Taking…...a break before lunch. After taking a walk with my daughter this morning and cleaning out the mess in the fridge that I’m not sure what happened in there but is clean now, I decided I haven't written a blog post in a few days and want to, and even though it’s not Monday, somehow here on week six of these stay-at-home times the days are a little muddled together anyhow and a status update seems to be all I have mental energy for right now. So, here it is - a very Monday sort of post on this fine Tuesday.
Drinking….Constant Comment tea, my favorite. My husband, my hero, my go-out-in-public-so-no-one-else-in-the-house-has-to sweetheart couldn’t find any at the store, shelves still being a tad sparse at times, so I ordered some from Amazon. I now have plenty to last for the long haul, and I’m enjoying it. My sweet husband is retaining his awesome sense of humor in all of this. I got this text before he came home from the store that night, “We apologize as we may have had to substitute a few items….” Haha. I’m still laughing from that. Remember he’s always been so good about not taking things too seriously. His favorite phrase when we were dating and early married was, “Lighten up, Beck.” Hopefully I’ve gotten a little better through the years, as he hasn’t had to say that as often in recent years.
Reading….Behold the King of Glory: A Narrative of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ by Russ Ramsey. I am usually a little wary of books that make a narrative of scripture, but Tim Challies recommended this and several people I respect and trust endorsed it so I thought I’d try it. I’m liking it so far - he does a good job with scripture references and adding historical details about the time period without too much iffy speculation, and I’m enjoying reading it. I’m also reading The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis with my daughter as we continue our journey together through The Chronicles of Narnia. We’re having a great time reading them together, and I continually get choked up as I read them, no matter that I’ve read them uncountable times before. The end of The Silver Chair really gets to me when Caspian dies just as his son is reunited with him, then we get to see the other side in Aslan’s country. And I’m planning to start The Secret of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt, which is the sequel to The Letter for the King pretty soon also.
Scripture Memory….since last post when I mentioned what I’m going to be working on, I have worked some on it, but I need to focus more intensely. I’m working on Romans 8:37-39, and I have gotten up to Colossians 2:3. Once I get that firmed up this week, my hope is to continue to the next set of verses, Colossians 2:4-7 next week.
Feeling….a little distracted and still having a hard time sitting still to concentrate. Granted, I’m getting a lot of reading done, but I find that I allow social media to drain away more of my time and mental and emotional energy than I should. I’ve always struggled with that temptation, and it seems even harder now with all the general anxiety around us not to scroll, scroll, scroll looking for different news. I will say, I have discovered what a good thing the snooze function on Facebook is. You can snooze certain people for 30 days, and that allows you not to see their posts for that long but still remain connected. If a friend is on a tear about some conspiracy theory….snooze. If a friend is constantly sharing all the anxiety riddled click bait….snooze. If a friend is finding new and ever increasingly petty things to lecture us about and take offense about….snooze. If a friend is being the neighborhood police and lecturing us on why we need to be as anxious as they are….snooze. If a friend is constantly sharing scripture out of context and twisting it to share bad doctrine….snooze. After a while, it’s not quite as anxious a place to visit anymore until the snooze wears off.
Encouraged….my daughter and I have been taking long walks around the neighborhood together and it’s been a sweet time to talk with her and listen to what’s on her heart. I just so much enjoy her. Not only do I love her, I like her, too. Same with all my children. They are just pleasant people to know, and how kind God has been to allow me to be their mom and redeem the mistakes and sin and flaws in my parenting as He has graciously drawn them to Himself. My daughter shared with me how during their Sunday night online youth meeting, the middle school youth director talked to them about not letting entertainment become an idol and how subtle a thing that can be. He encouraged them to think about their habits and sources of entertainment and take one day this week and turn off one distracting source of entertainment, and every time they thought about turning it on or clicking on it to take time to pray. I think maybe I need to do that with Facebook and Twitter - my two biggest time wasters.
Thinking (get ready for a bit of a rant, and you may think I’m earning a, “lighten up, Beck”)….about something we saw on our walk today that disturbed me and I’m probably reading too much into. Someone had written what I’m sure they meant to be encouraging messages in chalk on the sidewalk. One said, “Trust in Jesus & in science & in the doctors and nurses.” Um. No. I can’t read the heart of the person who wrote it, and I’ll assume the best, but part of me reads it as a criticism of people of Christian faith. I will listen to the scientists and medical professionals and follow their educated advice, sure. But for all that, science is fallible. We’re seeing even in the six weeks this thing has been going strong here how often models and scientific data are revised and shift. Sure, I will follow reasonable physical distancing and guidance and listen to advice, but trust in them? Trust IN scientists and doctors and nurses? No. To phrase it the way that message is phrased? No. I think my problem was the word “in” and the implication that trusting in human wisdom is equal weight to trusting in Jesus. To me, to say to trust in something implies putting the weight of my hope in that thing I trust in. I can trust THAT what someone like a scientist or doctor says is as true as they’re able to be and helpful and worth listening to, but trusting IN them for my ultimate well-being? No. My trust in Jesus is ultimate. Only He is sovereign. He is the Creator, the very Word of God. He alone is infallible. He alone can save my soul. And, get this, He alone can determine whether someone will contract this virus or anything else and what the effect will be. We are not to be foolish and should listen to wise counsel and do our part to love others and protect where we can, but trust in science as I trust in Jesus? Absolutely not. I trust Him to grant wisdom to those who are studying this disease, and for those who are on the front lines to combat it and help those who are afflicted, and for our government officials who have very difficult decisions to make, whether they are trusting Him or not. Ultimately all of life is under the Providence of God who cares for His creation and loves His people. THAT is what I put my trust IN. I’m probably asking too much from a sidewalk chalk message, but that was what struck me in my gut as I walked by, feeling kind of offended by what I’m sure was meant as an encouraging message, but felt more like one of those lectures I’m getting oh, so tired of hearing from people who seem to think we should all be living more in fear of this virus than in fear of the One who controls even this virus.
Weight Loss Journey….and now for a lighter note, this is a new category for the status update, but I decided to use this stay-at-home time to try to lose some of the pesky pounds I’ve wanted to shed for quite some time now. In addition to taking walks with my daughter, we got out the old Wii Fitness Plus and we’ve been having fun with that - not intensive exercise, of course, but fun. I did find it annoying today, though when my Fitbit app needed an update and required me to sign in and then proceeded to completely erase the over 5000 steps I got on my walk this morning. Grrr. Anyway….. I’m also paying attention to what I eat and trying to make wiser choices, limiting sugar and lowering carbs and monitoring snacking. So far I’m down 2.5 pounds. Not much, but trending the right direction, and that was on a Monday morning after a weekend, so I’m encouraged.
And that’s probably enough for today. Happy Tuesday!
No comments:
Post a Comment