Rebooting My Faith, and My Faith Page

Have you ever felt like you needed a reboot. For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, I have always thought it would be nice to have a magical pensieve like the one Professor Dumbledore had in his office. The pensieve was a magical basin of sorts where the Master of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could siphon off some of his memories to be viewed at a later date. There are times my brain feels so cluttered up with day to day life, dealing with illness, and taking care of my family, that I don’t think about other things. As I have aged, I have also taken to making lists to remember all the things I need to do.

Image by indigoblues38 from Pixabay

The last two years have been difficult. I have had unexplained health issues since the spring of 2021. I am on my second antibiotic for the sinus infection I got in December. I had a CT scan on December 30th and when my ENT doctor contacted me, he said that there was still infection simmering. The amazing thing was for a whole month after finishing the first antibiotic I was feeling good. My taste and smell were back in full working order and I was not having anything more than my typical sinus drainage. When we got home after my father-in-law’s funeral I got a call from the doctor and he said, I want you on another antibiotic. I told him I was feeling good and would rather not do the antibiotic. He agreed since I have a follow up appointment with him this month. By the next day, my sinuses were all inflamed, my throat was scratchy and I was very fatigued; the exact symptoms of my first go round. I sent the office a message and I was on this new medicine by that afternoon.

Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pixabay

There are times we need to just process. With the death of my father-in-law, I could see that 2023 was not starting off any further ahead than the last two years. However, I feel as though I have a new purpose and drive. Over the last two years, I have felt the pull of God to dig into His word and to have fellowship with other women who are also desiring to move deeper into the layers that are God. He provided my Saturday morning Zoom Bible Study and I also meet once a week via Zoom with a young lady in California who teaches Bible in her spare time. These women have, and continue to inspire me to move closer to the Almighty. My desire is to do the same thing for you.

This year I would like to organize my blog a little better and have given a bit of an outline of what that will look like for Fashion on that page. I would like to do a similar thing on my Faith page. I want to bring you, not just my own thoughts on Faith, but the wisdom and insights of others as well. More than anything I want you to grow a drive to know and love God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). A relationship with Christ, His Father and the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in maneuvering this mess we call life.

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

To mimic my Fashion page, I want to have a plan for more organized content for my Faith posts. The following are tentative. The reason I say that, is because I still want to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit for what each week holds. There may be times where I need to spend a whole month on a certain passage of Scripture, or on a topic. However, this is what I was thinking:

1st. Thursday - Mulling It Over - a look at a portion of Scripture, a brief background and then ruminating on what it says to us.

2nd. Thursday - Faith Inspiration - drawing inspiration from other sources from teachers or preachers, to books and even music.

3rd. Thursday - Words of Life - looking specifically at passages or verses in the Bible that give encouragement. This would include many of the promises of God, His character, and who we are in His eyes.

4th. Thursday - Creative Christianity - this will be a place for my own creative writing, whether it be from journals, allegories, prose or poetry.

5th. Thursday (once every few months) - Topics - this will be a space for discussing some of the hard bits of walking the Christian life with a look at loving when it is hard, agreeing to disagree, religion or relationship and other things that come to mind. (Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see discussed under these topics.)

If you have been following me for a while, you know my faith in Jesus is real and important. Part of my sharing this blog with you is to let you know you are not alone. Just because I speak a good message, or have on a cute outfit doesn’t mean I don’t struggle. Just as the sufferings of Christ are ours to partake of, I want my struggles and difficulties to be out there for you to partake of as well. Suffering in unity is very important to growing and to living a life without bitterness.

I am excited about where this year is going to take this little blog, so I want your prayers more than ever. The enemy is real and he doesn’t want us to share life with each other. He thrives on isolation, manipulation and deceit. Please know, you are important to me, so if you ever have a prayer request shoot me an email and I will pray for you.

I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week and weekend. Be sure to check back next week for new content.

Turning a Dry Land into Springs of Water

I have been mulling over how to address the issues that are going on in our country for the past week. I would be remiss if I did not post something acknowledging the struggle and difficulty felt by so many of our Black brothers and sisters. You might figure that it is not my responsibility to talk about these things on my blog, because I am a fashion blogger, but I am also a faith blogger and Black people are just as much a part of God’s creation as white, red or yellow people. Certainly, many of you who grew up in the church can remember singing this song when you were a child:

Image by Capri23auto from Pixabay

“Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children
Of the world

Jesus died for all the children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus died for all the children
Of the world.

Jesus rose for all the children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus rose for all the children
Of the world”

— Jesus Loves the Little Children written by Donna Krieger and George F. Root

In the New Testament the Gospels reveal various situations where Jesus was involved with children. He spoke to them, he shared their lunch, he healed them, raised them from the dead and blessed them.

“13 Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.
14 But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
15 After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.”

— Matthew 19:13-15 (NASB)

It does not say what the color of their skin was, it just says that they were children.

In another passage we see the emphasis on our equality in Christ.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

— Galatians 3:28 (NASB)

I want to look at two areas of concern when it comes to race relations in our country. The first has to do with two foundational teachings that have come to be accepted as truth by mainstream society.

Teachings

Humanism -

Image by Comfreak from Pixabay

First let me take a few moments to define this word.

1 - Devotion to the humanities: literary culture.

2 - Devotion to human welfare.

3 - A doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values especially : a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason

For the intent of this post, I am referring to the third definition and more specifically secular humanism.

“Secular humanism is a philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.”

— Wikipedia

Protagoras, a Greek philosopher who lived during the 5th century B.C., is famous for the saying, “Man is the measure of all things.” The obvious problem with that being the answer to the question, who is the man against which all else is measured?

While many believe that humanism elevates humanity, it actually does more to defeat and down grade humanity. Take for instance the issue of slavery, over which our country fought a civli war. Humanistically speaking Black slaves were considered to be less than human and were most often treated as nothing more than chattel. White men and women gave no regard to the fact that Black people could actually achieve self-realization, let alone would they help them attain that. Black slaves were not equal. They had no rights. They were looked down on, abused, misused and most often regarded as possessions to be thrown away if they were not performing up to standard.

Image by orythys from Pixabay

The theory of humanism, places man on the throne, but in order to do that, there must be something for him to rule over. How many of us are guilty of thinking we are better than someone else? I think we all have done this as some point in our lives. You can fill in your own thought bubbles, but here are some examples.

“I’m skinnier than her.”

“I have more money than him.”

“I’m prettier than those girls.”

“I live in a better neighborhood than that family.”

“It’s because they are black that they get into trouble.”

Do you see how easy it is to go down that road; a road Jesus never intended we go? Without God on the throne, we will be king ME. I will look out for number one, because that is the way humanism works.

Evolution -

This second foundational teaching is taught in our schools. If you watch children’s mainstream television shows, cartoons, and video games it is assumed that we evolved from some primordial soup over billions of years and somehow came to be the intelligent, peaceable creatures we are.

Image by My pictures are CC0. When doing composings: from Pixabay

If, indeed, we are so intelligent and evolved as the scientists say we are, then why can we not get along? Perhaps it is because we are buying into a theory (and it is just as much a theory as creation), that is flawed and not only flawed, but one that allows mindsets like racial superiority and entitlement.

If you need an example of someone in history who bought into both humanism and evolution, take a look at Adolph Hitler. Not only did he believe that only one race was superior, he led most of Europe in a wave of terror and killing that still stands today as one of the most horrifying acts against a race (the Jews) ever committed in history. And let’s not forget, Hitler wasn’t only prejudice against Jews, but also blacks and anyone with a handicap.

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

Both secular humanism and evolution are missing one very important thing: God. Only God is able to give light where there is darkness. Only He can provide an eternal truth that is neither changed or affected by one man’s desire to put himself and his ideas on the throne. The essence of the words, “God created man in His image,” means that every single one of his human Creation has equal value and worth. The essence of an Almighty being enthroned on high means that we are all accountable to an unchanging standard, HIs standard, not one that someone else made up.

Personal Responsibility -

Now let me bring this down to our level. You and I have something called individual or personal responsibility. Each of us is responsible for how we treat our fellow human beings. If I truly believe that Black lives matter, then I am responsible to not only show that attitude in my own life, but also to encourage those around me to that same belief.

Before we can promote change in the society around us, we must promote change within ourselves. What does that look like and how will that help? Let’s go back to the book inspired by the One who sees us all as His crowning creation. Whereas above I looked at two influences on society as a whole, in this section I want to look at two attitudes that affect us as individuals.

Attitudes

Selfishness -

“1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

— Philippians 2:1-4 (NASB)

If you don’t think selfishness is a major player in the unrest in our country, let me go back to basics. Why do we sin? Why did Eve desire the fruit in the garden, when she was told to not eat of it? She wasn’t thinking about the long term ramifications of her choice. Eve saw and desired.

Image by Antonios Ntoumas from Pixabay

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. ”

— Genesis 3:6 (NASB)

The evils of racism truly are about selfishness. We think we are better than someone else. We see something we want, so we figure out how we can get it no matter what the cost, not only to ourselves and those around us, but to society as a whole. Think about it, if our society was truly based on the verses in Philippians; if we truly did nothing from selfishness and truly thought others better than ourselves, there would be no disparity among black and white. This scripture is spot on for the situation we are in. We are supposed to care about Black people. We are supposed to regard them as more important than ourselves and look out for their interests and we are to do this just like we do for our own families.

Ignorance -

Ignorance is a lack of understanding, awareness or information. We can be ignorant by choice or by circumstance. Over the last three months there have been times I have chosen to be ignorant about what was going on with the Covid virus. I would get on my computer and not look at the zillions of articles about symptoms, death rates, essential workers and whether to wear or not wear a mask. I just didn’t want to think about it.

Now it is true confessions time. I have done the same thing about Black people. I never really felt that I had to investigate how they were being treated: we live in the United States after all. Wasn’t the Civil War a long time ago? Though I knew their journey was hard, weren’t they living just like me; struggling to keep their families and marriages together, working their jobs, getting their groceries and living a normal life. I am beginning to see that my thoughts were ignorant. Yes, Black people struggle in similar ways I do, but I am learning they also have a dimension I do not. They are black.

I am not going to tell you what you should do to overcome ignorance. I am only going to tell you what I am trying to do. I have worked with some lovely Black women. I have gone to church and raised my girls with some beautiful Black men and women. I have worked with inner city youth through the church we used to attend. Unfortunately, I never really got to know these people in a deep, personal way and that I regret. Perhaps I would have come to realize the paths they walk have an added layer, a complexity that as a white person I will probably never understand, but I need to try.

My goal is to learn and to listen. I need to hear their voices, just like I listen to my grandson when he has a desire or a frustration. I would never just write him off, so why would I simply dismiss the feelings and pain of my Black brothers and sisters? I shouldn’t, not if I really believe the things that Christ taught and said.

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

“28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the [q]foremost of all?”
29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord;
30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.””

— Mark 12:28-31 (NASB)

Only God can bring about real, life long change and I hope that He will begin that work in my own heart today.

“He changes a wilderness into a pool of water And a dry land into springs of water;”

— Psalm 107:35 (NASB)