Tony Robbins put this video out and I believe with all of my heart that if we’ll apply it, it will change our lives! Click here to watch!
Category: Health
Broken
A homeless man who is mentally ill and needs some warm clothes.
A welfare mom who was born to a welfare mom and doesn’t know any better.
A woman whose husband has left her, alone and afraid with small children and without income.
A person who knows how to work the system.
A drug addict who is looking for something to steal to sell for money for more drugs.
A pregnant woman who has no home.
A family who, due to the economy, has lost their home.
A person with excess who hasn’t learned to give.
A religious person who stands in judgment of it all.
A person who looks away because they are afraid.
A person who believes others owe them something.
A teen who feels entitled because all of her life she’s been told she is princess.
A cheater who thinks others don’t know.
A person who can never get enough because of their poverty mindset.
A smooth operator.
A person who points fingers at everyone but themselves.
I meet these people every day in my ministry. They all have one thing in common. They are broken. For whatever reason, for whatever circumstance, they are broken. Powerful in their original design by the Father but life has taken its toll.
Everyone to an extent is chipped and fragmented. Some hide it better than others, others insist that everything is fine. I can’t ignore it. I can’t fix it. I can only lead them to the One that has a remedy. Nights like tonight it seems overwhelming.
An Interesting Article From AETech America
I ran across this blog and thought it was informative and very insightful. It speaks to how we identify women and men based on facial expressions. Through a study of androgynous faces, people were more likely to pick out a happy face as female and a angry face as male. I think it may give us insight to our working and social environments. Click here to read the article.
Sadness Is Part Of Life
I heard Dr. Laura say on her radio program that sadness was not a disease. I answered back, out loud in my car, with a big AMEN! I so agree with this statement. Why is it that we mask uncomfortable emotion and don’t want to feel it?
I remember when my husband died and the very first thing my doctor wanted to do, and I am mean within a few days of his death, was put me on anti-depressants and give me sleeping pills. Do you know that 25 sleeping pills have lasted me 6 years? I only took them when I absolutely could not sleep a bit. The anti-depressants I didn’t agree to and so I have never been prescribed them. I don’t believe it’s bad to take them, and I think some people have serious issues with depression and need them, but I don’t believe that everyone needs them. The death of a loved one is hard time in your life. I don’t think anyone has a question about it but whether you drug yourself to numb the pain, or work like a madwoman (as I did) to numb the pain or drink or sleep or over-eat, whatever it is that you do in times of deep sadness, you will eventually have to work through that sadness if you are going to move forward.
I guess don’t understand the avoidance of sadness. Actually, I know we’d all like to never feel sad but sadness is a part of life. It means we are human, it means we care, it means we are really living out our lives. It tells a story that not everything is happily ever after. There are great moments of joy in our lives and deep moments of sadness and to not have those is to not have lived well. It all ends well though, that’s a God promise! Ask yourself a question though, how would I know great joy if I never experienced deep sadness?
Sadness seems to be one emotion we want to avoid. I know that, and I understand that, but it’s not reality. See, everything I know about anti-depressants is that unless you on them forever, eventually you have to still go through the pain. You still have to work through your feelings and you still will need to come out on the other side. You have the right and the obligation to live a life fulfilled. A fulfilled life doesn’t mean it’s all happy, it means it’s all ended well.
Oh, I guess you could wallow in your misery forever. Some people do, they become a victim to their circumstances and they allow it to consume their lives. For some life is never going to be right again. They wear their injury as a badge and you can’t get through a 20 minute conversation with them before their tragedy spills out. You are left trying to run from the conversation because it’s so depressing and you realize this person can’t quit living in the past. But you have to understand that it does not have to be your reality ever. Yes, events happen and are going to happen. Yes, there are going to be sad times and we need to acknowledge them but don’t build your home on events. Build your home on the solid ground of life well-lived, knowing that He who gave life will sustain it through it all. Let each room in your home tell a story that is as diverse and interesting as God designed you to be.
Resentment
I think this sums my thoughts up on the subject today!
“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die”
Synthetic
Synthetic: not natural or genuine; artificial or contrived:
We’ve all seen the American Idol try-outs and all of the other reality shows like America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance etc… We’ve seen some great talent and we’ve some people that leave you wondering, “What were they thinking?”
The ones that crack me up are the ones where their parents yell at the judges for being idiots because they didn’t acknowledge their child’s talent. I know we all think our kids are wonderful. We all think our kids are the best looking and best at everything but it simply isn’t reality is it? There are talents your child has that mine never will. That has to be okay with me. My children can’t be great at everything. Giving them a false sense of who they are doesn’t help them either. We set them up to fail. We over-inflate their egos and then when real life hits they can’t cope.
A couple of years ago I watched a season of American Idol like someone who watches a train wreck. My heart went out to one contestant, Sanjaya, because he seemed like a nice kid but he didn’t sing anywhere on the same level as the others. He became a joke to the world that was very cruel to him berating his singing. Then there was the Internet site that was dedicated to voting for the worst singer and he kept winning. But it was synthetic because it could not be sustained. When he finally lost, it broke his heart. You could see it and your heart really went out to him. His 15 minutes of fame were over but it came with a cost to him personally.
It’s the same thing that we are seeing with young Hollywood today. Most of them have been pumped up synthetically that they can’t handle life. So they are drinking and driving and going to rehab and flipping out and it’s all because they see themselves in a pseudo reality. They think they can walk on water without help. It’s not just Hollywood it seems to be pervasive throughout society. Around the Sanjaya time frame there were the Barbie Bandits who robbed a bank and went on a shopping trip is a great example of a synthetic self image. One of their mothers said that they didn’t deserve to go to jail because they were good girls. Do good girls rob banks to have shopping money? What if the teller had been ill with a weak heart? What if there had been a shoot-out? There are so many scenarios that they didn’t care about or didn’t weigh, in either case it’s still deserves jail time.
Synthetic is not real. It has no substance that you can build on. So instead we pump up the plastic. But what happens to plastic when you turn up the heat? It melts and as it does it molds into different shapes getting smaller and smaller. It ends up nothing but a small piece of nothing it resembled in the first place.
In life you win some and you lose some and you get up either way and keep moving forward. There is nothing sadder than a person who lives out the rest of his life in his past glory trying to recapture that win again. Instead, God says we move from glory to glory. Sadder still is the person who is stuck in his loss and refuses to try again.
There is a real life with real pitfalls and real successes. We need to remember that even our kids have to follow rules because that is authentic. He understands that true winners are hard workers who have learned strategy and who play within the guidelines set before them. Synthetic winners are only winners when the environment is manipulated falsely and you are able to keep the temperature ambient. Eventually things in your arena heat up and the meltdown begins. Learn to be authentic. That is something that stands no matter the circumstance.
Addiction Is Not A Disease
If I hear someone else say they have the disease of alcoholism or drug addiction I will scream. Maybe not really scream out loud but internally I will be screaming. Addiction is not a disease. A disease is as described in Merriam Websters as
a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms
Pregnancy is a nine month curable disease. It impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms. Cancer is a disease, diabetes is a disease. You could not go up to a pregnant woman, a cancer patient, a kidney dialysis patient and say, “Well, there is this residential treatment facility and with a some counseling and a decision to quit this behavior, we can cure your disease.” It doesn’t work that way.
Addiction is a poorly made choice.
God gave you free will. Period. Read it. It’s found in Genesis, right in the beginning when he gives (man) you the world and everything in it and says, subdue it. That means you are in charge of everything. Dr. Myles Munroe says it best when he says if you were supposed to have dominion over the tobacco leaf then why does it have dominion over you? Why are you allowing it?
Addiction is a poorly made choice. I said that already I know but I want you to read it again. You have control over it. You decided to give your control over to a thing. The thing didn’t overtake you, you allowed it.
You have the power to change choices. I’ve never met anyone who chose to get cancer with the exception of those addicted to cigarettes and even they thought they were an exception to the rule.
You have the power over the addiction.
Choose wisely. It always starts with a choice.
Soul Esteem
Mary Hollingsworth coined the phrase soul esteem and when I first read it I loved it. It spoke to me on so many levels. I believe that we as a society have put so much effort on self- esteem that we think it’s the end all to our exsitence. There are things that bring you so much more than the absorption of focus on self.
The word esteem means to regard with respect. How many of us respect our soul? If your soul is the core of your being then what are you doing to build it up and to fortify it? As a follower of Christ I fortify my soul through prayer, through the meditation of the word of God, through friendship with other believers, through books that provoke thought and through the media in various forms. I wade through vast amounts of information on what is happening in the world and how that affects us all and how it infringes or goes along with my thought process.
Let’s talk honestly though, how many have no time because other things take priority in their life? On-line gaming, television and the normal distractions of life keep us from taking care of our soul. What is more important than that though? The bible says;
1 John 1:2 – Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers
So the principle here is that our body be in good health just as our soul be in good health. It means that there are certain things that make my soul weak, sick and poor just as there are things that make my health weak, sick and poor.
What are some things that make my soul healthy other than the things already mentioned above? Helping others makes my soul esteem rise. The feeling that I contributed in a small way to the world that I live in makes my soul prosper. It is not just about the things I do for myself but it’s in the reaching out to others that gives us a sense of purpose. At the core of our being we are relational. We are connected to each other and to deny that in our selfish actions is to deny a big part of who we were created to be. We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘it did my heart good’. Reaching out to help others actually helps us. I’ve seen depression cease as people reach out to others. They find a purpose other than a focus on their own lack is and it makes a transformation happen in their life.
Getting plenty of rest makes us less stressed out and they add the well being of our soul. Learning to be content in our lives and not always striving for that next best thing helps our soul. Getting out into nature for a walk and taking a look at God’s creation with a fresh perspective helps our soul stay healthy. Getting together with friends and laughing and talking makes you feel good. Learning to rejoice in other’s blessings are all things that help your soul esteem.
Don’t let your soul get weary and old. Revitalize, renew and refresh your soul as often as you can. You will be a better human being for it.
This Christian Believes In Evolution
Yes, you read that right. I believe in evolution. I don’t believe that I am a descendant of an ape but I do believe that I have choice to either evolve in my life or atrophy. The second option just doesn’t seem like an option to me. No, I can unequivocally say to atrophy or get stuck isn’t even in the thought process of my life.
So, I read, I listen, I watch, I search out wisdom. I want to be learning something on the day I take my last breath. I don’t think that I will ever achieve nirvana and complete enlightenment, but I want to go out a whole lot smarter than I came in. I’m not content to just believe something because someone told me it was so, I want to know it for myself. I plan to be a student forever.
I also work on myself, not just intellectually but emotionally as well. I want to find a balance in life. Where there are too many deadlines and stress in a life, there is a shortening of life where eventually you meet your own deadline in the form of a flatline because of a heart attack or high blood pressure or a stroke. I have the ability in my hands to shorten my days and I don’t plan to do that. For this to happen, I must plan my life and I must take control of my health. This means that I must balance my life between the world of my work and my personal time. I can’t let either consume me. This was a hard lesson to learn but I believe I’ve come to a peace within myself.
1 Corinthians 13:11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
While many Christians are consumed with the earthly debates of rapture and end-time prophesy and their opinion on pre/post/mid, I don’t even care. God isn’t here yet and I have work to do. I know that whatever God decides whether it be pre/post or mid I will be secure in Him. In the meantime, there is an urgency to find out what my destiny and purpose is and then to fulfill that purpose. There are people who need someone to talk to about their problems, I am a good listener. There are people who need a meal. I am a good cook and I have in my hands a network of resources to buy some groceries or get some help. There are people who need a coat for winter. I’m not above asking someone to help with an extra coat. There are babies who need strong arms to hold them and love them, and I am capable of that. There are animals who need our help and humanity and I have a heart for that as well. There are just too many things that need my mind to be focused on them. For me to be worried about at which point my Lord decides to take me out is just a waste of time. One day God will reveal to me all I need to know. For now, I have work and love to give and I have my part of this whole picture called life on earth, to live out.
So yes, I believe in evolution. So what about you, are you evolving?
Romans 12:2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
That Stinks! The Power Of Negativity
Have you ever been around a person whose attitude just stinks? They are negative all the time and no matter how positive you stay, they have something that can dampen your fire? Their life’s perspective isn’t one of joy but one of impending doom.
What causes them to be negative all the time? I think for some it comes from a feeling that if they think negatively about situations and don’t get their hopes up then they are not disappointed when they don’t get what it is they thought they might. My husband is usually a positive guy but get him ready for vacation or trip of any kind and a couple of days before he begins to get quiet and moody. Why? Because he convinces himself that this vacation is doomed, that it won’t be fun like the others we’ve been on or that something will happen at church to keep us from going. This negative talk keeps him from getting his hopes up in case he is disappointed. Crazy? You bet! However, some people don’t just live moments of their lives this way, they live their whole lives this way.
Have you ever watched the Debbie Downer skits on SNL? Everyone is happy and she has a negative word that eventually brings everyone down. We all know people like this, they are never happy about anything. They have the ability to sober a room with a sentence. I don’t think they intentionally want people to feel down like they do I just don’t think they give it much thought. If you are a person who is easily influenced or bent toward negativity then limit your time in the company of others who share this bent.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Matthew 12:34 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
So it seems that the reason negativity in speech exists is that is flowing out of the negative heart of that person. Whether that person was hurt profoundly and now sees the world as harsh, horrible, and out to get them or whether they were born with a negative bent towards life, they are speaking out of what is going on within their own mind.
This helps us to deal with them as you see that their negative talk is not because they want to bring us down, rather it’s a byproduct of what is going on within them. Can you imagine how utterly sad to live your life always thinking something bad is going to happen? To see life as negative and that there is nothing to look forward to? Life is so great, even in the hard times, that I can’t imagine not having the faith that things will get better as the general thought process of life and that there is something better right around the corner for me. Yet, for the negative person, that something better isn’t coming because even if it’s a blessing there is a failure to recognize it because they are only looking for the negative and they miss the positive.
Then there are those for whom if they conceded that this was good, whatever “this” happened to be in their life would be to miss out on the next greater thing. For them it’s a process of not wanting to settle and instead missing it all. For these people they have never been able to find contentment in their own soul. Can you imagine a life where the good in it was always missed as you waited for the next best thing? That is a tragedy. Does this not break your heart? They live their lives in a way that the great parts of life will be missed because they are looking down the road not to see the positive but to catch the negative.
So the next time you are in the presence of the Debbie Downer in your life, take a moment to point out the positive. Refuse to go down the trail of negativity with them. Refuse to let them get you down. Refuse to accept their negative word over your situation. Begin to speak life into their lives. Instead of walking out with the stench of negativity in your nostrils, speak a positive word into their life. They may counter with a negative but refuse to accept it. Speak life, speak positive and refuse to let the stink get on you!
Pastor Susan 