- Not The Only One!
- Post # 62 19 Jan 23
- Joy In The Morning!
- Howdy!,
- Sometimes things just jump out at me, and it can be easy to forget to be thankful and to have gratitude for the blessings in my life . That being said, I want to thank you guys my audience, for being there and taking the time to read , share, and extremely grateful for some of you guys feedback and encouragement. It is not always positive, but that’s OK, because, I believe it helps to reshape my thought process on certain topics, and it helps me to grow as a blogger, and more importantly as a human being and Christ follower. If 2022 taught me anything, it’s that we , especially myself, grow more in the dark and painful places, than in the times when everything is Copacetic . People often think or say that it’s easy to be optimistic, cheerful, and to have faith when things are going well and that is absolutely true. However, it is in those moments of the rubber meeting the road that you get tested, challenged and pressed to see what comes out of you. Is there truth that you demonstrate in those moments when you are caught between a rock and a hard place, that there is something within you that is greater than yourself. I’m going to be completely honest and tell you that I have some very real struggles in my life, as most people do, so I’m not some isolated inncodent. I will also tell you that I had two or three things that I was writing about and wanted to bring to the table today, but this one just came screaming to the forefront. I don’t know if it’s the season of life that I’m in, or if God is doing one of those things that He has a tendency to do, and I just vaguely catch a glimpse of it on the back side. I’m constantly finding myself in a position to encourage others, and if you know anything about me, you would know that is not my natural go to move, actually, probably the complete opposite of that, and I believe much of that goes back to me being raised with tough love as a standard. I have said on numerous occasions that I was a slow study, when it came to the fact that everyone doesn’t respond to or receive well tough love. This is a change of direction for me, but its something that I have seen over and over again. I want to say that we live in a much softer, and much more sensitive culture. In some regards, it’s as if people walk around with a chip on their shoulder , and going out of their way to find something to be offended about. Sometimes, they point and direct others that they should be offended about something that they don’t really give two flips about. God has been bringing to mind for me that there is a difference between cuddling and coddling people. So, I’m not talking about a physical cuddling in the way that we usually think of it, which normally takes place between to two people, or their dog, you choose which ☺️☺️. So I’m talking about cuddling in the form of encouragement and to handle with care, as in something or someone being fragile. Tough love will lead you to say “suck it up buttercup”, but it doesn’t change two main truths and that is that , life can be hard sometimes and extremely difficult, and sometimes not just for a day, or a season, but for a lifetime. The other is that God didn’t build us to do life alone, but in community with others, now whether that is in a family, friends or even with an adult softball team, we are to cultivate those relationships and do life together. When we see someone with a disability and possibly something that they were born with, so the analogy of a lifetime is a real thing! . What do we do with that? Do we turn away as we do with some of the homeless and panhandlers on the corners? Do we a share a brief moment of empathy and think that their life just must really suck? Or are we moved with compassion, to come along side , and somehow to share in their struggles and difficulties in life. I can’t tell you what that looks like other than to maybe to make eye contact with them and offer a smile, perhaps a kind word, or to hold a door open for them as they attempt to enter in or exit a building, which may be for some medical appointment. There is such power in just to acknowledge someone and not to look pass them ,as if they were a pane of glass, and you could look right through them or beyond them. I just named a few things that are simple, but could really make someone’s else’s day. I will run to the other end of the spectrum and note that some of you have the ability to donated money or time to a charity that could, just possibly be impactful in their lives. If you are already on that bandwagon, fantastic!. I don’t believe that it is wrong to cuddle people in this manner , but I’m not called to be a coddler and to render other people as an enabler. I get that we are all on a journey and that some people need more cuddling than others, but we need to make sure that we are helping in the situation and not exasperating the situation and prolonging others suffering and to keep them from their own independence . So, I briefly talked about my place in life and God using me to encourage others and that has come with additional marching orders and that is to pray for others. I’m not this amazing prayer warrior, but I often wish that I was. I get that telling people that You will pray for them , has gotten to be a churchy catch all phrase, much like we say that we throw the love word around from everything from pizza to pets, automobiles and our significant other. Well , I sure hope that you truly know what it is to love someone and that it’s something more than your favorite slice, from one of your pizza joints. I guess, what I’m saying is to truly pray for people. I mean like right then and there, if it’s in person pray. If it’s over the phone, pray, right then and there. See, I believe that there is mighty power in prayer, but I’m also convinced that we talk about prayer, more than we actually do it. Perhaps we are like adolescents boys or young people who brag about their sexual conquest, probably for most, more bragging than actually happening ☺️☺️. I ran into an acquaintance this morning, his name is Lawrence, and he was telling me about some of his mother’s medical issues that he was extremely concerned over. So, the moment was to seize the opportunity for prayer. I have a dear, dear friend up in Ohio, who has a great number of medical issues for someone so young, and they are being capped by staring down the barrel of a kidney transplant . We prayed over the phone and I believe that the Spirit of God, moved us both to tears. I talked about another friend who had a stroke at forty-seven years young. I could probably go on and on , with people loosing parents, spouses and yes, some have even buried children. There is just no shortage of calamity , mayhem , misery and discomfort. It almost feels like if you don’t know of at least three people who are dealing with some form of cancer, that you might be living under a rock. They say that night is darkest, just before dawn and that is certainly true. I’m not going to attempt to white wash over anyone’s suffering and pain as they walk through life, because for many, it’s just an also true reality . What I would like to do is add a little perspective to the situation. One of my biggest complaints with God is waiting, why me? Why now? Why so long?, and of course, why this? Let’s be honest, we live in a culture of , it should have been done yesterday, or two weeks ago. I can’t think of a single solitary person who just loves to wait. Some of us handle it better than others, but generally, it’s not something that any of us look forward to. We like for things to be quick and easy, and most importantly painless, so that we can run off to the next thing that we will be waiting on, this way we can have steady stream of complaints. ☺️☺️Many of us have amnesia, when it comes to the fact that we use to order things from a Sear’s catalog and wait two weeks plus for whatever it was that we ordered, and now if Amazon can’t deliver it in forty-eight hours or less, then we are having a major meltdown. I think now days to describe our culture as instantaneous is a little bit of an understatement. It really feeds into our instant gratification, that we so often enjoy. The problem often for myself is that I have a time table and of course , the all to important to do list, and God really doesn’t so much care about my schedule. It is not His priority, right along with my happiness and comfort. I know that may sound funny or a little unusual for some of you, but it is just the plain old truth. We miss things in our busyness and hurried life styles, and I believe that He thinks that is just not good enough or in our best interest. We can be very fickle as human beings and one day it’s this and the next day it’s that. It’s so hard to appreciate things and I will throw people in there as well, when we are always off to the next thing in life. Where is the gratification in life and to whom do you say thank you? We don’t often give it a second thought until it’s gone, or somehow taken away. Now, that will vary widely from person to person. Most of us take our health for granted, or perhaps it’s your parents, and I dare say that few of us give much thought to the blessing of having a roof over our heads. We always think that those things happen to other people and that they must have done something for their health to take a turn or to end up homeless, perhaps and then again maybe not so much!. Often times than not those things are used to slow us down and to get us to smell the proverbial roses. See, we all have a lence from which we view life. And perspective can be a huge indicator to whether we experience joy in life ,and the all to elusive peace, that most people crave in life. Everything changes when you view things through an eternal lence. It will or should change your priorities. It should effect how you live and the choices that you make within your life. It should permeate every aspect of your life as to how you speak and treat others, and not just the ones closest to you. It should effect how you handle your finances. Most importantly, it should lead you to live a humble existence and view others as better than yourself. I will concede that this can be difficult and one of those things that is easier said than done. Why eternal? In the new testament there is a story of a man who had suffered for thirty-eight years with an ailment, that Jesus healed, can you imagine, thirty-eight long years of struggling, suffering ,and being marginalized. That would clearly be over half of a lifetime. I don’t want to underestimate the years of suffering, but he was healed, and while long ago, and very difficult for most of us to connect the dots, this was joy in the morning! The Morning is not always a physical sunrise, can be ,but often is not. It refers to a healing, a resolution, a breakthrough, something that is significant, which points to things being better than they were. I know that there are some of you out there who have been dealing with things that seem like a forever, whether it’s surviving in a bad marriage, a special needs child, financial difficulties that just seem as they will never go away and for some the loss of a beloved parent, spouse, child, or a really good friend, and you just haven’t been able to move past the pain of it all. I completely understand, but there is joy in the morning. I’m not one of those name it and claim it people and I’m not pushing the power of positive thinking, because I think that you could be setting yourself up for more disappointment. I don’t understand or get God’s timing, and there surly has been things that I’ve prayed for ,for years, and just haven’t seen them come to pass . I will make a note that many of the heroes of the faith never saw all that God had promised as well, but it does not mean that He is not faithful, just on a different time table than we are. So if you are there, just know that you are not alone there. We rarely get a birds eye view of how all the pieces fall into place and that is most certainly when trust and faith come into place. Do we trust God,?, and do we have faith, that He has our best interest at heart? I think it’s easy for us to say yes most of the time, but all of the worrying and striving tell a vastly different story. Please, hear me clearly, in the most transparent way that I can be and say this is that I’m there as well. Let’s just say for the simple sake of argument that I’m at a fork in the road, and my two choices are ” The I got this Freeway ” or ” Straight and Narrow Lane” hmmm, how to decide, choices, choices, choices . Well if my memory is not completely failing me, then I can remember multiple car pile ups on the I got this Freeway and some with some pretty major injuries. I remember being lost on that Freeway many times and asking myself, how the hell did I get here. I would be remised if I didn’t include heartaches and breaks to numerous to count, and in all honesty the last time out, wasn’t even a break, felt as if my heart had been ground down to a fine powder, just left for the wind to blow it away. In comparison, the Straight and narrow lane has offered love, unconditionally without reproach. It has offered acceptance on my worse days. A real biggie is eternal security and peace. When I don’t forget the history, it has just been God’s faithfulness and Him showing up again and again in all of the rough patches in life. Does this change my perspective on the waiting , honesty…NO, still don’t care for it, but I know that He is using it to bring about a change in my life to help me grow and to become more of what He wants me to be. We don’t have the time here for me to go into details about all of the ways that God has shown up in my life and the life of others. We don’t have time for me to tell you about somethings that can only be explained as providential and supernatural, so yes, miraculous. I will tell you that He is always faithful, so the Marines stole that from God ☺️☺️. I want to end this with a some what difficult or different story, that speaks to Joy In the morning and that it is not always what we want it to be, or the how we want it to be, but it is the what it is. I’m the oldest of what use to be six kids, all boys, except my baby sister, who was number six. We have been remembering her birthday this week on the 17th of this month. She took off almost nine years ago and she had suffered with MS for almost twenty-five years. It was hard for her, it hit her just as she was graduating from college. While she watched her friends get married and have kids, she came down with a debilitating illness. My sister was strong and a fighter, having five older brothers, that’s probably not a surprise. I remember talking to her the day before she passed and she looked at me and said that she was tiered and that she wanted to go home. Like most people, I thought about my selfish reasons for wanting her to hang on to a life that wasn’t the best for her. She would have been 51 this year and I miss her. God calling my baby sister home was ” Joy In The Morning “. She is at peace, no more pain and suffering. No more tears are heartache. As I said it’s not always the way we want it, and I hope that you understand what I am trying to say here. Sometimes people struggle with things for a long time or for a life time, but not for an eternity. The time that we have here is just such a small speck in the grand scheme of things. I have no desire to attempt to minimize what anyone is currently walking through or has been through, just know that He is faithful in all situations. I hope that you have tied down your eternal security. And as always, I’m open to follow up questions, if I stated something that was unclear, vague, or somehow unfamiliar to you. I did this once before and got a few positive comments about it, so I will once again. The last time I referenced an artist by the name of Matthew West, and a few of you looked up his song ,”Me on your mind “. This time out , the young man’s name is Tauren Wells , and his song shares the same name as this post, ” Joy In The Morning, I hope that you will check it out.
- Till Next Time ✌️peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
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