Monday Musings

Tackling a few hard things today...because it Monday and I can.
Do you know, the harder I try to sort out life without writing things down, and the harder I try to be all mature and deal with things as they come without analyzing... like I assume most people do... the worse it gets! It's like trying to unravel the biggest ball of tangled yarn. Impossible.

I'll start with loneliness. I think surely it is a foreign word to some. I myself never knew what it meant until I got so busy trying to keep up while teaching school. I learned its true meaning in those years because I simply did not have the luxury of time and coffee chats and spaces of empty in which to meander away the hours in thought and meditations or even in listening. Every allotted moment was figured out for me.

Anyway...it appears it can become a habit. Because once I was in the habit of not talking to people as much, just staying busy was easier. Even after coming home. It became too exhausting to try to put what life threw at me into words out loud. It seemed like everyone else was fairly engaged and busy in their own worlds so why bother to express my heart to someone who possibly would be bored to death with my conundrums, quandaries, and battles of the mind? Again, it just feels easier to not explain. Also, there's always paper. That is why, I suppose, we have songs and poems and books to read.

So, I haven't figured out lonely. It has become an old familiar friend, like a worn tattered coat, but it also feels a bit like an enemy. I'm starting to have guilt and condemnation for having spent so much time in its company. Mother Theresa would be ashamed of me. Like Mother Theresa I'm praying for God to bring me into contact with others and their needs. So far it's been here at home. My husband and children need me to chat, listen, and love on them...I'm not very lonely after all.

OK. This subject is hard to name. Don't make blanket statements about Jesus and Faith and Love and expect to draw people to Christ. If you want to sell something, promote it. I've heard a lot of good teaching over the years in our churches but there has been the occasion that what I heard fell, oh so very flat, on my ears.

Instead of saying, "You should love your brother," make it real. Say, "Your brother seems broken today because he hasn't been very kind. Lets go see if he needs help with anything." Or...When your brother is treating you badly go see what you can do to make his day better. Instead of saying we should be more like Christ and less like the world, show us what being more like Christ looks like. Too often, I have heard the world described in detail as a method to showing why we shouldn't follow the world.That method only gets me more interested in the things of the world. If you want to show Christ, give details about Christ.

Talk about the facts that Jesus is there when you are at your lowest. How He fills you up when you are lonely. Tell how He heals and forgives and triumphs over the sin in your heart. Tell about His quiet miracles that He performs in your life daily. Tell about His goodness and love and comfort; how He restores your soul when you walk through the valley. Tell about His wisdom and strength.

That's all I have to say.