Just For Laughs

Okay, so I get these Breaking News Updates from ABC that announce stories just minutes after it hits the wire (if you don't get them, I recommend signing up). Anyway, here's one I received today:

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

SENATE APPROVES WAR FUNDING BILL WITH NO IRAQ WITHDRAWAL TIMETABLE,
BILL NOW HEADS TO WHITE HOUSE FOR BUSH'S SIGNATURE; CLINTON AND OBAMA
VOTED NO

Would two presidential candidates trying to run on an anti-Iraq War platform really vote yes? More pertinently, would Hillary really vote "yes" on anything related to the war after all the heat she got for her initial vote? I mean, ABC, is that really newsworthy? Just for laughs...

Doing the Right Thing

Sometimes, God allows—or gives us—situations that test our courage. To quote one of my favorite songs by Natalie Grant, we have to choose whether to love when we’d rather turn away; to give when we’re more inclined to take. How do you respond to those situations? I’m tempted to give in. Get upset. Feel incapable. But only for a second, because I remember who I belong to—One who knows my every thought, word and deed—before I do (Psalm 139); He crowns me with love and compassion (Psalm 103). There’s a reason He made me; I didn’t make Him.

An analogy will assist. At a conference last year a preacher talked about how the maker of a product decides its use. He said, somewhat matter-of-factly, that a refrigerator can’t cry about how it can’t toast a bagel, because it wasn’t made to do that. Likewise, God has a purpose for us—His “inventions”—that plays out in the little, everyday situations He allows—or creates. Some of these I get; others, it takes a while. But I don’t have to get everything, because I have always found, in retrospect, that not understanding everything that happens in my life does not materially affect it. Dwelling on the meaning of the things I’m unsure of, however, only confuses me, and makes me waste time wondering that would be better spent living.

And so I choose to live—to love others the best I can, to give of all the many things God has given me—to be Sunshine to the world (and yes, I know, I’m incredibly hold-hands-rock-back-and-forth-and-sing Kumbaya:)). But it works for me. Nobody can steal my joy. I’m much more interested in doing the right thing--God's thing.

Trust Is...

What does it mean to truly trust God? That’s a question I’ll be trying to answer for the rest of my life. Sure, I could give you a denotation, but what does trust actually look like? Also, how is the concept applicable to specific situations? Does it even differ based on situation? I’ve recently been comparing the areas where I am trusting God with the areas I’m not, and here’s an incomplete list of practical “trust traits” I’ve come up with to challenge my doubts:

• Trust is not praying for something, and then immediately going back to worrying about the thing you just prayed for, and then pausing to pray for it again, only to repeat the cycle.

• Trust is praying for something, and knowing He’ll answer. This sometimes means that you stop praying for something He hasn’t answered (or perhaps has), if the way you are praying causes you to doubt more; just ask God to work it out.

• Trust is not asking God to show you something, and then asking for a friend’s advice to balance things out.

• Trust is going to God for something and asking friends for advice that is matched up against God’s Word, or asking that they’ll pray for you to accept what He says, which leads into the next trust trait….

• Trust is accepting the answer God gives you, even if it’s not the one you want.

• Trust is being okay with waiting for an answer.

• Trust is understanding that if I’m in the will of God—meaning sins aren’t overtaking my life (in what I like to call a “Psalm 66:18” way)—I have absolutely nothing to fear.

• Trust is grasping the POWER of prayer, asking not in a James 4:1-3 way, but in a John 14:13; Mark 11:22-24; I John 5:14-15 way.

• Trust is knowing that although I’m a mess, and my fears get in the way, the more I do this trust thing, the more God works on me, and the better I get at it.