Yeah, I Still Believe in Watchmen. Deal With It. :)

 


On some afternoons, I pretend that the electricity has gone out.

Really. For, like many of you (er hem), I can get awfully addicted to dependent upon the world inside my computer or tv, especially. But No Electricity Afternoons show me what I am--and am not--without help in doing my chores or a connection to the outside world. And where there are struggles of addiction in my head (uh-oh) and also, where gaps exist in my emergency plans should The Grid go bonkers someday and fizzle out.

See, I'm one of those crazy Christians who believe in God-sent watchmen to whom He's given different sorts of eyes, the kind which can see what's ahead on the tracks of Time. Some of my friends call my favorite, trusted watchmen, loonie birds/wackos/fear spreaders. But oh well. These same friends believe we'll all be on this current train called Life Is Still Pretty Smooth for many more years. 

Gulp. (Oh, if only I believed that...)

No, the watchmen are saying there's something huge lying across the tracks just around the mountain and it's gonna cause a derailment/change in Life As We've Known It when we crash. And only those who've prepared for that will know what to do and how to recover and survive.

I agree. And I want to be one of the survivors. 

So anyway, when I play No Electricity Afternoons, I walk around and straighten my rows of emergency food supplies and take notes of what's running low. I peek into our boxes of batteries or candles or gel fuel cans. I ask myself, "If the electricity really were out, would I have enough clean extra blankets?," (if it's winter), or, "How would I make dinner tonight rather than just open some cans?" Etc.

And I return to my much-loved books, you know, the paper kind. The ones which don't require the Internet or WiFi and always I marvel at their simplicity in Today's complex world. I've made a personal decision that I'm about as tech-savvy as I'll choose to ever be. I can use a cell phone in emergencies (and of course can use a computer), but I prefer to become more adept at non-tech stuff just in case the other becomes useless.

Hey, you never know. 

One of the myriad things I love about God? He always tries to warn us beforehand of important things ahead. I say 'tries' because, oh dear, can we ever stubbornly plug our ears like children then later find ourselves all, like, "Oh no! I've only got fifteen minutes to prepare for this huge life change!" 

Seriously--a couple times I did ignore the watchmen and felt sorry/embarrassed/like an idiot afterward. Oh, God still took care of us, yet I felt bad that we made Him work extra hard at it when--if only we'd obeyed (even though it felt like walking on water)--our personal peace would have been greater in the difficult times. 

And more, we'd have been a better example to others of what leaning so closely to the mouth of God looks like. But believe me, that's what I'm aiming for this time. Me, and the watchmen who--more vigorously than ever--are squinting way up ahead on the train tracks and shouting out to us what they see.

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I loved what my friend, Linda, told me yesterday at Facebook:

" It's so important for all of us to have a strong, encouraging support system so we don't get sucked in."


... you know, to the thousands of lies swirling around out there. (Thanks, Linda!)




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"Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions..."   ...Isaiah 30:10


“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets."   ... Amos 3:7


"But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand."  ... Ezekiel 33:6



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I'm intrigued by the whole Joseph Anointing thing. Read about it here or at a ton of other links here.


I also found this article on delayed gratification fascinating and, in a way, it has something to do with today's post.



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Free Kindle Books:


Hope Being Gone

Journey to a Dream

The Powerful Uses of Dried Herbs...



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"If we do our part, God will do his part."  ... Joyce Meyer

"You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go".      ----Jeanette Rankin