Be still...

The Bible verse says, "Be still and know that I am God..." This used to have a certain meaning to me when I first came across it. It meant that when I took time out of my busy schedule and looked around me I would notice things I would never notice before- the birds singing, the clocks ticking, the cool breeze against my cheek, the way the clouds moved across the sky, or hear absolutely nothing, and in that silence I could hear God's voice say, "I am God, the Creator!"

But as I continue this journey I am on, this verse has a new meaning for me. Not only do I notice things I would have not noticed because I was too busy; but something else took place while I stood still- the world kept going on without me! All that stuff I mentioned before was just a way of telling me that I am not God. In that stillness I have come to realize that I  really don't have any control outside myself. By staying still, I see that the world continues as it is whether I am participating or not. By staying still, GOD shows me that He is the one who is in control of all things. So all my worrying, my complaining, my trying to force solutions to my problems are nothing more than me getting in the way of seeing His hand at work in my life and in the life of others. By trying to force change in others  all I was really doing was getting in God's way.  By being still I realized that I have spent most of my life trying to play God. Being still doesn't just mean taking time off of your busy schedule, though that is necessary, and "noticing" the things around you, it's being able to be still in yourself at all times so that you are constantly aware that you are not God. When you can really accept that, then you can start to let go and let God. 

God help me be more still in my life! 

Black Friday

Here is an article you may find interesting....

The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.

Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared. Someone taped up a crude poster: “Blitz Line Starts Here.”

By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault. Six to 10 workers inside tried to push back, but it was hopeless...

Read the full article here.

And this Black Friday story has definitely caught, horrifically caught, my attention.

How does such a thing happen? Are people simply evil? No doubt preachers across the country will be talking about this incident from their Sunday morning pulpits. The true meaning of Christmas? Well, for some it seems to be trampling people to death to get a bargain price.

Beyond my horror, this story has had my brain ticking all day. What individual and group dynamics created this incident? Here's how I've been breaking it down.

1.) You have a highly motivated, focused person to show up at 3:30 am. This person is investing a lot to get out to the store.

2.) When this person arrives at Walmart he/she is thinking he/she is going to be the early bird that gets the worm. There are expectations (hopes) in play.

3.) However, upon arrival the shopper finds a huge crowd. Expectations are dashed. Frustration grows.

4.) The crowd grows to 2,000. Frustration turns to anxiety. The person in line does a simple calculus: There are only so many products and deals inside. Much fewer than 2,000. It appears that the shopper has gotten up early, driven to the store, and stood in line for nothing. That is, unless, the shopper can get inside first.

Psychologically, we now have a perfect storm. Each person has a sunk cost. And rather than walk away people begin to raise the stakes by jockeying for position. Inch by inch the crowd pushes forwad. It's an irrational escalation of commitment, it's a dollar auction. We have 2,000 people playing a game as adversaries. One person starts jockeying for position. This rattles the people around them. These people fear they will be too slow. So they start pushing forward to gain an inch on a competitor. This jittery behavior soon takes over the entire crowd. Particularly as the clock gets closer to 5:00. The mass of people starts pushing forward, preparing to run. And the more jittery and hostile the crowd the more people become emotional and focused on self-preservation: "When this crowd breaks I'm moving forward. Fast." To get the deal? Probably. But I'm thinking a kind of mass hysteria began to take over as well.

I'm sure social psychologists will analyze this incident in the days and months to come. As I said, preachers will be drawing a great many lessons from this incident, decrying this worst outcome of the commercialization of Christmas. And I don't disagree. But I also keep wondering about what was going on in the crowd. What where the small steps that led to the jittery, panicky escalation? The people in that crowd are just like you and me. So what happened to them in that crowd?

Its Me!

I may never come to a point in my life where I no longer need God to redeem me from some sick sin. Maybe thats the way He wants it. His job after all is to redeem me, not once, or twice, but always. I may be an emotional basket case, but I am an emotional basket case who loves God and believes in His promises of redemption, hope and transformation. And transformation is a life long process. If I am honest with myself, it is easy for me to look at everyone else and how sick they are just to make myself feel a little bit better about my sickness. "At least I'm not as bad as that girl...yikes!" And although the bible is clear about self examination and warns us against judging others and gossiping we have taken that bible and used it as a hiding device; or a defense mechanism. "Yeah, I know I need to change, but look at those people over there... I'm not as bad as them." How many times do you read scripture and think of someone else other than yourself when it comes to changing ones ways? Though the bible warns against us judging others, we use the bible to do it. Though the bible warns against gossip we do it because its for our brothers own good. 

I may be no scholar of the bible, and I may not understand or have the greatest insight about certain verses, but I do know that God is true, alive, loving and patient. I know that it does me no good to sit in a church and get filled up with good music, fun sermons with good messages, and participate in small group things when I take no inventory of myself. When I am too busy talking about someone else's walk, or another groups, or when I am too busy trying to figure out why people are the way they are, I have no time to allow God to transform me or redeem me. 

I'll tell you in one word what's wrong with the church, and what's wrong with the world. ME! 

The "DO" in truth!

Truth's not for admiring, reading, defending, writing or reciting; it's not for memorizing, analyzing, teaching or preaching; it's not for debating, writing, singing or spreading— it's for doing!

Truth's for doing! Truth's for doing at a personal ethical level; it's for doing in the presence of the poor and needy; it's for doing in the company of the emotional basket-cases whose hearts are fragmented. It's for doing at a congregational level when power struggles are so obvious; it's for doing before a world that's in awful need of seeing and hearing the gospel of salvation and reconciliation.

Call me blessed, or crazy, but I believe the above statement with all my heart. Now that Thanksgiving is over (which in reality it shouldn't be) I am getting ready for the weeks demands. I got my house cleaned, I bought food for the week for the entire family, and now I rest until day break for that is when I return to work. But I know someone who isn't getting ready for the weeks demands because she is lying in a hospital bed with half her brain dead. She got a brain aneurysm a few days before Thanksgiving, and now she lies and waits to see what the rest of her life is going to be like. So the saying says, "life goes on." No matter what happens to my friend, my life will go on, and hers too, for whether she dies or not, she will live eternally with our Savior Jesus Christ. But through this experience, I got to witness something wonderful. Though it wasn't a miracle, (though we  are still praying for one and would gladly accept one on her behalf) I got to witness truth in doing. 

The lady lying in the hospital is part of my small group from church. I got to interact with her only a handful of times, and in those handful of times, learned a great deal from her. She is a follower of Christ. But when I found out the news of what happened to her, it wasn't just something I read via e-mail and then expected to pray on my own time-although that is how it started.  Our group meets on Monday nights, and that Monday night after her incident was our Thanksgiving potluck. Our group leaders assured us that we should still have the potluck because it would be the best thing to do right now, as our friend would want that from us. But as her prognosis was unsure the next couple of days, it was suggested that we go to the hospital on Thanksgiving to support her family in prayer. At first, I wasn't sure what to expect, but gladly went. 

The waiting room was already full when we arrived, and when our friends sister saw us, she immediately began to cry. Everyone began to hug one another. And as we waited for the others to arrive we did our best to comfort her family who obviously was distressed about the situation. We found out that her condition was worse than we thought; the Dr. said she should have died when the aneurysm hit. So with tear filled eyes, and with so much telling us to be uncertain, to give up hope, we all gathered in a circle, held hands and prayed for a miracle; we prayed for one because we refused to believe in the uncertainty and to believe in the certainty of Him who gives us the hope. We didn't bow our heads in defeat, we bowed our heads in victory because we know that God will do His will for her and for all who love Him. We said our Amens, and then hung around for awhile. We offered the family our services- finances, baby-sitting, food, and whatever else they needed. 

Maybe you think I am boasting about this little thing we did on Thanksgiving, and you may be right. Maybe its because it isn't everyday where I see the face of Jesus comfort those in need.(Matt 25) It isn't everyday I witness what I witnessed on that day-I saw a group of believers DO the truth. I saw compassion, concern, and certainty. I saw faith, love and hope- and to me my friend, that is something to boast about when all you are used to is talk, talk, talk about truth and what Christians should do about our suffering world.  Sure our time together on that Thanksgiving day didn't make a difference to a person starving in Africa, and maybe it didn't make a difference to the other person just a few floors above us, but it made a difference to my friends family lives, and I know they saw Jesus in my small group. And it made a difference in me. You know you are in a good place when you start seeing the DO in truth. 

Something to think about

Here are some statistics I found interesting concerning Christian and Non-Christian life styles:

Lifestyle Gaps
In the recent book unChristian, the Barna Group has done some interesting research on how people perceive Christians. Much of the research focuses on the opinions of younger persons and people who are not Christian. The general conclusion of the Barna research is that young "outsiders" (non-Christians) and young Christians have a very negative view of the Christian brand. More specifically, they tend to see Christians as "unChristian" in their attitudes and behaviors.

One of the adjectives applied to Christians is that they are hypocritical. The data on this adjective is presented in Chapter 3 of unChristian. Here are some highlights from that research:

--84% of young "outsiders" (non-Christians) report personally knowing a Christian. However, only 15% of these individuals report seeing a qualitative lifestyle difference between the Christian they know and themselves.

--Engaging in the following lifestyle activities are statistically equivalent when comparing Christians with non-Christians:

gambling
visiting a pornographic website
stealing
consulting a medium or psychic
physically fighting
consuming alcohol to the point of intoxication
using an illegal, nonprescription drug
lying
getting back at someone (revenge)
saying mean things behind a person's back

--There are some differences between Christians and non-Christians. Christians are more likely to own a bible and go to church. Christians are less likely to use profanity, although not by much (26% Christian, 38% non-Christian). Christians are more likely to help a homeless person, but not by much (53% Christian, 45% non-Christian). Interestingly, Christians also differ from non-Christians in that Christian are less likely to recycle (68% to 79%).

Looking over all this data the authors of unChristian coin the term "lifestyle gap" as the root issue in perceptions of Christian hypocrisy. Specifically, there is a gap between the lifestyle Christians say they live versus the lives they actually live. Phrased negatively, non-Christians fail to see a lifestyle gap between themselves and their Christian friends. Being a Christian doesn't seem to have any impact upon how a person lives.

Hmmmm... my knee jerk reaction to reading this made me think how much we are a bunch of hypocrites and I suddenly became upset with how much Christians are dropping the ball; but then after thinking about it- it would make sense that the statistics would say what they say because we as Christians are the same as non-christians because we all came from the same place. Whether we grew up knowing Christian beliefs or not we are all human after all. Just because a person is a Christian does not mean they are suddenly the most moral and perfect human on the planet. God does not work moral miracles on people, (although sometimes I wish he would).  If anything Christians fall short of the glory of God and are sinners just the same as those who are not Christians. I think what upsets me is that the reason people are digging for statistics like this is because of our conduct: we say all the right things, know all the right answers, push our so called moral standards on everyone else, and act as if we are holier than thou-- so we have to be reminded that we are not perfect after all, even if it is through a mean like this little article. If anything this little article humbled me and made me realize that I have a long journey ahead of me. It also made me realize that I need more compassion in my life for others, especially for my fellow Christians.... if you know what I mean by that.

Just something to think about.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Tomorrow marks six years of marriage for my husband and I. It also marks six years we have been Christians. It is a very special day tomorrow. Lots of victorious days, and lots of not so victorious days, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. The beauty of hindsight is that you can really begin to appreciate the bad times more because you realize that through the hard times is where the love and unity grows the most. We've been through a lot together, and we are still going stronger than ever. There were days when we thought it was a mistake to have kids and get married, but then we come to our senses and realize that it is our kids and our marriage that make our life as rich as it is. Today's society makes it easy to just end a marriage and go on with one's life. I have to admit that sometimes it seems that my life would be easier and better if I would end our marriage so that I can get child support and baby-sitting when I need it so I can do my own thing, but again I come to my senses and realize that that kind of thinking is just selfish beyond words. 

My husband knows more about me than anybody else on the planet. To think that someone can know me like that and still love me is incomprehensible to me. He is there to wipe my tears even when the tears are uncalled for. He is there to listen to my complaints and sorrows even when they are not justified. He is there to offer a helping hand when I need it even when the help is undeserved. He is always giving me a reason to go on. When I feel like throwing in the towel, he motivates me by his love, to keep going. When I get up in the morning, I know that my day is going to be full of surprises because he is a part of it. Not a day goes by where we don't communicate to each other. We will call on our lunch breaks, text whenever we get a chance, and have long conversations at dinner and at bedtime, even though we should be sleeping. I have seen this man change from a scared boy to a confident God fearing man. My heart is full and complete because God has answered my deep desire--To have a life full of love and joy-- and its all thanks to God and His one and only son. 

When I watch my husband play with our children, my heart sings. When I watch him garden and do yard work, my heart sings. When he kisses me and holds me, my heart sings. When he reaches out and holds my hand, my heart sings. When he is going through a hard time and he seems irritable and depressed, my heart breaks, but in time, we always make it through. 

This year I dedicate a song called "You're Still The One" by Shania Twain to him. I dedicate this song because it says what I want to say. You're still the one I love, the one I run to, the one kiss good night, the one I still want; We beat the odds together, and I'm glad we didn't listen because look at what we would be missing! 

Just For Today

Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, keep my voice low, be courteous, criticize not one bit. I won't find fault with anything, nor try to improve or regulate anybody but myself.