Things I Think…
1. I’ve been dealing with debilitating pain for close to two years now. Having tried all else, I felt led back to where I started…my long time chiropractor. Sure enough, after the first visit last week I felt significantly better…not healed,but hopeful. I tell you all of that because the difference between hopeful and hopeless is life itself…
2. I was reminded again today that social media has its blessings and curses. I follow some “celebrity “cats…cats whose owners share their life together online. Today one of those cats died…and it felt like I’d lost one of my own. We’re not equipped to carry all the heartache of the world…we have enough in our own lives. RIP Balam…you brought a lot of joy to a lot of people…
3. The fact that our pets have lifespans so much shorter than ours is a guarantee that there will be grief right around the corner. This will cause us to either not have pets so that we will spare ourselves the pain or we will learn to love furiously every day we have…
4. There will be a debate tonight…which I will ignore. The candidates will lie and demean each other and the listeners…I will listen in on the woodpeckers in the backyard debating where to store acorns for the winter…they are discussing matters of substance…
5. Chronic pain doesn’t make one more spiritual…it drains the life of the spirit from a person…and the only remedy is hope that the pain will remit…no matter what the doctors say, Christians always have reason for hope…
6. A single school shooting should grip the conscience of the nation like a presidential assassination…the fact that it doesn’t tells us the state of our conscience…
7. I’ve often wondered why we don’t see the healing power of the Spirit exhibited in the way the Scriptures record…I’ve also wondered why we haven’t seen that power exhibited as it was in the cases of Ananias and Sapphira…turns out the answer is the same for both scenarios…the Spirit has pretty much left the building…
8. Modern day signs and wonders movements want to recapture those Spirit filled days without paying the price required …thus, all that’s left is fraud and deception advertising what they cannot deliver…
9. By definition, holiness demands separation…when it demands separation from that which we find needful or compelling, we will invariably choose to be unholy to keep what we desire…
10. “Church” by the New Testament definition is started with a deep commitment to Christ and to each other in the corporate body…which leads me to think that very few are really interested in being part of a church today…
Michael,
A good chiropractor is worth their weight in gold. Also, good chiropractors will work with massage therapists to coordinate their care and to relieve not just the spinal issues, but the associated muscle issues. If your chiropractor doesn’t do that, you may want to research it.
R’as al Ghul,
I can’t afford the massage component at the moment, but I have a great therapist when I’m able again.
I’m hopeful that between the two of them I’ll get back to some semblance of “normal”…
#5 – THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! Someone very close to me deals with pains that is borderline chronic, and had a fellow believer (2 of them actually) try to spiritualize it saying that this person has chronic pain because God is allowing it to bring them closer to him. Thanks for verbalizing what I have subconsciously suspected for a while, but didn’t want to admit.
#4 – I always find it fun and entertaining to watch, while the world burns with anger and animosity, our two pups furiously try to reach under the couch or fridge for a small treat that got away.
Dan,
That thinking you reference is actually terribly harmful to suffering people…it makes me really, really angry.
Michael, the one close to me suffers a great deal of resentment to God and these people who dole out that advice (because that is what it is). I understand it more and more now how offensive this thinking is.
dan,
thank you for hearing me…it’s not only deeply offensive, it’s really bad theology…
#6 Because I am a teacher, because every now and then I cry over a school shooting, because I don’t understand why anyone would give a lethal weapon to a child (especially one who had already threatened to shoot up a school), because I have to do lockdown drills with my students and pretend that it would probably never happen here, and I am so tired of hearing that “we are sending thoughts and prayers” I could scream. We need to monitor the guns and get help for troubled kids.
( |o )====:::
Sorry for the double post.
Kamala Harris will not lie.
Prove me wrong.
😁
I have so little to add to the chronic pain issue, I wish that Christians would just be quiet first. Then pray & respond as leaded by the Spirit. Sometimes that’s a hug, sometimes that’s dinner, prayer, sitting with someone, laughing together, or nothing. I work in Mental Health/Disability circles and it’s a similar issue. You don’t have to over spiritualize every human malady.
The strange thing about “Signs and Wonders” is that I know plenty of people who believe God supernaturally intervened with health or healing — either personally or someone they know. They run from MacArthur-esque Baptists to Catholics to Anglican to CMA to Lutherans. But not many of them were seeking out the “movement” that wants the trademark on the work of the Spirit.
Seeing the debate tonight, or at least parts. Praying for a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College just so it’s on record neither of them deserve it.
Job’s 3 “friends”
Michael @ your 2:17 PM,
That’s good to hear. The tag team of the 2 should help quite a bit.
G,
Kamala Harris did indeed lie last night. Here is fact checking of some of her claims from the debate, showing that some were outright false and others which were unclear or misleading (which often displays the same spirit of dishonesty and deception), while, of course, verifying the veracity of many others. Thinking that just about any of our most prominent politicians of our day do not lie or will not lie, given how easily fact checking can and does expose their many, many lies, is not a reasonable approach.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-kamala-harris-donald-trumps-1st-presidential/story?id=113567997
With that said, seemingly almost every time Trump opened his mouth last night, a stream of ridiculous derogatory lies came streaming out of it.
#3 – I lived through two generations of dogs from 1998 to 2023. A German Shepherd for 10 years and a Husky for 15. While they went from puppy to old, twice, I went from my 40s to 60s. I decided no more dogs fore me. I can’t commit to taking another dog on that journey that could go into my 80s.
#8 – I’m tired just thinking about this.
to dovetail off Terry’s comment on #8… above:
Michael, when you stated ” and deception advertising ” in #8…my first thought was those stupid, glossy, shiny adds for “prophetic conferences” in their various rags.
This place was my spiritual home for years. Now, I’ve found another spiritual home, a small church that is just about the only church I feel comfortable in right now.
This is another home for me, too, that I’ll hopefully check in on regularly from now on.
I’m at a crossroads. I’m hoping God releases me from my job, and leads me to another that pays the same that has a better schedule – and that isn’t a toxic, hellish, satanic corporate environment. (Hell can take many forms, including a nice-looking corporate one)
I trust the Lord, but I want to be free. I don’t want to have to agonize over ‘do I ask God for permission to do every single possible thing’ that I did years ago. I just want to live, and be free, and be right with God and led by Him.
BrianD,
I’m glad you’re still here and thrilled you have found a local church.
I’m a reluctant customer of your current employer and pray that god gives you a better gig soon.
#9 – OOF!!!
I can turn a deaf mind to compelling pretty well… but the needful can be difficult to define sometimes…
Michael, so glad to hear you are finding some relief from your constant struggle with pain. I need to get into a chiropractor myself, and I finally have some insurance that at least partly covers it. Also started a twice-daily stretching routine, which is starting to help with back/hip/leg pain caused by spinal bone spurs.
I still miss the German Shepherd we had when I was a kid, decades ago. She had a one track mind, and that one track was Fetch. If you propelled any object through the air, she would attempt to retrieve it (had to tie her up each spring while we spread manure on the garden…)
Still feel the ache of the loss.
Hey Brian! I’d love to hear more about your current church and why it fits for you. I’m stuck in the search and finding nothing. Getting frustrated.
Michael,
I think that day is coming sooner than later. I hope it comes tomorrow, although I would like to find another job first though.
If and when it happens, if I can find another provider, I will no longer have use for my employer’s services so I will fire them on the spot 🙂
2) A few reasons:
a) I’m suspicious of other churches, especially corporate megachurches. When I went there, Six Flags Over Jesus had a corporate feel that didn’t bother me at the time but would today. S – – – – – – has the stench of Mars Hill/Acts29 hipster Calvinistic authoritarianism. And even the church I got saved at is large enough that I feel like a number. With Six Flags, S – – – – – – , and other churches I had the feeling of being alone in a crowd and walking to my car after service alone. I grew to hate that feeling. It’s a reason I don’t particularly like Sundays to this day.
b) I feel at home. It’s small, the people are nice and welcoming, and I’ll just say there are several people I know there. It’s charismatic and spirit-filled, a tradition I’m familiar with. The preacher also preaches a grace-centered approach. I don’t think I necessarily agree with all the theology nor would with all of their political/cultural takes (not that it ever comes up), and I think God is much bigger than the narrow bubble our tradition puts Him in, but it’s an approach I can live with right now.
c) I need to be around people who care about me, unlike work, where no one really does. My isolationism just won’t work anymore. God is calling me out of it and to fellowship with other people who are real and genuine and seem to love the Lord and aren’t whatever personality the corporate evangelical world would say a Christian is.
d) God is doing a work in me. He’s reconciling me to family, helping me step out of my isolationism, and helping me be holier a little bit at a time 🙂 He’s helping me be kinder to people, especially family. He’s helping me pray, read the Bible, change what I listen to and read.
Yet, I have that fundamentalism speaking to me to retreat completely into the Christian bubble, and I don’t think I have it in me to pray constantly, read the Bible an hour a day, and consume only Christian media 24/7.
I also don’t have it in me to listen to Russell Moore when he tells me things like who I vote for has eternal consequences, or to Victory Channel when it tells me to vote MAGA. I have an independent streak, and like to think for myself, and am trying to submit that to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Plus, I still like The Office, comic books, and secular music 🙂
Michael, I hope if I ever get to talk to you on the job, I’m led by the Spirit and work to give you the best service possible, just like every other customer going forward.
BrianD,
Is it possible to like The Office and be saved? Just kidding, I like it too.
Sounds like God is working on several fronts in your life.
Josh, sorry! Did I answer your question?