We aren't promised tomorrow. We just aren't. We aren't promised a life without struggles and pain either. At a survivors benefit my dad sang a song one time while he literally was battling cancer, and it uses the term "stormy seas" in regards to times of suffering. "Stormy seas" come all the time. Right now, as a country and a WORLD we are experiencing stormy seas. Are you "taking a paddle" to help out those drowning in their storms? Or will you get your priorities and perspectives all wrong while unintentionally poking holes in their boat? Make someone's day better not worse. The world doesn't need us to make more issues, draw more lines, and poke holes in an already sinking world - It needs us to wake up and be more sunshine in people's life because there's already enough darkness out there.
All our pain and struggles matter. Living in a world were there's racism, violence, and people being forgotten matters. But it's how we choose to respond that can completely change the process.
Yesterday I sat and thought about how disturbed I am about a lot of things these days - the media and all the trash I see even on Facebook. I could remove myself from it all, definitely! BUT I've also come really far in the last year, and have learned a great deal of self control and how to respond appropriately and effectively to people (be in on social media or in person). So instead I thought - I can actually be a light and a glimmer of hope in a place that can at times be a black hole of negativity. That's what Jesus would do! He didn't run from the chaos, he walked into it believing there was more than the pain to be discovered. Create boundaries in your life with the things that aren't healthy, absolutely. But if you CAN withstand it and bring hope to the most unfortunate of circumstances, THEN DO IT. Go OUT into the world yes, but if you insist on being a social media warrior, then do it effectively. Stop clicking on everything you see and believing everything you read, and pick up the word of God - the only solid truth there really is right now. Because here's the deal - The enemy WANTS us to see everything bad and become angry, entitled, and mean. But the word of God shuts that down!!!!! God talks in the Bible about pain and struggles all the time, but He comes at it with a heavenly perspective. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” So are we using our "momentary troubles" to achieve or show others eternal glory? Am I? If I'm being completely 100 % honest with you, no I am not. I'm human. You're human. But we can choose to do better. We can choose to allow Christ to intervene and call the shots in things that we say and do. When we claim love and unity but wrap it with politics and our own opinions or agendas, we get it all wrong. But when we wrap it with Christ and His word, THEN we can start making a difference. Absolutely be the hands and feet of Christ, or a voice to the voiceless - but for a long term goal and healing, not a momentary feel good statement or choice. When proving a point has no eternal value or change, ask God to give you the ability to toss it aside and focus on Him. Jesus dropped truth bombs all the time - But they were truths wrapped in His grace and His love, with the focus of drawing people closer to himself.
My churches mission statement is "Helping people find their way back to God", and the leadership is constantly reminding us that's how we can really live fully.
......and in a world that so desperately needs Him right now, I couldn't agree more.
