Distractions

 

So very many ways to get off track...'prone to wander Lord I feel it...prone to leave the God I love'. I feel this deeply. There seems to be a pull in taking our eyes off Jesus every which way you turn. Everyday things happen innocently and before you know it you're smacked up side the head with a huge problem. If it's not your own dire need of help and wisdom, it's a friend, brother, sister, husband or child that is overwhelmed within his/her soul.

If we aren't willing to recognize the things that keep us wandering lost, confused, frustrated, and in a constant state of dither...well then, my friend, you shall never have peace. And a Christ follower should be at peace. There should be a calm and joy hanging around his aura. Not perpetual harm and injury being done to self and others. Such as be the case when one is distracted from Jesus.

So life has a way of taking you back home. Home to your roots and beginnings and the very core of your life. I recently went back and discovered this truth. I went home to Wisconsin for an aunt's funeral. The same roads and buildings revisited, forever riveted in my mind without my knowing it was there. 25 years is a long time to wait to go back, but if a place and time can stand still, my hometown does it proud.

The people and relationships grounded in those beginnings felt and smelled the same. Familiar with no amount of strangeness. This shocked me. I expected a certain level of newness, as if the world in which I grew up in had modernized and upgraded. Since leaving I have been adapting to each change that life brought to me, husband, new communities, cultures, countries, children, achievements, careers, etc... so I assumed the place where I grew up also had changed and morphed into something completely different.

Maybe it did. This could be one of those full circle moments where you discover that people are people are people. Or your roots are your roots are your roots. 

When it came down to conversation and listening, it was clear that we all fight the same battles. That we all get caught up in the fight of life and let it destroy us or transform us. That we all make choices to move forward in forgiveness and grace or to hang out in the past of anger and bitternesses in the sins of our youth. 

Coming home to my current hometown, to my husband and children and going back to my usual community routine was with a new perspective, yet not new. It felt though, that I could see things more clearly in terms of time and space. I understood better how to stand back and look at the part of life that was happening and prioritize how much energy should be going into it. Suddenly it no longer was a big deal if I could figure out the why's and where's and what's of life.

With clarity I feel led to listen to other's perspective; with grace I am understanding that everyone has a different story, often about the same event. I cannot be specific, because I love my people, but I heard many versions of the same stories or scenarios, and felt giddy with calm and inner knowing that it is not at all like each person saw it or said it. It never is. It was their version of a glimpse. Their perspective. Only God knows how much of their version is correct. Because we all respond or react depending on the lessons learned or the trauma incurred. We are all broken people in at least one or two places in our hearts.

Which led me to this very basic truth. All stories and current problems should be well bathed in the presence of Jesus and His word before the telling of it. And if you must hear and listen to someone telling their story, all the details and disturbing parts, because that is how some people roll, listen with grace and compassion and kindness. This is why Jesus gave us to each other. We need to say what we're feeling, to sort out the hard stuff, to find someone safe to confide in, and we need to listen to the broken messy hearts to bring their stories back to front and center.

We also need to learn how to listen and care without encouraging someone to go on and on... stuck. The point of Jesus' way of listening is to draw hearts toward healing and the Mighty power of Jesus. There must be a balance in the listening and the telling. 

People tend to get stuck on themselves when they are hurting. Our enemy needs as many self-pitying, martyr-syndrome-like people as he can acquire. He does this through people hurting people and through those same hurting people staying stuck in their stories of mistreatment. He wears those kinds of people down one little, sneaky event at a time. If he can get the people to retell their stories and the pain and suffering...and have that take precedence over the goodness dangling in front of their very noses...I imagine the devil dances around his fire quite satisfied with his work.

Another distraction is knowing and discussing someone else's vice or sin. Pointing out to as many people as possible what is wrong with that group of people or the individual who is obviously floundering in hurt, deciding their destiny because of the choices they have made and the path they are currently on...Well, this is not the work of the Holy Spirit, but a major distraction from what Jesus could be doing in your own heart if you would be able to drop all your finger pointing and righteous chatter. Washing yourself in the word of God should keep you humbled about your own proneness to wander. We should not take the time to listen or participate in those conversations. 

And then there are those that tell people like me with my introverted ways and dislike of conflict that I am afraid of calling things like they are and of burying my head in the sand, denying bare, bald facts. Not at all. Rather, I think we should concern ourselves with the things that concerns Jesus. 

I think we should spend time asking Him for wisdom in our conversations, seeking a peacemaker way to resolve our issues. I think the truth should set us free. I believe that if we spend less time on the problems and trials, discussing how awful it feels and predicting where it is going, we would free up our hearts and minds to glorify and seek the face of Almighty God in the things life brings to us. Our dependance on a Savior who heals us and redeems us and gives us strength for each new day would over ride any kind of horrible thing in our lives.

I want to shout to myself and the world so I really truly get in my head...

"Stop glorifying your problems and get your focus on to Creator God, Almighty God, Healer God. Redeeming Jesus, Loving Father, Abba Father, The Comforter, The One who resolves all things and makes them whole. The One who makes us whole."

Let me say it clearly. We don't have time for those distractions. Look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith...