Last Saturday morning, I pretty well thought I knew what today's blog was about. I was wrong. After the events of last Sunday morning in Texas, I still hadn't changed my mind. I did shutter at the fact that the little Texas town being described was so much like Newton, or Greenup, or Hidalgo, where I attend church every Sunday. I remember back to the day our church was burned to the ground. I was in 6th grade. The person who did it was mentally ill. He spent the rest of his life institutionalized for the crime, but for mental illness as well.
And oddly enough, nobody thought of outlawing matches. I understand nobody was hurt in the fire. I also know that the doors blew off the church with such force, they were across the street at the neighbors house. Had anyone been around, or that house closer, someone could have very easily been hurt. I just feel like there should be more emphasis placed on the mental health issue, and we need to take care of people. Desperate people do desperate things. I think we see a lot of mental illness is due to abuse and bullying. That might be a better place to start looking for answers- in my opinion.
I am not making light of the gun situation, Let me get this out there right now. There are guns in my house, I have shot them, I know how to use them. I don't particularly like them but I know what their purpose is, and I can tell you, nobody has ever thought about using them as self defense in this house. Too many dangers of not really knowing who is walking in the door. On the other side of that, I have never seen any of my hunter friends or family who wanted to hunt with a semi automatic, or an automatic weapon. Most of them like to eat the meat, and so they are wanting to see how little damage they can do, not how much. I see no reason for these weapons in our civilian lives. I wish there were not a reason for them in times of military conflict, but having one of my "other" sons in the army, and stationed in two very volatile spots in the world, if people on the other side had this same weapon and wants to use it to kill my kid, I want my kid to have the same chance. That all being said, I have to wonder if part of the reason there is so much more post-military mental illness is because of the amount of destruction these weapons really do on a body, I cannot imagine that sight.
But what I am trying to say, I think we should really focus on people instead of things.
So, I feel like I have made my disclaimers and now on to the REAL topic of today's blog. After the shooting last Sunday, there were many, many, MANY facebook posts about sending thoughts and prayers for the families of those in the shooting. A friend of mine, (who is also notorious for being a "doer"--very important here) made the statement that they were going to come up with a "thoughts and prayers" emoji to make it even quicker. Ouch. But how true is it. It is so easy to say, I will pray for you", and hopefully you really do, but...
Do you ever think part of the reason the world is in the mess it is in is because too many of us think praying for God to take care of it is enough? I am sure I miss opportunities every day to do something to change the world, and I really do try to take advantage of anytime I can do something. And I am going to let you in on a little secret. When I do something to at least try to help someone, it feels like Christmas-everyday.
I have had the opportunity to give a little extra help to some of our customers at work this week, giving them some "extras" outside of our regular help that they weren't expecting. I love that feeling.
I have a friend who was needing to make a connection with someone he didn't know. He mentioned it in passing and I just happened to have a connection to this person myself. I love when those things happen.
It wasn't much, it wasn't hard, but it was something. And yes, I prayed for them, and continue to pray for them. I truly do believe in the power of prayer, don't mistake that. I believe I got an extra year with my dad because the night they told us he was dying, people got up in the middle of the night and gathered around their kitchen tables and prayed. I believe prayer is that powerful and that it does change things.
But I believe there are a lot of people who like the comfort zone of saying a prayer more than stepping outside of it and moving on to realizing, "I am the person God created to DO SOMETHING". I know God made me a doer, and I absolutely love that He put me in a position to get to DO in my job. Knowing that I have fervently prayed for someone is also great, I have three people that almost 2 years ago, I picked their names out of a basket and pray for them everyday. Only one of them knows that I am their prayer person. One of them, I only saw on facebook and they have dropped out of sight, and the third one, I have gotten to watch do some absolutely remarkable things, and I will never tell them, but I get to know that I pray for them. I found out who the person was who drew my name about a year ago, and I LOVE that this person got me because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, she DOES pray for me daily, and I feel it, and I love that feeling, and it does bring me comfort when I am having a bad day.
I have decided that James 2 is my favorite chapter of the Bible, for right now anyway. It is pretty much what I want to be doing with my life. The more I read it though, the more I find it ironic, or maybe prophetic, that the first half talks about how to treat people. and the last half talks about how to live your faith. Do you see it? I stated earlier, I think a lot of mental health issues today is from people being bullied, or abused....basically mistreated. Look:
My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”[a] you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,”[b] also said, “Do not murder.”[c] Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
I think the root of most bullying is thinking you are better than someone else. Here's your sign. You aren't. I think working with low-income families, the one thing that continues to amaze me is the amount of people who don't have enough to make it through the month themselves but are helping others around them because it is the right thing to do. I have one friend who is constantly taking in others, I love her dearly, she gets trampled on because she loves so unconditionally and I get aggravated with her because I know at times, she is being taken advantage of. Thing is, she knows it too, and her doing something right means more to her than the possibility of who she is helping not reciprocating.
Then we get to the last half of James 2:
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[d] works, and I will show you my faith by my[e] works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?[f] 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[g] And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
I think this pretty well says, if all you can do is give lip service, you might have a problem. We are to be DOERS. Action words here, when you see something that needs done, instead of saying, "Somebody needs to....." or ""I'll pray about that", how about praying that God will open the doors for it to be YOU? And then start looking for ways to change things.
I have a lot of friends who have done things based on crazy faith and I believe they are living a more rewarding life because of it. So, on top of what your actions might do for your neighbor, your community, or your world, there is always a possibility you will start seeing things in your own life that are unbelievable as well.
So, I am giving you an assignment today, find a way to be a doer. You know the friend that I mentioned earlier that I said is a doer--one of the smallest things I know she does is randomly pays for someone's pop at the gas station. I think that is God-led. She basically could be lighting a candle that creates something bigger, and will never know it. Does she care? I doubt it. She cares that she tried to make someone else's life a little better. If we all did that, ALL of us, can you imagine what this world would be? I would so love to find out.
I am leaving you with yet another song that I have used before. Matthew West's Do Something. He sang this to me two years ago last month, at my request. At the time, it was "my song", and is still forever a constant reminder that when we ask why God doesn't do something, we better be looking in the mirror because He did.
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