So, I've been doing some more pondering…..……ok, since I was 17, I personally have struggled with and dealt with an, at times, debilitating anxiety disorder. There are MANY things I have learned and I know there are so many reasons for why it happened in my life. One obvious reason would be because my obsessive compulsive disorder was one of the major factors in bringing my husband and I together.(He also has OCD, and wow, can it be a crazy life sometimes..:/)
So, after dealing with and attempting to know how to manage this sickness there is A LOT of things I have come away learning. One, and probably the most important lesson I have learn and come to understand is, I know, I, as a human being have limits. I know that there are things that are harder for me and after a whole lot of attempting, I have learned that there are a lot of things that I now need to expect are going to be tougher to accomplish. And after much struggling with accepting this concept I finally have come to the realization that, since I know God is so much greater then I will ever be even at my best, I can accept my inability and I am okay.
In our culture though I believe the enemy again, has unfortunately used our own prideful sinful nature against us, and the slyly allowed the concept of ACCOMPLISHMENT, SELF RELIANCE AND MOST OF ALL SELF SUFFICIENCY to overwhelm our society, and falsely give us the belief that there’s NOTHING we can’t do. And therefore no one ever welcomes the notion of embracing our inability. Now, yes, with God all things ARE possible, but there has to be a balance of thinking we’re good for nothing and can’t accomplish anything and believing we are unstoppable and capable of any and everything.
The enemy’s main objective is to do anything that would distract us and take our attention off of God, and what could be more effective then, fooling us into believing that, we, as an individual, ARE totally capable and know, on our own, thank you very much, what is best for ourselves and our world?
Now, once again, you have to bring the balance factor in, you can never go to one extreme or the other. But, at the moment I am watching the news and the earthquake has just happened in Japan. There are riots continuing in the Middle East countries and Americans in Wisconsin are going crazy protesting the anti- union bill. CHAOS.
As I watch the news all I see are uncertain, fearful humans running around everywhere in a panic, as they should be. Because if we, as humans, believe there is going to be one individual person who would be able to discover and formulate a plan that will bring the world peace and a much waited stability, then yes, they SHOULD be running around in a tizzy, cause we are not going to find anyone. Yes, God gives guidance and wisdom to His people and will speak his message through leaders, but looking to one person(president, any world leader) for the answers isn’t going to work, cause they may be able to speak well or lead effectively, but they are just one more flawed human like the rest of us.
So, this is my point, as a result of the sickness I’ve dealt with I do not find it hard to believe and understand that I am lacking and that I DO NOT know everything. That is very easy for me to accept. But for the average American I don’t think it is. I believe we have totally bought into the idea of us, ourselves, knowing best. And our world will continue to sell to us and push down our throat every new technique, book, or pill to take to improve us and eventually make us the best person we could be.
Now, I believe the Creator wants us to be the best Creation we are able to be, but I also believe that he wants to understand our place and our rank.
In reality, compared to God, we are stupid, defenseless, crowd following sheep, that will naturally self destruct if we do not follow our SHEPHERD. And our SHEPHERD is NOT, thankfully, one of our other fellow sheep cause that would be the “blind leading the blind”. (They are as lost as we are).
Everything and everyone around us, including everyone in our own feeble minded society is telling us to fear. They are uncertain of so many things and dieing to find THE ANSWER, but unless they concede and acknowledge their insufficiency and submit to an all knowing, loving God, their anxiety and uneasiness will be eternal. But I personally am so grateful that I do know the One, who DOES know all the answers and He HAS ALREADY seen the future and its outcome, and despite all He has seen, the main point the wants me to understand is that, yes, there will be trouble but He’s fully aware of all of it, and he STILL directs us to have peace.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The "American Dream"??
A friend of mine just recently made the statement, that after feeling worn thin and stressed out by life she wondered where was the “real” life she dreamed of as a child? And it got me thinking of a lot of different things I’ve had going on in the back of my head for awhile.
It is easy to say that our society is messed up, any person who has grown up in church knows the whole story of how in the beginning, we on earth had it good. We had a loving, providential God that loved us enough to give us the “ability” to make choices for ourselves in giving us “free will”. Now, the idiot “enemy” is all too familiar with this concept of free will and will, although unknowingly to us, use it against us. He saw Eve and played the “but you could have so much more” card on her and continued to convince her to eat the fruit God had specifically said not to and BOOM, similar to what you witness on game shows and television programs all the time, we as well as Eve, end up being unsatisfied with what we have and give into greediness. She had it perfect, but the enemy knew our human nature weakness and skillfully used it against Eve. The perfect world and opportunity we had was gone. We lost it all by listening to the enemy and somehow thinking we knew better then God.
So, if that was so far back when life was most likely, much less cluttered and less complicated, imagine the state of the world we live in now? Families upon families reaching, stretching, sacrificing and whole heartedly pursuing that illusive and coveted “American Dream”. This isn’t some
controversial topic. Americans and probably even more so those living outside America, strive to someday finally achieve whatever the American society determines is the ultimate form of success and will give almost anything to have it.
So my next question is, “What is considered success?” It’s beyond obvious the aspects that media and television view as marks of success. And, I’m not saying those things are wrong necessarily. I believe when contemplating this subject you have to find a realistic balance. You don’t go to one extreme or the other. But, really, as a Believer, in our present day society what should we consider “success” and how do we pursue it correctly? I know I could dig deep down into the Scriptures and find verse upon verse giving statements of resisting materialistic things and choosing the narrow path and all the contrasts between pursuing God’s Kingdom compared to the pleasures of this world. But there is another way I recently started to look at it.
Recently on CBN they were doing a week long special interviewing people who died, experienced heaven and then came back to earth. I’m a visual person, and as they described it in my mind’s eye I could envision all of it, I could FEEL and imagine it, and I wanted to BE there. As they describe it more and more my heart fills to the brim and I just think of how I can’t wait! But in each interview the person states that after experiencing what heaven is like, THEN coming back here to their earthly home, their view point on matters here on earth drastically change. They’ve seen what lies beyond our temporary home. I thought, “Man, if only all of us could be able to go through an experience like that, we would, no doubt, see things through a different light. If we had that personal experience it could change forever what we make a priority in our lives.” And then I realized that Jesus Himself could be considered One of those who has experienced both places, He knows both sides. And knowing that there was another place more glorious then our minds could even attempt to conceive, how then, did He live His life while He was here on earth? What did He pursue and what did He consider to be “successful”?
Could it be that our definition of success and God’s definition of success are two very different things? Could it be true that, despite living in a greedy, materialistic, selfish world God views a “real” life and real success as the concept He spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount? Uh, cause if that’s the case, those two seem starkly different from one another??
And, unfortunately, I believe pursuing the “American Dream” has gotten so out of hand that, just like naive Eve, we, as Believers have fallen for and are so accustomed to following the crowd, that we assume it’s normal and to be expected, and mindlessly follow the society norm. And the concept of just trying to be “normal” has become such a huge chore that the enemy doesn’t need to use anything else but the expected pressure of society to distract and prevent us from being a more impacting, effective Believer.
As you can see I have many questions and I am certainly not saying that I have any answers, but there are some things that I feel I DO know. I know, that no matter the situation, God does NOT want us to be dismayed or stressed. He did a whole lot for us in order that, at the least, we would not be have to carry unnecessary burdens, and if you ask me, pursuing the “American Dream” can end up being a very stressful and exhausting task that can take a very serious toll on us. That, along side contemplating the way Jesus, Himself spent His little time He had here on the earth, it makes me wonder if maybe the “real” life that we, as Americans have become accustomed to expecting, isn’t the same “real” life God would wish for us to experience? If this is the case, then how do we as American Believer’s live???
It is easy to say that our society is messed up, any person who has grown up in church knows the whole story of how in the beginning, we on earth had it good. We had a loving, providential God that loved us enough to give us the “ability” to make choices for ourselves in giving us “free will”. Now, the idiot “enemy” is all too familiar with this concept of free will and will, although unknowingly to us, use it against us. He saw Eve and played the “but you could have so much more” card on her and continued to convince her to eat the fruit God had specifically said not to and BOOM, similar to what you witness on game shows and television programs all the time, we as well as Eve, end up being unsatisfied with what we have and give into greediness. She had it perfect, but the enemy knew our human nature weakness and skillfully used it against Eve. The perfect world and opportunity we had was gone. We lost it all by listening to the enemy and somehow thinking we knew better then God.
So, if that was so far back when life was most likely, much less cluttered and less complicated, imagine the state of the world we live in now? Families upon families reaching, stretching, sacrificing and whole heartedly pursuing that illusive and coveted “American Dream”. This isn’t some
controversial topic. Americans and probably even more so those living outside America, strive to someday finally achieve whatever the American society determines is the ultimate form of success and will give almost anything to have it.
So my next question is, “What is considered success?” It’s beyond obvious the aspects that media and television view as marks of success. And, I’m not saying those things are wrong necessarily. I believe when contemplating this subject you have to find a realistic balance. You don’t go to one extreme or the other. But, really, as a Believer, in our present day society what should we consider “success” and how do we pursue it correctly? I know I could dig deep down into the Scriptures and find verse upon verse giving statements of resisting materialistic things and choosing the narrow path and all the contrasts between pursuing God’s Kingdom compared to the pleasures of this world. But there is another way I recently started to look at it.
Recently on CBN they were doing a week long special interviewing people who died, experienced heaven and then came back to earth. I’m a visual person, and as they described it in my mind’s eye I could envision all of it, I could FEEL and imagine it, and I wanted to BE there. As they describe it more and more my heart fills to the brim and I just think of how I can’t wait! But in each interview the person states that after experiencing what heaven is like, THEN coming back here to their earthly home, their view point on matters here on earth drastically change. They’ve seen what lies beyond our temporary home. I thought, “Man, if only all of us could be able to go through an experience like that, we would, no doubt, see things through a different light. If we had that personal experience it could change forever what we make a priority in our lives.” And then I realized that Jesus Himself could be considered One of those who has experienced both places, He knows both sides. And knowing that there was another place more glorious then our minds could even attempt to conceive, how then, did He live His life while He was here on earth? What did He pursue and what did He consider to be “successful”?
Could it be that our definition of success and God’s definition of success are two very different things? Could it be true that, despite living in a greedy, materialistic, selfish world God views a “real” life and real success as the concept He spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount? Uh, cause if that’s the case, those two seem starkly different from one another??
And, unfortunately, I believe pursuing the “American Dream” has gotten so out of hand that, just like naive Eve, we, as Believers have fallen for and are so accustomed to following the crowd, that we assume it’s normal and to be expected, and mindlessly follow the society norm. And the concept of just trying to be “normal” has become such a huge chore that the enemy doesn’t need to use anything else but the expected pressure of society to distract and prevent us from being a more impacting, effective Believer.
As you can see I have many questions and I am certainly not saying that I have any answers, but there are some things that I feel I DO know. I know, that no matter the situation, God does NOT want us to be dismayed or stressed. He did a whole lot for us in order that, at the least, we would not be have to carry unnecessary burdens, and if you ask me, pursuing the “American Dream” can end up being a very stressful and exhausting task that can take a very serious toll on us. That, along side contemplating the way Jesus, Himself spent His little time He had here on the earth, it makes me wonder if maybe the “real” life that we, as Americans have become accustomed to expecting, isn’t the same “real” life God would wish for us to experience? If this is the case, then how do we as American Believer’s live???
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