Psalm 50:16-23, 2 Samuel 12:15-25, Ephesians 4:17-24
I am a lady of action. I prefer to solve problems rather than to just talk about them or make memes to post on Social Media. I have never related well to that advice given to boyfriends and husbands saying that women want to just vent sometimes, they don't want to solve the problem. Not this woman. I want to vent sometimes, yes. But what a waste of time if that venting does not lead to some sort of action in the right direction at the very least.
It has been quite a Summer. In our own family, we are (again) (still) in the midst of change and transition (career change, moving, uncertain about the details of our future, to name a few). In the world it seems that there are more and more headlines that people feel the need to take strong stands on, and if you are not on their side, you must be a terrible person indeed. It seems on both sides (of any issue), there is a lack of empathy. A lack of trying to see the other side's point of view. How can we work together? How can we help people instead of making bold statements all the time? How can we remove the log out of our own eyes before we talk about the speck in our neighbors'? How can we take more action than just posting on Social Media? Do our posts inspire others to take action, or do they inspire eye-rolling and muting/hiding/unfriending?
In our own little family, we've decided that one of our mottos will be, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and Love your Neighbor as yourself. No matter what." It's hard. These two statements are supposed to go hand in hand, and yet as sinful humans we even manage to mess this up. Our loving God seems to be at odds with loving our neighbor, and our loving our neighbors seems to be at odds with loving God. And lately it seems that certain decisions being made higher up on certain issues are causing people to crumble and question our society's morality. But how about, instead of crumbling and moaning and complaining and meme-making, how about no matter what we look for the opportunity to Love Better. How can we love God no matter the situation, and how can we love our neighbor, no matter the legislation. I am trying to be general, because there are a lot of issues that one could take a side on, not just one...and just because someone takes the same side as you on one issue, it doesn't mean they take the same side as you on every issue. This post isn't about solving any one specific issue, but about how I am feeling at a loss about how to take action on many things. I want to help all the people and take care of all the things and solve every problem in the world, but as I write this my living room is in shambles (toys and clutter everywhere) and the dishes and laundry are piling up. We have kids to care for and homework to do, and a move to make. I would love to advocate for all the victims of racial injustice, murder (no matter what the method or the reason), sexual abuse, violence, abandonment, inequality, etc But, using airplane rules, I think I will be ineffective in helping if I can't get my own act together first. And no matter how much I want to, no matter how much I feel I have my act enough together, I just can't take action for every single thing. I need to evaluate what my heart is most drawn to and passionate about, and then what I can actually make happen given my circumstances and resources. So I am sorry if I don't retweet or share or even like every single thing that gets posted. It seems like a waste of time. What is it accomplishing? Does it give a complete picture? Does it insult the so-called other side of the issue? Does it help me to Love Better?
The most inspirational things lately, to me, have been reports of what people are doing. Ways they are taking action about what they are passionate and what they feel the Lord has called them to. This is what I want to do. Instead of writing and reading and posting articles (I see the irony in writing this blog post), I want to just do and be and let people know how they can be a part of it.
The idea of adoption has been on my heart lately, and I have been reading a lot about it (mostly anecdotes) and thinking and wondering if adoption is in our family's future. Currently we are in-between jobs and houses, so I'm thinking not in our near future. But it is a great way to take action, regarding many issues. Maybe someday!
We also don't think that we are done with overseas missions yet, as that is frequently on our hearts too. But that will have to be down the road as well. Now is the time to focus and live well in the present. Now is the time to get more education and experience (Steve is at the very beginning of a journey to go back to school to join the nursing field), and raise our boys. I am terrible at living well in the present, so in my prayers the other night (and often), I asked the Lord what I was supposed to be doing. How can I live well and love well now, and still prepare for whatever lies down the road? And the following words came to me:
simplify
wait
trust
make
(do?)
Simplify
Simplicity (in all areas of life) has been a desire of mine for almost a decade now, and an ongoing process. My hope is that simplicity itself won't become an idol, but that it will remove anything that has become or has great potential to become an idol.
Wait
There is so much unknown. Where will Steve get into school? Which school? When will he start? Where will we live? What will be next? How will we have enough money to eat? How much longer until our car is completely unfixable? Are we supposed to have a car? And on and on. There is so much to wait on. Things that because of logistics, we just have to wait and see. We can't have everything NOW. For some things the action we have to take is simply to wait. Sit tight. Ugh so hard.
Trust
This goes hand in hand with Wait. We have seen time and time again that the Lord will take care of us. And he is. But sometimes I get caught up and nervous about the details. I don't have a lack of trust in the care, but in the how. I want to know the answers to all the above questions in the Wait category, but I'm getting the feeling the Lord just wants me to Trust that it will all get done if it is supposed to. In the right time. And in the right way.
Make
Make...this word came up, and I don't know exactly what it is referring to, but I will take it to mean taking my (many) ideas, and bringing some of them to fruition. We are going to move soon. Again. And we know this particular place is not our Forever home (whatever that really means), but we don't know how long we will be living there. Could be until May, or could be until the end of 2017, or somewhere in-between. All depends on some of those answers to the Wait Questions. No matter, I am determined to Make this next place a home for us. Even though we have always had a place to stay these past 2+ years, there has always been a feel of "this is only temporary," so we have never completely unpacked. We never hung things on the walls. Never decorated. Never gave items a place. Never made a home. It has been as awful as it sounds. So this time I am determined to do things differently. Even if we only live at this next house until May (we don't know), we are going to unpack everything, settle in, and make it our home. In case we are staying until the end of 2017. It will be a lot of work, but I can't do "this is only temporary," anymore. Even if it turns out to be just that. The other idea for Make is that I have had all these ideas for things I would actually like to make that have been taking a backseat (for plenty of reasons. You can probably guess). So the past two weeks I have been carving time out to Make and Create. If any project ever gets done, maybe I will post about it on here. Time will tell!
(Do?)
This one is question-marked and parenthesis-ed because while the other words came to me at the end of a time of prayer and seemed to be from the Lord, at the time I wasn't sure if the word Do was from me or him. Or if the word Do came because the Lord wanted to reassure me that even if I am not changing the world in Big Ways, that Simplifying, Waiting, Trusting, and Making are small things that will add up and prepare me for bigger actions down the road.
Long-winded! Thank you dear Reader for making it this far. My original idea for this post was to brainstorm a bunch of different ways to take action other than posting on Facebook, but that is not the direction it took at all. But I hope in sharing some of the small ways I feel I am being called to take action will inspire you to take your own. It is ok if we take action in different ways from each other.
In today's Scriptures, I am reading them with Taking Action in mind. In the Psalm, I like the idea that giving thanks is a sacrifice that honors God. How can I be more thankful as I am simplifying, waiting, trusting, and making? In 2 Samuel, we see David fasting and praying and mourning over his actions and the likely consequences. How do I respond when life is not turning out the way I thought it would, (whether as a direct result of my own sin, or because of the Lord's timing being different (better) than my own, or something else)? In Ephesians it says to let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Before I can do anything, my thoughts and attitudes need to be in check. Probably best to seek help from the Lord (prayer, Scripture reading, etc) in this, than to be getting annoyed by the barrage of memes and news articles and opinions that seem to be so prevalent on all sides.
I hope this blog post has not added to the barrage, but inspired you to take action or to seek help from the Lord in whatever issue or situation seems to be the most pressing in your life.
