It seems that more and more we have become a society that builds
our life’s decisions and choices on quick sayings to take the “work” out of
living – to make the more challenging aspects palatable, doable, quick, easy,
and mindless. But I don’t believe God
does anything quickly, easy and mindless concerning us, and since He created us
in His image, we are to do everything that we do with thought and intention, “as unto the
Lord.” One of my favorite movie trilogies is The
Lord of the Rings. In part two “The Two
Towers” Merry and
Pippin escape from the Orcs just to fall into the branches of Tree Beard, the
leader of the Ents (trees). They explain
to Tree Beard the war that has engulfed Middle Earth and they need all the help
they can get to fight the enemies Sauron and Saruman. Well, Tree Beard calls a council meeting of
the Ents to decide if the trees will join the war between the humans and
physical manifestations of evil spirits, and he says it takes them a long time
to say anything that’s worth saying, so the meeting of the trees could take
some time. I always laugh at this part
no matter how many times I watch it because it’s so funny. To me. J Anyhoooo, you get my point, and so does Tree Beard:
if anything is worth doing, then it is
worth the time it takes to do it and
to do it well, and to do it right, with gusto and with all of one’s faculties
present. This is the character of
God. He put His entire self into
creating earth and the creatures inhabiting earth. He actually breathed Himself into the man, something He did not do to the animals, so
that should tell us how valuable to God we really are.
But if God could ever be said to have operated according to a
cliché, I would dare say it is found in Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31- “And God saw
that it was good (fitting, pleasant) AND He approved it.” Amplified
Bible. The King James Bible records that
God said “It is good.” Now that’s
a real cliché! Hmmmm. But this was after each instance of doing
something creative, some kind of work.
Not before, not in place of it, not to make it easier or to get it over
with or to get through it mindlessly.
God put His heart and soul into everything
He did and He continues to put His entire self into the affairs of His
creation. So when did we begin living
off of clichés and acronyms? What is the
purpose of them?
I understand that many of the Psalms in the Hebrew language are
written in, or as an Acrostic in which the first letter of each sentence or
phrase, or verse form a special word or phrase much like an acronym, but I
cannot speak more in-depth about the Acrostic because I am not an expert. Therefore we know that the idea of the
acronym is not new, however our fast-paced society often moves us to cut things
short so we can move through life at lightening speeds. This is not
the purpose of the Acrostic.
Anyhooo . . .
Acronyms and clichés do have a good purpose, but my argument is
that as usual we tend to go overboard with a good thing. Many of us have taken normal and “good” things
(and some not so good) in life to the extreme, creating disorders and
addictions all over the place. For
instance, to deal with FEAR some Christian created his own definition of FEAR
as “False
Evidence Appearing Real”.
But God created the “fight or flight” response
to help humans stay alive in the face of REAL dangers. So now why in the world would we want to shut
down a perfectly “good” gift with
an acronym and cause ourselves much harm by saying all fears are to be treated
as false evidence? Maybe there really is a truck coming and the flight
response needs to be triggered by fear to get you to move, quickly! This is
just one simple example. Also, what about fire? We
need a healthy respect of this much needed tool and reality in society, but
respect in and of itself is not enough when fire becomes life-threatening. To avoid injury and harm we need another
trigger called FEAR to put some direction, action and speed to our feet so that
we can live to respect (and not fear fire), another day. J
Everything
has its place and purpose on the earth, including FEAR. The wisest man in the world, King Solomon
said “To
everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under
heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1. And he goes on to list several of the see-saw
scenarios of life – “a time to be born, a time to die”, etc. Even though he does not list fear and a time
not to fear, he does list those real life incidents which for many years have
caused humans to not just operate out of
fear, but to live in a state of
fear. Fear of what may or may not
happen. Fear of the worst case
scenario. So because of the state of
fear we have to have insurance (l’assurance en Francais) for everything, a Backup Plan (i.e a Plan B) and
a backup plan for the backup plan. But
what happens when all of the backup plans have been backed up against a wall
and you find yourself between a rock and a hard place? Just boxed in? And what happens when all of your friends and
family are also backed-up and hemmed in?
What happens when the bank can’t give you a loan because their loan
(What is “Bail out” Alec for
200? Euros, dollars, yen, pounds, francs) J has been
denied because the Federal Reserves are now depleted? FEAR?
But why? Whatever for? (I know, I ended that question with a
preposition. Ugh!) What will it accomplish? Can someone please send me an acronym or
cliche to save me?
Well, hopefully it will drive us to the feet of Jesus where we
will learn (if we would learn to stay there like Mary did) that “God has not
given us a SPIRIT of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” [II Timothy
1:7] The Amplified Bible describes FEAR as
timidity, cowardice of craven, and cringing and fawning fear. But is the evidence false? Non, pas du tout. We would be irresponsible to treat it as such
because this situation is bleak and impossible on the human side. But there always is a way out, even though we
may not see it with our natural eyes, for the only way to see it will be by the
Spirit of God, Who gives power (enablement), love, and a sound mind (keep your
head on straight, don’t panic.).
It is true – living in a state or spirit of fear will not help
us at all for we are not created to live this way. But neither does regarding our situation as “false
evidence appearing real” when it is in fact very real. When the worst case scenario is the REAL
scenario, it is not just appearing
real. It must be FACED = Faced, Addressed, Confronted, Evaluated,
and Dealt with. J And all of
this takes time and work of some sort. It cannot be mindlessly or quickly and
flippantly treated like singing through the ABCs song. FEAR is just an acronym revealing the problem,
a noun. If we’re going to live by
clichés and such let’s create ones which provide solutions. (I need a verb please!!) So here’s another
acronym for dealing with Real Life – FACE+D
it head-on in the presence of God and receive His instructions. But then you must be willing to do what He
says, otherwise don’t ask Him for His help.
Why ask for help from God if you’re not going to do what He says? Will the real Megamind please stand up?
Daniel found himself in a difficult situation, between a rock
and a lion. The three Hebrew boys found
themselves in a heated situation, but could not take a sauna because there was
no water for steam. David was a runaway
king before he could sit on his throne (playing musical chairs without his
flute). And the list goes on. Each of them had experienced fear – the Bible
records this in several of David’s Psalms.
But neither of them ignored it, neither could they treat their
circumstances or their fears as false evidence, for they were real. But because they knew their God (Daniel
3:16-30) they did exploits! And really,
all they did was just BE there and FACE it in the presence of the Lord, making
a stand for God in their crisis. Not
creating the problem themselves, but yes seeking refuge in the character of God
as their shield. “For Thou oh
Lord art a shield for me . . .”; “He/She who
dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty.” Psalm 91:1.
Dwelling in the secret place is not passive, but it is “actively” obeying
God from the inside out. Planning in
your heart and soul to obey His every command whether He says “yes” or “no”, “wait” or “go”. You have no Plan B
based on what you want or can see, for if you do, then you are not dwelling in His secret place, but in your tree
house. It is in the secret place, as we
abide that we are empowered by His love for us and our mind is renewed to FACE
our situation with the eyes of God. FEAR
cannot stay in the secret place for perfect love (and God is Love) casts out
all fear. Yippee!!! Feel like swinging from a tree limb now.
WWJD – What Would Jesus Do?
I do love this Acrostic because it stops you in your tracks to think on
Jesus. But for most of us it motivates
us to DO something based on not only the character and actions of Christ, but
on what we know is right. However,
rarely have I ever seen or heard this acrostic answered in this way: “Jesus would
spend time with the Father FIRST to SEE what the Father would SAY, because
Jesus DID ONLY what He SAW the Father DO.” He would not lean unto His own understanding,
and neither would He allow His divinity to take over and carry Him away. No, He would wait on the Lord too. He would commit His ways to the Father and
allow God to direct His steps. He would trust
in the Lord and acknowledge God in ALL of His ways. He would not live depending upon acronyms,
clichés and acrostics to get through life.
He would seek God with His whole heart, soul and might in everything and
come through every situation victoriously accomplishing the will and purpose of
the Father all the way to the cross, through the grave, down the hell (yes I
meant to say it this way), and back up to heaven.”
Let’s not “cliché” our lives
away, or rollerblade and surf on acronyms.
Let’s live intentionally in every moment no matter how difficult or
boring, fun or delightful. Life is not
meant to be escaped so savor the moment, for this too shall pass. FACE+D
it. J
Peace.
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