Not my circus, not my monkeys

Sorry for the posting silence, folks.  I’ve been processing a lot of stuff internally – I always get a check when I want to really go off about something and I *shouldn’t*.  But I think perhaps some of what I’ve been processing might be held in common ’round about my readership… so let’s talk.

A big part of what’s been grieving me is the basic lack of understanding on the side of the World lately… that whole foo-foo-rah about the new law in Indiana has folks calling us serious Christians a lot of really nasty names, and I’m hurt and mad.  So, here’s what I’ve processed:

1)  Wow, I’m so spoiled.  People call my sibs-in-Christ and I some nasty names on social media and I get all hurt.  Seriously?  I have sibs-i-C that are DYING for His name, I should get so worked up about being misunderstood and some namecalling?  Spoiled, that’s what I am.  But I’ve written about this before – it hurts to spend your life as one of the white-hatted good guys and walk into town and suddenly you’re wearing a black hat.  I’m still spoiled.  I *can* read – and I *do* read.  My Bible doesn’t say a darn thing about living a life where everyone loves me and understands me and I get everything I’d like.  Rather the opposite.

2)  My reaction:  Well, it’s typical of my reaction to conflict most days.  You don’t want me around?  Fine.  I’ll go, see how you like *that*!  I’d dearly love to get all my peeps, grab our bats, our balls, our mitts and go elsewhere.  If you don’t want me around, if you don’t want representatives of my God around, then … fine.  You’ll miss us when we’re gone.

But … um… that’s not that great a reaction.  What am I here for, on this planet?  Am I here to have a comfy life where everyone loves me?  No… I don’t think so.  That comes in 50 or 60 years, and lasts for eternity.  What am I here for?  It’s to glorify His name, and make disciples for Him, right?  That probably means I need to ask for grace to deal with the now.  I’m mad and hurt – but that doesn’t mean I want those people who are posting all the hateful stuff on social media to go to Hell!  I want them to come to Heaven, to join the family… and have their hearts transformed by Jesus.

Anyway… when *God* is ready, He’ll pull us out, and we’ll really be out – and the world will very rapidly go to Hell in a handbasket.  (See: Tribulation).   As much as I want to go Home, as much as I want His kingdom to come… I don’t want it to come at the cost of one soul lost which could have been gained if I stayed here.  My job is *not* to grab at happiness for myself, my job is to do whatever He sets me at and trust Him.

3)  This whole thing soooo piles into the team-building thing I’ve been seeing over the last few years.  It’s us vs. them – and if you’re one of them, you’re barely even human.  This grieves me *so much*.  How can we have a conversation when we’re bound and determined to make the other person our enemy?  How can we show others the reality of Jesus Christ and His work in our lives when all they see is us waving pitchforks at them?  There are a million teams right now, and it’s so vicious out there.  It’s got to stop.  We’re all humans, and *humans cannot be our enemies*.

…

So, what then?  Everyone has their job, everyone has their calling from God and the very last thing I want to do is sow dissension in the ranks.   That understood – my job is the same as it has always been.  It’s not to try to fix the insanity that has gripped the Western world.  My job is to be kind to the people I come in contact with.  My job is to do the loving thing.  My job is to make  peace where I can. My job is to give a word of comfort.   And my job is *not* to run and hide and only hang out with other committed Christians.  Oh how much easier that would be!  But then how will I be salt and light in a dark world?

I have work.  I have plenty of work.  Worry isn’t part of it.

So – I’m trying to learn to say, “Not my circus, not my monkeys” to a lot of things that have come through my life – personal and public.  If I can be a blessing or a light, then I will.  And if it’s not my job, then I don’t want to dim my light or harm my witness by fretting.

My God is all-powerful.  All-good.  All-faithful.  All-just.  All-loving.  All-knowing.

I can rest in Him and get on with life.

Now… for a little application.  🙂

Continuing Information Gathering: JW

The nice JW lady came over again and let me give her tea…. results of conversation

1) They don’t believe that God knew that Adam and Eve would choose to sin, because if He knew, it would be unloving of God to allow them their free choice.  In more theological terms, they think that omniscience and omnibenevolence can’t coexist.  That was interesting, and took most of our time.  My theory (see CS Lewis) that God is outside of the dimension of Time and can no more not-know what I’m going to do tomorrow than I can not-know that there’s a hairbrush on my computer desk left them scratching their heads and convinced that this would contradict free-will, or that it would mean that He didn’t love us UNLESS He took our free will away.

2)  They believe that preaching the millennial kingdom is the whole point (this is, again, why they’re knocking on your door).  So the fact that most Christians consider Christ the King = the Kingdom incarnate is a bit of a confusion.  They really are NOT looking forward to eternity with our Lord Jesus, they just want Him to run the perfect gov’t while they get their vines and fig trees.  All very nice of course, but … it’s like comparing diamonds and potatoes.

3)  They don’t think that God uses natural disasters to punish or get the attention of nations other than historical Israel.   I threw several verses at them on this, since I’m reading through Isaiah and Jeremiah at this moment… I don’t know that I convinced them, but we moved along without a rebuttal.  Interesting factoid.

Three weeks until your next report.  🙂

Encouraging Sons

Watching my son doing this teenager thing…

1) He’s quite a bit taller than I am … and is getting stronger, so he’s now in charge of flipping the 5 gallon water bottle on my water.

2) He’s also enjoying lifting the heavy things for me… so I let him.  Hey, it’s nice to carry fewer groceries!

3) As of the other day, he’s officially tall enough to reach the top shelf in the kitchen (I can’t) so I told him that his new life is “get that for Mama”.

All this kind of stuff reinforces in him that he’s big and strong – bigger and stronger than I am.  It gives him positive ways to enjoy his masculinity.  Yes, I *could* do all this stuff on my own, but he’s pleased as punch when I lean on him a bit.

It’s the little things, I think.  Anyway, I enjoy watching him grow up.  🙂