Brothers

But go to my brothers . . . 

 - From John 20

There's always a designated response involved in every interaction with the Lord. He gives us instructions, that usually begin with the word "Go . . . "

And when we have gone . . . the objective is usually, just to report what we have just seen, and heard, with our own eyes and ears. We are to be a witness of what has happened. We are to go, and tell others. 

Jesus directed Mary to go to "my brothers." She was to tell them that He was ascending to His Father and our Father; to His God and our God." But I think that what He was really saying, what I would guess is meant in the original language: "Hurry now. Go tell my brothers that I am here. I'm alive. But stress to them, that I am leaving soon."

Time was of the essence.

If you knew you had only 40 days left with your brothers and sisters . . . what would you do? What other activities would you give  up? What hobbies would you put on hold? What vacations, self-indulgent purchases, recreational plans, would you put on hold? And when you got together with them, how would you spend your time?

I would probably make it so our time was spent in a wooded, secluded setting. I would have musical instruments around. I would have good food available. I would have various meeting and recreational options for all of us. 

The entire dialogue between Jesus and Mary is touching in its urgency. And it is woven through with tenderness, courtesy of the phrase "Go tell my brothers."

My brothers. 

Family is a big deal. It's so essential of a concept, that God made it paramount throughout the Old Testament, and when the plan of salvation was finally laid out there, one of the main outcomes was that we would all be family. We're family. Brothers and sisters.

So, don't let anybody put-down the concept of family. Unlike the popular memes going around, that diminish the idea of "family" as, basically, people that make you feel good. Jesus' definition of family is describing people with imperfections. People that don't get what you're saying. People that doubt you all the time. People that deny you. People that betray you. 

People you're stuck with. 

This is what family is. We learn about it in the blood-related group we're born into. You can totally split with your father. But he will always be your father. 

This is the construct we are to operate under, when we look at our brethren in Christ, and are told that they are our family. 

Themselves

And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. 

 - From 2 Corinthians 5

Self-importance is a tense, stressful lifestyle. 

Until we're perfect, and immortal, there will always be something a little bit wrong. There is always something to complain about. The person that wants to complain does not need to look far. 

When your focus is on your own feelings, your own aches and pains, your own disappointments and frustrations, you find that the feeder of things to worry about, is constantly replenishing itself. 

There is no such thing as a perfect day. Even a sneeze, or a mosquito whirring about, makes a perfect day imperfect. Everything may be going right, all day. But inevitably, something goes wrong. And if you look just a little, probably scores of things are wrong, right there in your orbit. 

But if you live for others . . . if you live for Christ . . . even the little bit you do for them, seems like a refreshing sacrifice. When you feed your desire to care, and to serve, it multiplies in effectiveness in the good it does, and it multiplies in its benefits to you, personally. First, it takes your focus off of yourself, which has it's own benefits - you aches, pains, and worries magically drift away! Second, it helps a person with hidden pains and griefs buried deep, that you do not know are there. 

We never know the lasting impact of our good deeds to others. 

Living for yourself is costly, overwhelming, hurtful, disappointing. Yet, we emphasize it because, like children, it may be all we know. 

But living for others, is liberating. 

Heaviness

 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? 

 - From Psalm 42

The Psalmist was suffering depression, brought on by the trauma of exile. He was facing continual mocking from his Babylonian captors, that laughed at him and asked "Where is your God?"

When you have experienced trauma, your life seems to stop at one point in time. Your forward movement is blocked. You freeze. Your own thoughts become your enemy. It takes a toll on your physical health. Your soul, your very spirit, becomes heavy. There is a very real sense of stress, pain, and distress, in your chest, as though it had been weighed down by some force . . . except the sensation is like the weight is attached to your lungs, your heart, your other organs, and was pulling it all away from the safety of its skeletal support. 

When my marriage was at its lowest point, I became so troubled that the physical pain in my chest became overbearing. The pain traveled to my shoulder and down my arm. My breathing became weak and my heart raced. I felt that perhaps I was having a heart attack. An ambulance trip and overnight at the hospital showed me that it was not a cardiac problem. But stress that is severe enough, will do that to you. 

The last thing you need, when you're dealing with the effects of trauma, is a crowd of people gathering around you, mocking you. And it doesn't need to be Babylonians. It can be your closest friends and family. They mean well; but their misplaced words come across as taunts, like the friends of Job. 

Today, in a conversation, someone suggested to me that everybody should receive regular therapy sessions. Those that are emotionally and mentally well would need it, for training on how better to interact with the people around them who, inevitably, suffer from hidden emotional distress. 

If we knew the harm we do to others, by way of ordinary, simple words and deeds, we might act totally differently. And the world, in turn, would be a much better place. 

Conspired

I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, `Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

 - From Amos 7

Amos was no expert. He prophesied, while not being a prophet. He was not considered to have prophet talents. He didn't earn credentials in prophesy by going to a prophet college. He had no published, peer-reviewed writings that demonstrated his authority. He received no grants, did no research, studied no foreign languages. He was not ordained, nor had the hands of respected elders ever placed upon his head. 

He was just a herdsman. 

A guy from Flyover Country. He did not "appear successful," so he was not treated with deference. 

He might have worn a MAGA cap. He might have been called a Deplorable, from out of a basket of Deplorables. 

He might have resisted mandates from secular government . . . even those that were for our own good, or that were designed to keep other people safe. He held his own counsel. 

Whatever he did, though . . . it drove the movers, shakers, the wealthy, the puppetmasters, the experts crazy!

Amos was a spreader of misinformation, and he was a spreader of disinformation. He called out people with the power to have him executed. He was a spreader of conspiracy theories, or so the projecting authorities would have you believe, as they conspired, themselves, to keep themselves in power, and anyone challenging them, in check. 

Did Amos live in America, in 2022?

 

Change

 . . . then I will change my mind . . . . 

 - From Jeremiah 18

It is said that God "never changes."

But right here in Jeremiah, God states quite firmly that He can and does change His mind. He probably does it over and over again. And if true that God changes His mind, but in other plays the Bible states that He does not change . . . then we have a situation in Scripture that merits, not ridicule from scoffers (they love "inconsistencies" and pointing them out), but rather, a deeper look. 

Scriptural verses that seem inconsistent, or in conflict with each other, are indicators of Truth that may be hidden beyond the surface. We are made to disagree. This is how we learn creativity. It's where empathy comes from. It's where our greatest problems are solved. God models inconsistency in His own nature. 

When people point out Scriptural verses, to each other, that seem to contradict some other verse that has been offered, we normally find the person, that has been challenged, just ignoring it. Or they might do something really childish like call the other a name or mock their "stupidity."

But instead . . . we should step back, and begin working, together, to find ways to answer a question, or solve a problem, in which both of us find satisfaction, and probably, new insights. 

Stephen Covey called is win-win. 

Longfellow said "Do I contradict myself? Very well then. I contain multitudes"

Indeed. Let's hear it for contradictions and competing values! And let's pray the 2022 Generation figures it out, but fast, before it gets too late to change course in 2022, as it had become in the time of Jeremiah. 

Ask

Ask, and it will be given you 

 - From Matthew 7

So many prayer requests on Social Media.

People ask for specific things: to be brought through a serious operation, or illness.

They pray for wisdom for world leaders.

They make silent requests: something that must be kept secret. 

They pray for athletes before a game, or students before a test.

Do we pray for wisdom, for ourselves, much? Do we ask that God give us to tools, or the goods, to provide to others, what they have asked in prayer?

And then everybody else responds with something like "Prayers sent" (whatever that means). Or they'll see "Sending prayers your way" when the actual path of the prayers should be towards God. 

So I'm not sure about the modern way that we communicate thoughts. And speaking of "thoughts," that we put much thought into it. 

What about a simple ask? When we pray, do we stop to realize that we're asking God for something? And before we pray that other things get fixed, do we pray that God fix us? Isn't that what we really need, most of all?

Sow

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 

 - From 1 Corinthians 15

We have a fascinating illustration here, from nature, that is more than relevant in 2022.

The seed that you plant in the ground is as good as dead. Taken on its own, it's no different than a grain of sand, or a pebble. It is lifeless. It needs activity from the outside, in order to be animated and spring to life. 

It needs to be buried - placed under ground and then covered with so much soil that it could not possible breathe. 

It needs to be watered, cared for. 

It needs good nutrition if it is to thrive. The soil should be rich with life-giving (though lifeless) elements!

You do not have life, unless you put something dead into the ground. The way Paul orders things here: you must have death - or else, there will be no life!

Everything today is all about keeping people "safe," so that they do not "die." It's about "saving lives." But what lives are we saving? Paul says you need to die, to have eternal life!

There's a difference between the courage it takes stay indoors, with your smile covered (hidden), away from other humans (that are, like yourself, made to be social creatures); and the courage it takes to go out (like missionaries) into the world, accepting all people at face value (pun intended), putting yourself on the line, into situations that may be dangerous, but where you can provide to people the most important thing they need more than anything else, to live life fully: your presence.