society, and in fact, in most societies throughout history, there has been an element of force or coercion underlying almost all social structures.  Each may have some valid points, but each also has its drawbacks.  From Empires in the old world to clan clashes and religious clashes in more recent times, almost all rely on a "might makes right" mentality.  Or another way of looking at it is "majority rules".  Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Naziism and even democracy all hold this in common.  They all utilize the idea that if we can just get enough people to join us for the change that we believe needs to happen then we can make them do it.  And most of it comes from the fact that we see the same problem, but all put forth different solutions as to how it should be addressed. (Which is why the election cycle becomes extremely tedious as each side seeks to rally more votes so they can be in power and make people do things their way.)

All of these social structures hold this in common.  The only difference is the distribution of wealth and power.  That's what the whole French Revolution was all about.  Seeking to throw off tyranny and establish new control over the distribution of wealth and power.  But if you read history, those who originally killed the aristocracy on the guillotine would themselves end up perishing the same way only a few days, or if lucky, a few months later as popular opinion swung wildly back and forth for a time.

So man operates off of the basic premise: If I have more power than you, then I can force you to do what I want you to do or I will simply eliminate you one way or the other.

But Jesus came and demonstrated a different way.  His "come, follow Me" was never followed by the words "or else".    His was a way of loving reason.  Of thinking about the other before Himself.  When the leaders of the synagogue and the people of Nazareth tried to throw Him off a cliff, He hid and then moved on to the next town.  And once there, He wasn't talking about how His own townspeople and neighbors had tried to kill Him.  He was talking about the Kingdom.  He was telling them that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to redeem it, not to judge it...but that the world might be saved through Him.

And then He taught, in Matt. 18:15    “If another believer^a sins against you,^b go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. ¹⁶ But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

And how did Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors?  With love.  Ask Matthew.  Ask Zaccheaus.  What about pagans?  What about the Centurion with a sick servant?  Or the Samaritan woman at the well.  These were who the Jews considered pagan.

Somehow, I don't think Jesus would ever say, "If another brother or sister sins against you, leverage your social media capitol and light up your Facebook cannon and drop your Twitter bombs."  See, once you bring out the big guns, your disagreement is guaranteed to only escalate until one side or the other realizes what is going on and backs down, or one side or the other sways enough popular opinion to bombard their adversary into complete and total surrender.  But surrender doesn't mean that minds have been changed and hearts have been won.  

To leverage your social media against another without so much as a face to face or at least a private phone or even private email conversation may win you the skirmish, but it will never win you the war.  You may leverage enough social capitol to load the cannon and deliver and you might even force someone's hand on an issue.  You may even force things that are right and good to happen.  But even if you get the right results utilizing the the wrong methodology will never truly serve you for the long term.  In the end, you always stand to lose more than you gain.  It may be a loss of relationship, or a loss of trust, respect or credibilty  and reputation.  It could even be the loss of your salvation.   But you will always lose something, even if you happen to win in the short term.  To paraphrase Jesus...he who lives by the cannon, dies by the cannon.  Or whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

Without a doubt, change is needed in many areas.  And undoubtedly,  there are issues that we must address and face if we are to be faithful followers of Jesus in the public arena.  But HOW we address them is just as important as addressing them.  But note that Jesus never asked us to be successful in creating change. He only asked us to be faithful in our presentation of Him and His love.

Maybe it is time to put away the Facebook Cannons and Twitter Bombs and instead of trying to force others to change their beliefs or their actions in order to get more results,  perhaps it's time we live like Jesus and lead with Love.  

The Hard Choice

I don’t care who you are—suffering will touch you. There is really no such thing as a charmed life. The wealthiest all the way down to the poorest. We all suffer. You might be saying, “Oh, I’d like to suffer the way they have to suffer. At least I’d have a Beemer.” “Or at least I’d suffer in a million dollar house.”

If that’s your type of thinking then you haven’t really been paying attention. If watching hurricanes and tornadoes sweep across the land has taught us anything, it would have to be that the million dollar houses can be ruined and swept away as quickly as the shanties.

Recognize that while you may be thinking of a better way to suffer, there are millions of people who are suffering much worse. Did you know that there are children being born in Africa today, to parents with AIDS. Those children themselves, are born with AIDS, and they will live their entire life and then die an early death and not know one day without suffering.

Think about that. If you have had at least one day in your life free of worry or pain, you’ve got more than they will have in their entire lifetime. But recognize that it is not the suffering, itself, that brings you closer to Jesus.

It is what you choose to do with your suffering. It is how you choose to handle the crisis, the trauma, the
sickness, or the bad news. You can choose to run to Jesus and allow Him to comfort and strengthen you in (and perhaps even deliver you from) your suffering, or you can choose to run away from him and blame Him for your suffering.

One choice will bring you closer to Jesus and give you strength to bear up and persevere through whatever it is you are having to face. The other will cause you to grow bitter and miserable, to the point that others will soon go out of their way to avoid you.

Choose wisely..but choose. Don't let your life go into default.

Read this Blog or I'll Shoot This Dog

The Perils of Either/Or Thinking

 

 

In January of my Freshman year of high school, there was a magazine (not a particularly good one) called the National Lampoon that featured on its cover, the picture above, with the title, If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog!  Of course, it was a promotional stunt, but it was so in your face shocking that it soon became a hot discussion topic among my peers.  

 

Some thought it was hilarious while others, especially the animal lovers among us, found it to be very offensive and in poor taste.  There seemed to be very little middle ground on the topic.  Either you loved it or you hated it.  There were a few that simply shrugged and said they didn’t really care one way or the other, but then, they were that way on about every topic we discussed.  No matter how one felt, though, they were allowed to have their own perspective and we went on being friends.

 

It occurred to me the other day that in our society, and yes, even within the walls of our church, we have adopted an either/or posture on almost every topic.  Either you are for me…and if not, you are definitely against me.  Either you buy everything I tell you, or you totally reject it.  Either you totally agree with me, or I will have no use for you.   And the stakes for disagreeing are grow exponentially higher, often causing anger, suspicion, distrust and sometimes even ending friendships.

 

The more things change, the more things stay the same.  Did you know that was exactly why there were two different ruling parties that made up the Sanhedrin in Jesus day? They were called the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  They couldn’t agree on anything.  The Pharisees believed in the Resurrection.  The Sadducees didn’t. (Perhaps that’s why they were so sad…).  The Pharisees believed that if you did enough good works, you could bank some of it to help you get into heaven.  The Sadducees believed that since there was no resurrection, this life was all they had, so they had to live it up and get as much as they could while they were still alive.  And they believed that the more possessions one had, the more proof that God was with them and blessing them…which was one thing that the Pharisees began to adopt as well as they cushioned their own homes and pockets a little more.

 

But when it came to Jesus…they both suddenly agreed!  HE was dangerous.  He was usurping their authority and their important role in society.  As such, He had to go!

 

So, they began to use either/or thinking with Jesus.  Buy this magazine or we’ll shoot this dog!  Over and over, they tried to trap Jesus into committing to one or the other, in order to trap Him.  Need some examples?

 

John 8:4   “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

 

John 8:6    They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 

 

They knew that if he said “Stone her” they could simply turn Him over to the Romans for preempting their authority to decide between life and death, and the Romans would dispose of Him. Problem solved.  But if Jesus said, “Let her go” the people would be livid that He was ignoring Moses law and turn on Him. Again, problem solved.  Either/or would carry the day. But not so fast. Jesus has never been about either/or thinking.  It’s too narrow and dismisses any room for grace.  Let’s go back to John 8:7

 

⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone! ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

 

John 8:9    When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

 

John 8:11   “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

 

With a simple statement, Jesus dismissed, not only a crowd full of sinners, but their “either/or” thinking as well.

 

Here’s another: Mark 12:13    Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. ¹⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵  Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”  (There it is…either/or)

 

 Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin,^a and I’ll tell you.”  ¹⁶ When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”   “Caesar’s,” they replied.

 

Mark 12:17   “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”  His reply completely amazed them.

 

Why?  Why did it amaze them?  Because it didn’t fall into their either/or thinking.  There are many other examples in scripture, but they all make the same point.  You don’t have to buy the magazine OR shoot the dog.

 

You don’t have to share a certain post with 10 friends or lose the blessing of Jesus.  You don’t have to subscribe to mask or no mask.  You can support black lives while continuing to support law enforcement.  It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.  But the more important point to consider as you seek to lead others to Jesus is, how well are you representing the character of Jesus and His love through your words and actions?  

 

Even if you don’t believe in wearing masks and you think it is all a croc, when you go to church and they ask you to be considerate, do you yield for the sake of loving the weaker (perhaps immuno-depressed) brother or sister and put one on, joyful to serve others humbly in such a simple (though perhaps irritating) way?  Or do you proudly, defiantly look for ways to register your disdain and use your position in the church to lobby for changing “these stupid requirements”?

 

When you hear Black Lives Matter, do you humbly seek to hear the plight, concerns and fears of your black brother or sister, happy to serve through listening and learning in humility, or do you immediately jump to All Lives Matter as you seek to argue the point of which matters more?

 

Did you know that I can readily accept and champion Black lives mattering, seeking to uphold and support my black friends and promoting the need for police reform, without agreeing on every point that the Black Lives Matter platform puts forth.  I can likewise support those police officers who are out there on the front lines every day doing their absolute best to do a good job to protect and serve.  I don’t have to allow myself to be polarized so much that I lose the ability to reason.  I can actually, if I think about it…support both.  

 

And someone’s need to have me agree with them on their polarized end of the spectrum is just that--their need.  And when I don’t conform to their demands, many have pushed me to the opposite end of the spectrum in their mind, without actually considering my reasons, or the  fact that I don’t happen to agree with the opposite end of their spectrum either.  But we are caught in a society that pushes, very strongly,  either you are with me or you are against me!  

 

I love my wife, but I don’t have to agree with every last idea or thought she has in order to continue loving her.  We are going to have differences.  HOW we work through our differences really determines whether I truly love her or not.  And the same is true in the church.  How we love others will show whether we truly love Christ or not.

 

I may believe that wearing a mask is stupid, suffocating and non-essential, but still choose to wear it out of love.  Because I understand that wearing it tells my fellow worshippers that I am more concerned about their health, and their belief that masks help contain the spread of a virus, than I am about my personal rights.   I can choose to wear it joyfully, because I want my church to be perceived as a safe place to be for my brothers and sisters, as well as a safe place to bring their friends.  Both physically and spiritually.

 

Jesus said it this way: John 13:35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

 

Don’t buy the magazine…and please don’t shoot the dog.  It doesn’t make you a bad person.  But DO show love and respect for others as a way of proving to the world that you are a disciple of Jesus.

Step Away Before You Re-engage

Hey Christian Leader…are you tired?  Mentally exhausted?  Physically drained?  Emotionally spent?  Me too. What we have been going through the past months (and especially the last 2 weeks) is enough to drain the life out of the best of us.  Unless you are a person who thrives on quarantine and conflict…or conflict in quarantine…or some other combination of the same, if you are like me (and because you are human…I know that in at least some ways you are) you can only take so much of the fevered pitch before you have to step away.

And that’s ok.  You can’t sustain the emotional knife edge for very long anyway.  So, let me invite you, first, to step away. Perhaps for only a few hours, or just an afternoon. Maybe a day or weekend.  Step away and unplug.  Disconnect from the news.  It will be there when you get back-and it will still be mostly bad.  Take leave of your social media platforms for a while.  The discussions will be still be there, and just as heated, when you get back.  For your own mental health’s sake, back away, unplug, disconnect and take some time reconnecting to the Source of peace and mental health.

As I look around at the events in today’s world, I see the social injustice and racism, the riots and demonstrations, the verbal volleys on social media, the political posturing and the name calling.  My emotions run higher as I come to understand the intolerable things that people of color continue to have to bear and the senseless killings of innocent people.  It IS an outrage.  And it NEEDS to stop.  MUST stop.

Alongside that, protests that start peacefully enough suddenly turn violent, and more lives are lost, buildings are burned and looted and justifications are put forth as to why it should be that way.  And dialogs that could be productive, cease.  And defensiveness escalates with emotions that are already running high and understanding ceases.  Battle lines are drawn and enemies are declared.

But stop.  Step back and consider.  PEOPLE aren’t our enemies.  They are simply victims of our one great enemy, the devil.  He has sold us all different versions of the same lie… “YOU can be like God.”  In essence…YOU. CAN. BE. GOD! (really only for you, but that’s in the fine print). But we take that to mean that WE are the ultimate cause in the Universe.  

But we, who belong to the King of Kings, must look at thing a bit differently.  We must recognize first, that He is God…and not we ourselves.  And as God, He does call His followers to right the wrongs and lift the lowly and champion the cause of those who are oppressed.  But we must do it in HIS way in order for lasting change to take place.  All other methods simply breed resentment and when the time is right, resentment spews forth hatred, which ends up bringing death.

This is why it is so important to stop, step back and unplug for a bit before we re-engage.  In fact, before any of us go running off to right wrongs, we must be under HIS control and not our own.  How do we do that?  Isaiah 1 gives us a clue.  Isaiah is addressing the church and the inherent problems that come with a group of people who are only partially committed to the Lord.  Here is a sampling of the things that God was saying in a vision to Isaiah.

Is. 1:2               Listen, O heavens! Pay attention, earth!

                        This is what the LORD says:

            “The children I raised and cared for

                        have rebelled against me.

³           Even an ox knows its owner,

                        and a donkey recognizes its master’s care—

            but Israel doesn’t know its master.

                        My people don’t recognize my care for them.”

⁴           Oh, what a sinful nation they are—

                        loaded down with a burden of guilt.

            They are evil people,

                        corrupt children who have rejected the LORD.

            They have despised the Holy One of Israel

                        and turned their backs on him.

He goes on to list some of the problems the country was currently having.  The country was in ruins.  Towns are burned.  Foreigners are plundering and destroying.  Sound familiar?  And how did God’s people respond.  By doing more of the same thing they were doing that caused their destruction in the first place.  Gave more offerings.  Said more prayers.  Offered more sacrifices and hoped for the best…with no internal change.

And God said. ¹¹         “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?”

                        says the LORD.

            “I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams

                        and the fat of fattened cattle.

¹³         Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;

                        the incense of your offerings disgusts me!

            As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath

                        and your special days for fasting—

            they are all sinful and false.

                        I want no more of your pious meetings

¹⁵         When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.

                        Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,

                        for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

Then God comes to what He is really interested in.

¹⁶         Wash yourselves and be clean!

                        Get your sins out of my sight.

                        Give up your evil ways.

¹⁷         Learn to do good.

                        Seek justice.

            Help the oppressed.

                        Defend the cause of orphans.

                        Fight for the rights of widows.

Is. 1:18           “Come now, let’s settle this,”

                        says the LORD.

            “Though your sins are like scarlet,

                        I will make them as white as snow.

            Though they are red like crimson,

                        I will make them as white as wool.

Did you catch that?  And some are saying…. “Yes!  Let’s go fight and help the oppressed!  Let’s defend the cause and rights of orphans and widows”.  But not yet.  Stay unplugged for just a little longer.  Because in verse 18 God says: Let’s settle this. NLT. Other versions say “Come let us reason together.”  In other words, before you run off, there is something that needs to happen in your life.  You need to let me get rid of your sins and your evil desires.  You need to be washed!  Your words, your actions, your attitudes all need to be laid down so that you can accomplish things in the way I want them accomplished.  Through Love.

That means that, no matter your color or ethnicity, as a child of God, after letting Christ deal with your sins, you see His call to take up the cause of the oppressed in the way that Jesus would have you do it, rather than through use of the world’s might-makes-right-tactics.  

What would that look like?  It would look like you using whatever gifts and abilities the Lord has placed within you, and utilizing those as you follow the Holy Spirit’s stirrings in your heart to work to alleviate injustice no matter where it is found, in a manner in keeping with how you were created.

It means you put your shoulder to the wheel and utilize your influence for lasting change in a way that the outside, unbelieving, world can respect. It means you refuse to use their catchphrases that would inflame, choosing thoughtfulness and carefully chosen words instead, that can bring calm.  It means that you recognize the diversity that God has put into all people and you celebrate, rather than denigrate that.  Beyond ethnic differences, expand your view to include gender, generational curses, culture (community, church or school) and even personality types.

Wait, what?  I was tracking with you until you made that last turn.  Ok.  Let me break it down.  We are all different.  VERY different, which, if you haven’t noticed in all the realm of creation and nature, is exactly the way our Father likes things.  Which means that I don’t have to respond exactly like you in order to support you, whatever your race, circumstances, etc. might be.   I can be free to support the cause of justice in ways that you might not have even considered.  

For example, I’ve seen many in recent days write an iteration of this idea.  “If you are silent, you are complicit to the problem.”  Meaning, basically, if you are not saying something against this, you are guilty of spreading it.  I get the ideology behind that statement, especially coming from a non-believer, but what that statement actually does is simply shut off every other avenue of support I may have been able to offer if I happen to be, say, an introvert.  If I were an introvert, I wouldn’t want to march and shout things out.  I would probably shy away from conflict or controversy, and I wouldn’t want to post on my social media because I don’t want to be noticed. But, if encouraged in a more constructive way, I might donate to a cause or work behind the scenes in silence, or reach out in love to a friend of another race.  But if my silence is my complicity, then with one broad brush stroke, I have been de-valued and my potential contribution reduced to nothing.  That too, is an intolerant act, against someone whose only crime was to be born with the "wrong" type of personality.

So perhaps, instead of those type of statements, often written when emotions are running high and passion is running deep, what if we ran our emotions and passions through the filter of the Holy Spirit and in an attitude like that of the early church facing the injustices to the Greek widows,  engaged in dialog to see how we might, together, move as God’s people to address the issue of injustice in practical ways using all of our combined gifts?  Dialog in the Spirit and then implement in His power.

James gives us good counsel when it comes to how we might proceed.

James 1:19    My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Work on yourself first.  Then look out for others.

James 1:26    If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

May we allow God to change our hearts and then may that change help us to reach out to right the wrongs, bring justice where it is needed, stand with the oppressed and lift the fallen.  And may He accomplish it, not through our anger, but through His love and the power of His Spirit living in each one of us.  

Ok…now you can go re-engage...with a regenerated heart and with the love of Jesus.