Learning and growing

As time has gone on, and I’ve grown older, but not always the wiser, I find myself observing the changes in the world around me with an ever increasing dismay and …. anger.
It is this anger I have been contemplating the past couple of days. While I do not consider myself a political person, I do get deeply passionate about issues, especially during election years, and this past election was no different. Totally disgusted with some of my fellow Americans at their seemingly pathetic choice for our country’s leadership, I wanted to both run away and become an activist at the same time.

There is a lot wrong with the world and the way things are going, but the real problem is that the intense anger and frustration I experienced was becoming a bitterness and even hatred (or at least intense dislike and disdain) for those who saw things differently than myself. It had become a matter of ‘us versus them’, and that was referring to my fellow Americans! We are all supposed to be in this together, but social networking sites, for one,  were full of the vitriol (on both sides) that I found myself taking part in, although I tried to stay above the fray, but kept forgetting the enemy is not my own countrymen.

By the time the elections were over, I didn’t even want to watch the news, since it only angered me more, until I got to the point I just caved and told God “I am so tired of being angry and hateful.”… Yes, anger and hatred is a very heavy burden to bear, a burden we were never designed to carry, and becomes heavier with each and every day. As a conservative Christian, I know this kind of hatred for anyone is not right, nor am I to subscribe to beliefs that many liberals hold fast. This left me with the perplexing question of what to do with these intense feelings of helplessness and frustration in watching the country I love falling apart and ruthlessly being destroyed by those who (in my view) did not love this nation, but were on their own self-important power trips.

 I tried looking for answers in my Bible, also searching for a renewed hunger for God (yes, I was mad at Him, too, although it took me a long time to get past the denial). At first, I was reading just bits and pieces of it, hoping for that spark that would ignite into a full blown inferno for God, but my efforts were rewarded with white pages with black words staring back at me, and no excitement or enthusiasm stirring in me.

But God … God is faithful, and was there to start me on a new segment of my journey with Him with a lesson … a very important lesson … one I probably should have learned a long time ago, but maybe was not ready for it yet … with a book.

Written by a pilot, Dale Black, only 160 pages long, ’Flight to Heaven’ was the tool that God used to basically get my attention and stir up that hunger within me. Intrigued by the title, I downloaded a sample onto my tablet and when I got to the end of the sample, immediately bought the whole thing and had the book finished by the time I went to sleep that night. It was an eye opener…

In closing this post, I will just add that some of the experiences Dale recants in his book were similar to my own, even though I’ve never flown a plane, let alone died in a crash, went to Heaven, and then came back. While I have never known many of the challenges he faced in coming back, what I did have in common with him and could all-too-well relate to was his faith battle, questions, and his intense disappointment with God when He didn’t answer prayer the way we thought he should. There were even some answers buried in the depths of that book that helped me to see some things about myself, others and God. And so, the learning and growing continues … more tomorrow.

Curves, Hills, and Speedbumps

It has been a while since I posted last, but have decided to, once again, untangle my thoughts long enough to provide some insight into our wild world that seems to be spinning out of control sometimes.

We all face challenges … some seem very minor, more of an inconvenience, but then there are those that appear as a mountain before us… a daunting, and discouraging, obstacle that will not move or bend.
Since I am the type of person who has to have complete control over my life, these forbidding trials that come into my life test me to the core. As I have lived more than a few years, I have learned that, sadly, we do not have control over many of the events that affect our lives, and it is how we react to, and live with those events that reveal who we are.
As a born-again Christian, my faith is not supposed to be in myself, but in God, the Father, and Jesus, His Son, who does watch over this madness on Earth, even as I sometimes wonder “Where are YOU??” For myself, it is very difficult to witness the incredible selfishness of mankind and the trouble it causes, only to be reminded, by the overwhelming kindness and selfless acts of others, that, while God may be quiet at times, He is still ever present here and the guilty on this Earth will not go unpunished.

The Bible also states that judgement begins at the house of God … that means us … His children. As I face the sad fact that ‘ … there is none good, no not one’ as stated clearly in Psalms, Romans, and other passages, I also face the truth that it includes me. No matter how virtuous I like to view myself, or how rightly I like to behave, deep down, my thoughts, motives and innermost desires are self-centered. How many times in a day do I think ”I”???  It takes the saving power of God to set me free from my selfishness.

So, as I critically observe the world spinning around me, out of control, I have to come back to the truth that all those foolish, stupid faults I can’t help but notice in those around me can also be found in my old human nature, which drives me back to the foot of the cross, once again seeking forgiveness, not only for my own acts of wrongdoing, but my ill conceived thoughts and motives.

God is watching, and the guilty will not go unpunished.  Evil is rampant in our world today and multitudes suffer at the hands of others. This angers me, but I also know that the difference between myself and those I so easily criticize around me is that Jesus has stepped up and taken the wrath of the Father in my place by virtue of His great love for me, and those around me… the wrath that has always been there, but held off to give us a chance to accept the sacrifice He so willingly and lovingly paid at such a great price. My challenge as a Christian is to hold fast to the faith He has given me and allow Him to work in me, resulting in less of me and more of Him … less self-centered pre-occupation with myself and the world I live in and more love and compassion for others, knowing Jesus died for them as well as for me.

Hello world!

As I considered starting a new blog, there were so many subjects clamoring for attention. I know we all have too much to say, and very seldom take time to listen. Tonight, even at this late hour, my first and foremost thoughts are of the unbelievable news of the dramatic rescue of the miners in Chile who have all been rescued.

I am so overwhelmed by gratitude to God for sparing those men and their families and that nation from yet another tragedy. When I consider the magnitude of the accomplishment, I also know that, without the help of God, it would have been an abject failure.

So, I thank God for the lives of those and can’t help but wonder what He has in store for them. I congratulate the miners and their rescuers for this wonderful outcome…. we all know it could have been and was expected to be much different.

In a world so filled with pain, despair, anger and desperation, it is so heartening to witness such an awesome miracle… of life, hope and jubilation. Maybe we can know from this that there is light at the end of the tunnel (pun intended).