As I watch the news and TV commercials, it is becoming apparent that we are quickly approaching another exceptionally bad mud-flinging season. Ah, politics. Remember when there were real issues, and the candidates spoke about their ideas for those issues, and we decided whose idea was better, voted for them, and went on with our lives? Neither do I.
I’m not a very politically charged person. I am registered as an Independent because I refuse to vote based on party affiliations. I know where I stand on some important issues, and try my best to vote for the person who comes closest to that stance. Some issues are beyond the scope of my understanding, or I just don’t care. The sad truth is, though, it is becoming so difficult to comprehend where the candidates stand on anything, and none of it seems to be lining up with where I think they should be. So here is my commentary on two issues that should not be issues but have been made into issues which mask the real issues.
First, there is the candidate Herman Cain. Of the few things I’ve heard, there is a possibility that he has some good ideas and ideals. Thanks to social media, though, I have heard more about his race and what other candidates think of him than about what he really stands for. One email I’ve received a couple of times is a list of would-be bumper stickers that say things like “my candidate is blacker than your candidate, so what now?” The day Cain won the primary here in Florida, I knew that this would become the big issue. Just so we are clear, I want to rip my hair out every time somebody pulls the “if you don’t agree with Obama’s policies, you’re clearly a racist” card. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Which is why I am not surprised that the GOP is pushing a black candidate to the front. I would just really like to know about his ideas instead of his race, which is obvious and doesn’t affect his ability to do one single thing. Maybe our third black President will be taken seriously. One can only hope.
Secondly, there is the Occupy movement. I am all for American citizens exercising their Constitutional right to be heard. I am also all for a person’s right to work hard and enjoy the fruits of their labor, even if it means that they are earning exponentially more than me. The problem I have with this whole movement is how both sides deal only in absolutes. The opponents have this idea that ALL people on welfare are lazy bums who need to “get off your duff and off my dime”. There are certainly enough people involved in this movement who are seeking attention, trying to get out of their contractual obligations, and looking for a handout because they do not have the good fortune that others have. We will call them Group A. However, there are some who are just not able to make a comfortable living because of having a disability or high medical bills, wanting to earn a degree to improve their own situation, or being a victim of the current recession – Group B. The slogan “we are the 99%” is misleading, because probably half or fewer are actually in that second category. Granted, as the economy continues to sink, Group B is growing we should come together as a nation and help one another out. The problem comes in discerning the first group from the second.
On the other hand, the supporters of the movement refuse to recognize that Group A exists, so they combine everybody with a meager income or lack thereof into one group and cry out that they are being victimized by those who have worked hard, amassed wealth, or have just been fortunate enough to be born into it. So what is the solution? Got me. As I see it, life’s not fair. It is possible to have a great idea or innovation and rise up out of an unfortunate situation and become rich. Just ask any movie star or athlete. It is also possible to lose it all and be in a situation of dependence that you never thought you would be. Finally, it’s possible to just be happy with your lot in life and realize that situations come and go, and maybe it’s not wise to throw all of your energy into trying to get someone else to change a temporary event in your own life.
Personally, I never pass up a penny on the street because each one contains a reminder that In God we Trust. If wealth is what you worship, you will always be let down.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Uncomfortably Numb
You know that feeling when you have been in an awesome relationship for a very long time, but for whatever reason it ends and your world comes crashing down around you? When a relationship like that ends, there’s this feeling that you will never love again. You don’t even want to look at another potential mate. You go emotionally numb.
Now don’t get nervous – Scott and I are great and more in love than ever. No, I’m talking about my church relationship. Today is “Get Back in Church Day”, and yet I sit here, spiritually numb, pouring my heart out to the blogosphere while my husband and kids are trying out a new church that I was so excited about but couldn’t bring myself to go to today. Why? Because it’s not Hope Chapel. Because Hope is where my heart is, and I just don’t feel ready to move on.
It really does feel like a relationship that ended. It was not on bad terms, in fact there was so much love and positive prayer when we left that I almost drove back to the house in Surprise and unloaded the truck. I just had to get out of Arizona and back to Florida, and despite my best efforts at convincing them, the church could not go with me.
Now before you start worrying that our Arizona church had some cultish hold on me that I need psychological help to overcome, I really just mean that I had so much love invested there that it is difficult to make myself vulnerable today. What if the new church is boring? What if the people are weird (-er? Lol)? What if the Holy Spirit is not there? Or what if it’s everything I hoped it would be and I just love it? That might be the worst option of all because it shouldn’t be that easy to just go from one love to the next.
Here’s what I know right now: finding a home church is an extremely big deal and not one to be taken lightly. All churches are definitely not built the same, and like relationships can be beneficial or harmful if it is not the right fit. Scott and the kids will come home with a report from at least 3 different viewpoints. Depending on their opinions, either I will go to this church next week with great anticipation or I will start looking for another one. The Lord is in this, and He will guide us. I have been through enough relationships to realize that real love is something you never forget and will always be a part of who you are. I’ve also experienced enough to realize that emotions are fleeting, especially the negative ones, and that I will find love again.
In His perfect time, as always.
Now don’t get nervous – Scott and I are great and more in love than ever. No, I’m talking about my church relationship. Today is “Get Back in Church Day”, and yet I sit here, spiritually numb, pouring my heart out to the blogosphere while my husband and kids are trying out a new church that I was so excited about but couldn’t bring myself to go to today. Why? Because it’s not Hope Chapel. Because Hope is where my heart is, and I just don’t feel ready to move on.
It really does feel like a relationship that ended. It was not on bad terms, in fact there was so much love and positive prayer when we left that I almost drove back to the house in Surprise and unloaded the truck. I just had to get out of Arizona and back to Florida, and despite my best efforts at convincing them, the church could not go with me.
Now before you start worrying that our Arizona church had some cultish hold on me that I need psychological help to overcome, I really just mean that I had so much love invested there that it is difficult to make myself vulnerable today. What if the new church is boring? What if the people are weird (-er? Lol)? What if the Holy Spirit is not there? Or what if it’s everything I hoped it would be and I just love it? That might be the worst option of all because it shouldn’t be that easy to just go from one love to the next.
Here’s what I know right now: finding a home church is an extremely big deal and not one to be taken lightly. All churches are definitely not built the same, and like relationships can be beneficial or harmful if it is not the right fit. Scott and the kids will come home with a report from at least 3 different viewpoints. Depending on their opinions, either I will go to this church next week with great anticipation or I will start looking for another one. The Lord is in this, and He will guide us. I have been through enough relationships to realize that real love is something you never forget and will always be a part of who you are. I’ve also experienced enough to realize that emotions are fleeting, especially the negative ones, and that I will find love again.
In His perfect time, as always.
Friday, August 12, 2011
How Do I Love Thee? More Importantly, Why?
Some thoughts on love
My grandmother had a little heart-shaped pillow hanging from her rearview mirror. It was a gift from her late husband, my grandpa. On the pillow were the words: “I don’t love you because I need you, I need you because I love you.” It was always one of my favorite trinkets Grandma had, because it made me think about all the things it means. Today it makes me think about my love for God, and His love for me.
God does not need us. I know that’s not a great revelation, but sometimes we still forget that. God can do anything without involving mankind at all. He could save a life without surgical intervention and move a mountain without TNT. But God loves us so much that he wants to have a relationship with us. He designed mankind to be close to Him, to walk with Him and talk with Him, as Adam did in the Garden of Eden before the whole serpent and fruit debacle. Since the Fall, sin has kept us separated from God yet He continues to make a way for us to get back to that place of closeness. He sent His Son to die so the veil that separates us could be removed forever! So why are we still so far away from the original design? One word: pride. The same pride that made Eve believe that eating the fruit would give her knowledge equal to God’s makes us believe that we can do life on our own. It makes us believe that we can figure out the universe and everything in it without the God factor. It makes us believe that coincidence is the supreme dictator of life. And yet, in all our stubbornness, God continues to love us enough to include us in His ultimate plan.
I have told many people in my life “I love you”. I’d like to think that most of them were for the right reason, specifically an Agape love that brings my heart to care deeply for my fellow man. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have used those words for the wrong reasons, too. I have used them to try to hold on to people and things that were not good for me. In other words, I tried to force myself to love someone because I thought I needed them.
Through the years I have learned that truly loving someone is not something one can do out of need, obedience, or belief. We all have those family members that are so crazy they’re almost toxic. You know the ones. At family reunions everybody talks about them under their breath and in corners where they think nobody can hear. Inevitably someone pipes up with, “yeah, but we have to love so-and-so, because they’re family.” I do think there’s a certain bond connecting blood relatives, but when love is forced, it is immediately obvious that it is not a product of the heart.
This is why it is so difficult for me to understand how unbelievers can say that someone loves God because their parents/church/society tells them to. I can honestly say that my love for God is as genuine as the love I have for my husband. I don’t love Scott because anyone told me to, or because I think I will benefit from it. I love him because he is what he says he is, and he has proven his character again and again. He does not judge me from my oh-so-imperfect past, but loves me for who I am now and who I can be tomorrow. When I mess up, he doesn’t hold it against me (for too long, anyway). He reminds me of what needs to be done and helps me get back on track. He is always there, rooting for me to succeed, and he keeps loving me no matter what. That is how God is, and that is why I love Him so much. Sure there may be benefits for living a life close to God, but that is never the motivation of pure love.
I have always said that I look to Scripture because it has more wisdom than I ever will, so I invite you to read what Paul had to say about love. It is a passage commonly used in weddings – we used it in ours – but it goes so far beyond that. God IS love, and we are His bride. With that in mind, read these words:
1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
My grandmother had a little heart-shaped pillow hanging from her rearview mirror. It was a gift from her late husband, my grandpa. On the pillow were the words: “I don’t love you because I need you, I need you because I love you.” It was always one of my favorite trinkets Grandma had, because it made me think about all the things it means. Today it makes me think about my love for God, and His love for me.
God does not need us. I know that’s not a great revelation, but sometimes we still forget that. God can do anything without involving mankind at all. He could save a life without surgical intervention and move a mountain without TNT. But God loves us so much that he wants to have a relationship with us. He designed mankind to be close to Him, to walk with Him and talk with Him, as Adam did in the Garden of Eden before the whole serpent and fruit debacle. Since the Fall, sin has kept us separated from God yet He continues to make a way for us to get back to that place of closeness. He sent His Son to die so the veil that separates us could be removed forever! So why are we still so far away from the original design? One word: pride. The same pride that made Eve believe that eating the fruit would give her knowledge equal to God’s makes us believe that we can do life on our own. It makes us believe that we can figure out the universe and everything in it without the God factor. It makes us believe that coincidence is the supreme dictator of life. And yet, in all our stubbornness, God continues to love us enough to include us in His ultimate plan.
I have told many people in my life “I love you”. I’d like to think that most of them were for the right reason, specifically an Agape love that brings my heart to care deeply for my fellow man. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have used those words for the wrong reasons, too. I have used them to try to hold on to people and things that were not good for me. In other words, I tried to force myself to love someone because I thought I needed them.
Through the years I have learned that truly loving someone is not something one can do out of need, obedience, or belief. We all have those family members that are so crazy they’re almost toxic. You know the ones. At family reunions everybody talks about them under their breath and in corners where they think nobody can hear. Inevitably someone pipes up with, “yeah, but we have to love so-and-so, because they’re family.” I do think there’s a certain bond connecting blood relatives, but when love is forced, it is immediately obvious that it is not a product of the heart.
This is why it is so difficult for me to understand how unbelievers can say that someone loves God because their parents/church/society tells them to. I can honestly say that my love for God is as genuine as the love I have for my husband. I don’t love Scott because anyone told me to, or because I think I will benefit from it. I love him because he is what he says he is, and he has proven his character again and again. He does not judge me from my oh-so-imperfect past, but loves me for who I am now and who I can be tomorrow. When I mess up, he doesn’t hold it against me (for too long, anyway). He reminds me of what needs to be done and helps me get back on track. He is always there, rooting for me to succeed, and he keeps loving me no matter what. That is how God is, and that is why I love Him so much. Sure there may be benefits for living a life close to God, but that is never the motivation of pure love.
I have always said that I look to Scripture because it has more wisdom than I ever will, so I invite you to read what Paul had to say about love. It is a passage commonly used in weddings – we used it in ours – but it goes so far beyond that. God IS love, and we are His bride. With that in mind, read these words:
1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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