Over the past several months my head has been spinning with the number of terrorist attacks, mass killings, protests, police shootings, and, yes, presidential election coverage. Just this morning, another police shooting of multiple officers in Baton Rouge. I feel like the possessed daughter in The Exorcist with her head spinning around and around. I find myself increasingly getting caught up in the rhetoric from one side to the other. This week, however, I made a big mistake and I want to come clean.
In this day of complete transparency, I have to be rigorously honest. In a former career, I was trained in research procedures. I know how to vet sources and can pretty much calculate on information that’s reliable versus unreliable. This week I forgot all of that, got caught up in the moment, and forwarded a news item that had not been confirmed as true. Although I was later corrected and so informed everyone of such, by that time, damage had been done. That’s the problem when information is relied upon as factual and it’s not. The majority of people believe that everything that is written is the gospel truth. Well, it’s not.
Today I am making a course correction (you Navy guys know what I’m talking about). From this point forward I am taking a step back and filtering all information through my “God” lens. I constantly fill myself with too much “junk” and not enough “substance,” so I guess you can say, try as I might, I still rely on ME instead HE. Today that stops.
I’ve been wondering why I’ve been so tired lately. Max Lucado says it’s because I’m not trusting God’s grace. He says, “We find it easier to trust the miracle of resurrection than the miracle of grace.” (Max also says we can call us the “church of hound-dog faces and slumped shoulders.” Not a pretty picture.) Jesus didn’t speak to those who were perfect and sinless; just the opposite, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) That’s encouragement to me.
This post will be continued so you can check on my progress. If you can relate, let me hear from you!
Psalms 116:1-9
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, save me!”
The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the unwary;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.
For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
Tagged: courage, trusting God
