Light--Catching Fire!!!

This blog was birthed after a conversation regarding the movie Catching Fire. I will say that when I first read the book The Hunger Games, I, too, was appalled by the thought of teens killing teens. I had read the book because the librarian gave it to my 11-year-old daughter to read I was monitoring her reading. That was five years ago when the book first came out. Since then our society has seen a serious decline in morality with reports of teenagers killing or violently attacking random victims of any age for sport—the knockoutgame, a child killed in his stroller after the teens robbed his mother, a college student shot in the back because teenagers were bored, and many more.

 

 

 

I had taken my, now, 16-year-old daughter to see Catching Fire and I posted on Facebook what a good movie it was. I expressing that Catching Fire opened the door for my daughter and I have a discussion about teen violence in the world around us and that it only takes one determined to do the right thing to turn everything around. The conversation grew until there were about three or four parents on each side of the issue. I was, at one point, accused of allowing Hollywood to teach my daughter morals. One, I didn't use the movie to SKIRT my responsibility of teaching my daughter, but rather as a tool to ASSIST me. Two, I'm not talking about an 11-year-old. She's 16! She has the basics down by now.

 

Other parents in the discussion brought up Phil 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." I think, too often, some Christians use this verse as an excuse to hide away in a little bubble while ignoring the world around them. It's easier to just surround themselves with people who think like they do and turn a blind eye to the violence that is on the rise.

 

That lead me to Matt 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house."

 

Light is such an interesting thing. Many people have never experienced utter darkness—the can't-see-your-hand-right-in-front-of-your-face kind of darkness. I have a few times when visiting Ruby Falls and Mammoth Cave. For some reason they always find it necessary to turn the lights off for a minute. It's powerful, and scary! This is the kind of darkness that those in hell will experience (referred to as "outer darkness" in Matt 8:12, 22:13, and 25:30).

The darkness in your bedroom, which isn't as dark as utter (outer) darkness even if you have it as dark as possible, is comforting. We find peace in that darkness because we find rest there. When someone suddenly flips the light on, our first reaction is to cover our eyes and then yell at the person who invaded our resting place. It literally hurts our eyes!

When the sun is beating in your bedroom window and someone flips the light on you barely notice, if you notice at all. Maybe it was the sound of the light switch more than the actual light that alerted you to the fact that the light has been turned on. The dome light in your car comes on when you open the door whether it's daytime or nighttime, yet you only notice it at night. My point is this, you must have darkness for the light to make a difference and the darker it is, the more impact the light will have. An interesting observation however, is that darkness NEVER overpowers light, but light ALWAYS overpowers darkness. The dark doesn't even try to “fight” back. It just submits to the light.

 

The Bible refers to sin as darkness and Jesus as light (Job 12:22 and Luke 2:32). The sin in this world is similar to the darkness in your bedroom. You can see a little light here and there, but the darkness is pretty overwhelming until your eyes adjust to it. Once you adjust and get comfortable, the sudden shedding of light is an assault and your first reaction is to cover your eyes, to remain in the darkness. Sometimes, even yelling at the person who revealed the light. It invades our resting place. It hurts at first, but you will eventually adjust to it, if you are willing to pull your hand off of your eyes. However, if you are sitting in your bubble with no one around you except other light-bearers, your light is useless.

 

Christians are not the light. We are merely bearers of the Light. John 1:8 "John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light." Jesus is the Light. We live in a dark world and it is getting darker. It is our responsibility, as bearers of the Light, to let our lights shine! As we expose sin, people may get mad at us as they cover their eyes to it and try to hide from light. There may be consequences for speaking the Truth of God's Word in this dark world. People may curse at us, ostracize us, cancel business contracts with us, etc but we are called to be the light anyway. If you keep your light to yourself, however, not only are you useless, but the dark, sinful people will still call you names, like arrogant, holier-than-thou, Bible-thumpers.

 

If I'm going to be called names and persecuted anyway, I figure I might as well make as much of an impact for Christ and shine the Light in love to as many as possible. At least then my persecution won't be in vain!

Trust Your Gut

This is actually yesterday's thought that I forgot to post.
Thought for the day: Always trust your gut. Romans 14:23 NLT "But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning."

The Sky... The Word

Is the sky blue or gray? There is only one correct answer and it it's a always true even though it may APPEAR otherwise. When you look up, the sky looks gray at times,  but behind the clouds, the sky is always blue. God's word is always true even when it doesn't appear that away.

Freedom

This entire controversy about Mr. Cathy finally stating his position on gay rights was all a ploy by the GLBT. He has remained silent on the issue for a very long time because it had nothing to do with chicken (his business). The GLBT pushed and pushed for him to answer them and then when he finally did they have the "audacity" to get enraged. We all fell right into their trap. The whole point was to get the controversy all riled up again. Remember, people, it's an election year! I don't believe they anticipated the support that Americans displayed today!

I have no issue with Mr. Cathy taking a stance. It is his right to take that stance and I applaud him for not cowering under pressure. If the tables were turned and it was politically incorrect to say you support gay marriage, I would still applaud you for standing up for what you believe in.

Too many people today are afraid to speak their minds because if you aren't liberal you aren't politically correct. And if you disagree with someone and you have the nerve to say you disagree you're labeled a bully. Stating one's opinion is not bullying; it's stating one's opinion. It seems to me like liberals are all about freedom of speech ONLY if that speech is liberal. They are all about choice ONLY if they agree with the choice you make. That isn't freedom. Freedom is the ability to have your own opinion even if others do not agree.

I Will Never Forget

Everyone was affected in some way by the tragedy that happened 10 years ago today. How did it impact your life? Did the changes that you resolved to make in your life "stick" or have you fallen right back into your old way of life?

On September 11, 2001 we were living in Chicago. I was driving Abby, then age 4, to daycare when I turned on the radio to Mancow's Morning Madhouse on Q-101 and heard Mancow talking about planes flying into the World Trade Centers in New York. Mancow had a tendency to have a sick sense of humor so I thought he was joking. I remember thinking how wrong that was for him to joke like that. When I got to the daycare they were talking about it. It was then that I realized it wasn't a joke.

My office was right across the street from the daycare and when I walked in everyone was in a tizzy. All of the women were in the conference room gathered around the only TV in the office. At that point the plane that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania was thought to be headed for the Sears Tower. While we were safe in Naperville, a suburb about thirty miles from downtown Chicago, many of our husbands, including mine, worked downtown. The phone lines were all jammed so we couldn't get through to them.

I went to my desk to put my stuff down before going back to the conference room when I saw my boss, Joy, sitting behind her desk working.

I went in her office. “Have you not heard the news?”

"Yeah, I heard,” she replied and kept on working.

“They think the missing plane is heading for the Sears Tower. Aren't you even the least bit concerned?” I asked.

“Yes, I care, but staring at the TV isn't going to change anything. I prayed. That's all I can do. Now it's in God's hands. I've got Jesus and Jesus has this. There's no point in stressing over it,” she replied.

“You're nuts!” I said as I left her office and went back towards the conference room. I couldn't believe I had just talked to my boss that way, but that's really what I thought. Even though I was raised in church, I wasn't taught to give things to Jesus and then not worry about them. I had never had any kind of peace in my life and I interpreted her peace in this situation as craziness.

By the time I reentered the conference room, the plane had gone down in Pennsylvania. Our husbands were safe. It would be hours yet before we would know that the plane was never headed to Chicago, but turning around and going back to the east. The rest of the day was not very productive. We tried to get to work, but it was hard to stay focused. We all had our radios on listening to the news as we waited impatiently to speak with our husbands.

Lying in bed a few days later, my husband asleep next to me, I heard the F-16s flying overhead. I thought it was amazing that these men and women who didn't know me at all were willing to lay their lives down to save mine if necessary. I lay there thinking about that for quite sometime when I thought, or, more accurately, heard God speaking in my spirit, that it was just like when Jesus died for me. He laid His life down for me.

The next morning at work, I told my boss about being raised in church, but not seeing anything God has done in my life. I told her about Myles' and Jessica's murders, my plea to God to let me die in their place, and the open investigation. I told her it seemed more like God was out to get me than to show me He loved me.

“'The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that you might have life and that life more abundantly.' That's what Jesus said in John 10:10. God didn't kill your children; Satan did that. God didn't bring all the pain and suffering that you and your children have endured; Satan did. God wants you to have a happy and abundant life. Satan wants you to be miserable, and if he can get you to blame God for it, well, that's even better. The Bible says in First Peter that Satan is prowling around like a lion looking for people to devour. That doesn't always mean physical death.”

Over the next few months I found myself in Joy's office talking about God a lot. I would think about what she said while lying in bed at night and then ask her questions the next day. She explained things to me like I had never heard them before. This time, they made sense. She worded them in such a way that I could comprehend them.

In November, I told her I wanted to go to church. I was surprised when I walked in the door to find people dressed in jeans and t-shirts. It looked like I had just walked into a biker bar, not into church. At first I thought they were weird and this must be some cult or something. Then they started worship and they were singing about Jesus. Teen Challenge was there that day and so there were a number of different people telling their stories about how God saved them from drug and alcohol addiction. Quite a few of the stories hit a chord in me.

A few weeks later, I responded to the altar call at the church I had been going to and gave my life to Christ for real this time. I finally understood that accepting Jesus was more than just praying a prayer and saying the right words. You have to believe it.

While I'm sorry for the those who lost loved ones that day, I am grateful that it happened. Please don't take that the wrong way, but I have to wonder if that had not happened, would I be saved today? God turned it around in my life, as I'm sure He did in many others. “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people.” Gen 50:20 NKJV

Satan wants to destroy us. Sometimes he uses drugs and alcohol; sometimes he uses money or lust; sometimes he uses pain and suffering. He knows our weaknesses and he plays on them and uses them to tempt us to turn away from God. The good news is that God never gives up on us. He is always there—pursuing us and waiting for us. Whenever we turn to Him, He is there. He is ready and waiting, even when we think we have done too many horrible things. He wants to forgive us. He wants a relationship with us.

In Your Presence

I got a run going to Evansville, IN. (We have a contract with CSX to transport their crews, so these runs are not that unusual.) While I was on the way up there, I could only pray silently, but I told God that when I dropped these guys off I wanted to pray for real. I wanted to spend some serious time with Him.

I haven't updated my GPS in awhile so the new stretch of Pennyrile Parkway from Hopkinsville to I-24 doesn't exist according to it. It shows my little yellow cab driving in the middle of no where. Sometimes it shows a dotted line to the nearest road to show me that if I can get there, the GPS will be able to direct me the rest of the way. I was praying when I saw that little dotted line on the screen. I said, “Lord, that is how I feel sometimes; like I'm floating in the middle of no where. I feel so alone and uncomfortable, but at the same time, I know I am where I belong. Others keep telling me I need to get over onto the road that everyone can see, but I know that isn't where You want me to be. I know that if I continue on the way I'm headed (even though it is uncharted territory) I will end up on the right road.” As I was approaching I-24 the solid red line was coming into view. Then the dotted line told me what I already knew... this path WILL get me there!

Then I started reflecting on something that Morgann, Mark, Abby and I were talking about after Life Groups on Sunday night. We were talking about what it means to DWELL in God's presence. Psalm 140:13 says, “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.” Is it just something we experience every Sunday and Wednesday at church? Is it something we experience every day, but only during our time of “devotions”? Or is it something we can experience all day, every day, every moment of our lives? Dwell means “to live or stay as a permanent resident; reside” (dictionary.com). So, I began to pray and tell God that I want to dwell in His presence. I want to LIVE there all the time!

How do I do that? I quickly realized that I am to focus on Him always. Hebrews 12:2 says “Keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

There was a time that I would imagine that Jesus was sitting in the front seat of the cab riding with me, because technically speaking HE IS! I was so embarrassed by some of the things that my customers would say and do that I stopped inviting Jesus to come. In a way I thought (not a conscious thought, but somewhere in the back of my mind) I was protecting Him from the sin I'm exposed to everyday. God spoke to me today and made me realize just how arrogant that was. Little ole ME thought I could protect Jesus from the sin in this world. While I think the sin I see daily is horrid, Jesus has not only SEEN worse, He BECAME worse!!! He became all sin so that He could conquer it.

I was listening to Devin Williams Pour It Out. Actually, I wasn't really listening to it as much as it was playing in the background while I was praying. As I was praying I would realize that the song playing in the background totally agreed with my prayer, so I would stop praying and sing the song to God, stopping along the way to elaborate on the lyrics. It was so awesome!!! By the time I got back to Nashville, I was so on fire!!!

Promises

I was driving down the Interstate when I saw a beautiful rainbow this morning. I immediately said, "Oh, Lord. That is beautiful. Thank You so much!"

He immediately spoke to my spirit loudly and clearly. "I keep my promises, Trai. Remember them. Stand on them. Stop wavering and questioning what you don't understand and just trust Me."

We went on to discuss the specific promises that He has given me that I have doubted lately. I needed that encouragement a lot more than I realized.

Thank You so much, Lord, for reminding me that You are who You say You are and that You'll do what You say You'll do. Thank You for loving me enough to be involved in my daily life and for giving me promises and things to look forward to that directly pertain to my daily life. I love You so much! You are AMAZING!!!