Wrong news
When you understand a topic and know the facts of how things work you realize that when news you watch, read, or listen to is not right about that topic. So, what do they get wrong on topics you know nothing about?
Category: Life
Do right
Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
-2 Thessalonians 3:13 (NRSVCE)
Do we get weary in doing right? It’s easy to become weary when we seem to be the only one who is doing right in the world. When “wrong is the new right” and we are deemed living on the outside. There is no one there to encourage us but we still are not alone.
Sale
What a wonderful invention the sale: garage, yard, estate, moving, stoop, lot, family, basement, town wide, highway, jumble, rummage, church. There are many possible locations for the sale of all the stuff you don’t want and it’s open to the public. Buyer can try to bring the price down or pay sticker price, it’s up to you. Rich or poor can sell and rich or poor have a chance to buy. No license required but in some cases permission. You might organize it on your own or with a friend or as a town. It’s usually on Friday and Saturday for about five hours and hopefully it won’t rain. And on occasion the buyer might find a treasure although that’s gotten harder with web search and auctions sites. It can certainly beat an auction where you have to wait for hours for the one item you want in a box with stuff you don’t want and in the end you don’t bid high enough anyway.
Why that song?
How do you find new music to listen to? One way is through video. Either from a show’s theme song or the soundtrack of a movie. Finding new singers and composers for that one song that you hear is so rewarding. The more we like the show the stronger the connection to the song. So that makes me wonder, would I have liked the song if I heard it on its own first or is it liked because it’s from the show and brings happy memories?
If He came now.
If Jesus came now as he did 2000 years ago the liberals would crucify him for not being woke enough and the conservatives would crucify him for not being Christian enough.
And so it is…
Life is good. It’s been peaceful and I’ve been grateful for it. Yes, there is guilt in that because the world is burning both figuratively and literally. We can pray about it but what else? Saying peace be with you while not providing for our neighbor’s need is wrong yet there is a loss at what material support I can give to many. There are other avenues in our sphere we can directly help and that’s the best to find. There is still helplessness in my heart for those many.
Misguided prophet
If you claim the world will end tomorrow, and make that claim every day, sooner or later you will be right. Why would anyone want to live a life like that?
Preparing for a disaster by having extra food, water, medical supplies, etc. is a great idea. Whether there is a natural disaster, power outage, or other calamity, it’s great to be prepared. Not many people can afford extreme prepping where you plan for every disaster, which really isn’t realistic or possible.
The issue is the doomsday prepper prophets. The one’s who post a video or blog post every week or more and rant about how they “see the signs” of what’s coming next. And what’s coming next has a broad range from financial disaster, weather prediction, or war. These events are all going to happen within a month or less. You might watch the video and become afraid (or annoyed). Then you notice that the said prediction was posted two months ago. Of course, it didn’t come true.
Then there are the religious preppers. They prep for a disaster and are ready to fight off anyone that comes near them. They spread fear about how you will lose your life if you don’t prep, you’re going to be one of the first to die. Either they believe in God or they don’t. What are they so afraid of?
People talk as if these events never happened before. Maybe not on a larger scale but that would be expected since there are more people on the planet and they are interdependent.
Eclipse of the Love
There are some days that make it difficult to keep going. Like life has stopped moving. Even the flowers have nodded off to rest. Despite all that, Love is above all and the most powerful.
Love can be eclipsed by fear or anger (either fully or partially) which might be caused by something external (lunar eclipse) affecting us. It could be something that is created by us (solar eclipse). It’s our choice to hide the Love, to keep it blocked. We might not want it to be our choice. We fight to remove the block and pray for relief. We pray for the eclipse to end.
Notice though, that during the eclipse, the Love is still there. Some of it can still be seen around the fear, around the anger. This is where we get our reminder that Love is there. This is where we find the hope we need during the darkness.
And like nature’s eclipse, the block passes, and we see the full Love.
Fruits without a tree
There’s a lot of business, media, self-help professionals in the world. We can call them “secular prophets”. They speak of ways to live life in a “troubled world” with “unprecedented happenings” whether it’s pre/post-COVID. There is, in general, one path these prophets take: wanting the Fruits of the Spirit without the Spirit. They preach what Jesus preaches without mentioning him. They want the ways of God without God, the fruit without a tree.
What these prophets say is important and true but they leave out the source. And without that source what they say falls short. There is still division among the people, pride of who is in charge, no cooperation. It is artificial fruit because it doesn’t come from a tree. It tastes similar but the nutrients are missing.
Humans are more than the sum total of their projects accomplished. Running an infinite game may be a good mindset but not thinking there is infinite growth when there’s finite resources.
What we can do is take the expounded ideas and graft them into the tree to bring them to fruition.
Sadness
(This isn’t about medically diagnosed depression or other psychological issues. Although, it could be for some. Seek professional help.)
Are people sad or so addicted to trying to be happy or fear of sadness that they don’t know it’s OK to be sad? And that there can be a happiness in being sad. There’s such an addiction to being happy it’s sickening in itself. Hearing people talk about topics of their life, like relationships, there’s usually the friend that says “Yes, but are you happy?”. As if the answer to that makes it OK that your life is a train wreck morally. Or that he only hits you once a week which is less than the last guy.