When The Unexpected Happens

 

This week something unexpected happened.

I can’t disclose the details, but it wasn’t good news, and it really rocked me. In fact, I am still recovering and regrouping from it.

As much as we plan and try to control things, you never know what the day will bring.

I always trust God but even with that trust we aren’t always prepared enough are we? In my situation, God had my back even when I didn’t know what was going on. I’m very thankful for that.

Life can change and we should never think it won’t happen to us.

I woke up this morning wondering if I am ready for what the day will bring. We falsely assume we have it all under control when the reality is that we don’t.

Trusting God doesn’t mean that bad things won’t still happen.

Trusting God doesn’t mean we will be happy about it.

Trusting God doesn’t mean we won’t sometimes question that trust.

There are some mornings I wake up with a crushing headache that I didn’t expect. It’s those days that I know it is going to take something extra for me to push through that day.

I know I’m sounding real encouraging right now but this is real life my friends. Serving God isn’t always worship songs everyday. We sometimes give people this false impression about believers. We struggle too.

My life has been rocked this week but I’m trusting God to help me to recover. It ain’t easy and it ain’t fun but there is no other.

Life sucks. No need to sugar coat that with a Bible verse or Christian cliche. We are all trying to get through life and doing the best that we can.

We the unexpected happens, I usually freak out first then spend time processing but ultimately, I regroup and come out with a renewed determination. I’m not quite there yet but God is my rock, and I know that my strength will be renewed.

The Political Christian

I recently saw a post on social media from Christian actor Kevin Sorbo who said “You can’t be a Democrat and be a Christian”.

My first thought was “Well, you can’t be an actor and be Kevin Sorbo either”. (mic drop)

Seriously though - when have we become Republican Christians and Democrat Christians?

There is no such thing.  Jesus wants us to be believers not political activists promoting the platforms of the world.  There isn’t a Democrat heaven and a Republican heaven.  

It is quite disappointing to see believers anoint any political candidate as “the chosen one”.  Sad.

What happened to the Good News?  The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Remember that?  If in the barrage of propaganda and social media posts we scroll we have forgotten it, the mission of Christian believers is to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”.

Jesus didn’t say to be a Democrat or Republican.  No He didn’t.  Yet Satan has succeeded in getting us off the main thing and dividing us all.  

Our Savior is NOT Donald Trump or Kamala Harris and we need to stop being fan boys of them.  We have gotten our eyes off of God and sucked into this political mess that our country is in.  

I am just a lone voice here in an obscure blog but I fear that we are in serious jeopardy with selling out our souls to a lie that a candidate is going to bring us into some Christian nation.  My friends they are ALL pandering to us.  Telling us what we want to hear.  

Jesus is not American.  He wasn’t a white man and He didn’t speak English.  The United States of America doesn’t have ownership of Him.  

We have made a mess of what it really means to be a Christian.  It is sad.  It grieves me deeply to see how divided we are and the lies we are believing to be the truth.  

I hope that we all can survive the blitz of information that will be coming at us in this week before the election.  

I Stress Myself Out

Nobody stresses me out more than me.

I am my own worst enemy.

Someone can talk about going somewhere and my mind is already planning the route, what time we need to leave, what the parking situation will be and how much it will cost.

That’s me. I never realized how bad it was until recently.

I can’t help myself. I’m always stressing myself out and mostly because I have always been a planner. Planning out routes and scenarios in my head. This is probably why I have issues with high blood pressure. I have always internalized my stress and it has worn my insides down over the years.

I guess I learned this growing up. My dad was strict and one that always had everything planned out and he was never late for anything. In fact, most of the time he was way too early. For him, being on time was the same as being late.

Of course, I can’t put this all on him. I have taken that start and built a pretty good layer on top of that.

I have tried to do better about this stress I put on myself. Prayer actually helps….when I take time to have a quality conversation with God. Too many times I say a prayer and it really was just going through the motions. When I actually take time and sit in silence before God and listen instead of doing all the talking, my stress melts away.

Did you know that God isn’t stressed about anything? Nothing takes Him by surprise. Even if we mess up and go against His will, He can work with it and make something out of it.

The Bible says that He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. I can’t say that I’m the same everyday. Some days are better and some days are worse. My mood tends to change daily at times.

I always remember the verse about “casting our cares on Jesus” and think I’m doing that but too many times I will attempt that and then pick those cares right back up and take them with me.

So what are things that work for me (when I actually do them)?

• Sit in silence (this is also when you will think about everything you need to be doing)
• Unplug from work - Our jobs take enough of our time and energy, when we take time off we need to turn it off.
• Take a timeout from social media - We waste too much time looking at our phones, scrolling and reading what others are saying. It’s too much.
• Enjoy nature - Nothing makes me feel closer to God than to get away on a trail or sitting next to the water and enjoying nature.
• Be in the moment - Stop yourself from thinking ahead, be in the moment you are in right now and enjoy it.

Stress is a common human experience, particularly in a world where the demands for our time and attention seem to be constant. The ultimate solution to stress is to stop, slow down and surrender our lives to God. 

The Bible tells us to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." It works when we really do it.  I will admit that it is very difficult to do.  

I put a lot of pressure on myself but I need to learn to just shift down a gear or two and be in the moment and reign my mind in when it starts planning ahead or possible scenarios