Looking For a Conspiracy?

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart...Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry..." ... 1 Peter 1:22, James 1:19


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So this morning I sat on the red couch after Tom drove to work and a story popped up on our local tv news about this video--



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---which some guy had spread over Facebook because he'd attended Sunday's Buffalo football game where he filmed a sheriff's deputy snatching away an American flag (the big Fascist meanie) from fans.

And (I quote), "In the headline above the video, the Facebook poster used two expletives directed at the Bills and the NFL and said he walked out" (while others chanted 'U.S.A! U.S.A!').

Turns out, three times the fans were warned that their flag was covering a game clock, thus disrupting the game. If they didn't move it, it would be taken away.

They didn't and it was.

Later, after getting the facts, the Facebook poster apologized for sharing the film without first hearing the complete story.

I laughed. Grunted, actually. Wait for the whole story? Who even does that anymore?

😉

Yet also, I laughed because hey, I know my own tendency to latch onto a juicy conspiracy theory, especially if it matches up with a biblical Last Days Bible prophecy. 

There's just something about believing we know what's really going on, right? Poor ol' ignorant other folks, we think.

And yes, there's some pride in that. Er hem.

But also? I, personally, believe some of that comes from our wanting more. More than the (yawn) same ol', same ol' surface stuff that we (and everybody else) already know.

Basically,  I think, God designed us to want more so to keep us longing for more of Him (He who is endless). More of His deeper truths, His light, His ways, His love.

You know, rather like this-- 


“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."   ... Matthew 5:6


And if we seriously hungered for and sought those, instead? Oh my, we'd not have an extra half-hour for those substitution conspiracy theories.

We'd be far too busy. Too actively learning how to better love, (for example), than waiting to pounce on the next words (or actions) from others who (to us) never seem to get anything right.

It's a habit, this expecting the worst from people or this 2018 life. And may that be one habit we ask God to help us break--so that we may free-up room for a more excellent way.

How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!"  ... Psalm 133:1




"And now let me show you a more excellent way--

Love is ... not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and it endures all things. Love never fails."   ... from 1 Corinthians 12 & 13


What if we expected the best, not the worst? What if we ceased speeding toward conclusions and instead, earned peoples' respect, not their derision and teasing?


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Had to smile about these yesterday on Facebook--

Life's short. Make sure you spend as much time as possible on the Internet arguing with strangers about politics...


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"Walk ... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love." ... Ephesians 4:2

How's The Book Coming?

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."   John 21:25


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Speaking of Facebook (my last post), I'm actually friends there with my 4th grade teacher.

Cool, right?

And I keep forgetting to show her that hundreds of (well ...50) years later, I still have the journals she had us keep. Seriously. Need proof? --

Sometimes Miss Noakes asked us to write short, imaginative essays, but my favorite pieces? They're the ones where I described fun outings with my family, grandparents, relatives and friends, days which would be lost had I not written them down.

Go venturing close to 60 and you treasure those captured days, especially when, years ago, you ceased having adventures with many characters of your autobiographies because they moved to Heaven.

Anyway. In one of the entries, I wrote that my mother was 29 years old (actually, she'd turned 30 the previous month. No math whiz, me.). But still--how young she was. Wow.

But yesterday, my mom turned 80.

Eighty!

The increasing speed of years--oh my. May we make each day matter, count, by performing at least one memorable act of kindness. You know, one sweet thing done at God's urging, a thoughtfulness which will remain upon the pages of our own Book Of Days when we, too, move to Heaven.

Hopefully our book will be stuffed with kind deed stories--because forever--they'll remain part of our history. 

And too, may we remember that Moving Day is fast approaching, and Heaven, with all sorts of new adventures.

"It all goes so fast. Make it memorable!"


Here's my 4th grade class and Miss Noakes. Wasn't she so very 1960's? I remember loving her clothes-style way back then.

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Dorcas. She inspires me all these thousands of years later.

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Remember last year when I was all crazy-searching for a book of homey art that I could peruse over the Winter? 

Well, I'm shocked that I didn't even think of the artist, Trisha Romance (though am I really surprised, given the state of my aging brain? heh.)

Anyway, a few times we've visited her lovely former home in Niagara On The Lake (Canada. It's an art gallery now for her paintings with some of her family's furniture, as well) and if you'd like to see it (and the quaint town) via Trisha's eyes and wonderful art like this--

---you can order her book (as I did) here, for practically pennies.

Years ago, I found a copy of this at a yard sale, but sent it to my parents since I'd taken them to Trisha's home just a month before. What a treat this new copy will be on the deepest, darkest Winter afternoons.


 (Or to view more of Trisha's original art online, go here.)


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(This book is now $2.99, but still check it out if you wish!)---



Yikes! Almost forgot that today you can pick up another free Deborah Raney kindle book--yay!  Here you go.

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"Walk ... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love." ... Ephesians 4:2

Facebook: What Scares Me Most

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing... for the greatest of these is love."... 1 Corinthians 13:2,13

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So perhaps you heard about the recent hacking of Facebook. Frankly, this subject, below, frightens me way more than that. 

Yikes! What is it, you ask?

When my Facebook (or blogging or email) friends post that--


... their dog died,
... they're ill and need prayer,
... they became a grandmother,
... they were in an accident,
... they're facing a divorce,
... their relative or friend passed away,
... they (or their adult child) are marrying soon, etc.



--and I read those things? It's the same as if they are, as in decades past, rushing over to me in church or at a shop downtown, tugging my sleeve and telling me their important news.

Seriously.

Yet if I just keep scrolling down my Facebook (or whatever) page, not pausing to write a note saying I even care-- it's like that photo, above. It's as though my friend shared her news, her heart with me, but in silence, I turned and stepped away.

I ignored my friend in her sorrow or the joy she wished to share--and fled(?) Why? To find/read something more interesting or to finish scrolling because I'm in a hurry or --?

Whatever the reason--if I'm presented online with what, years ago, would've made me express condolences, congratulations or a hug in-person, but now I write or say nothing, oh my, I've gone backwards. 

I've ignored many scriptures, ones like this--


"Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep."   ... Romans 12:15


And when my just-keep-scrolling heart neglects Bible commands, uh-oh! It's like a new patch of metal scales appear. Do that enough and someday my heart will resemble an armadillo--

            "Do not harden your heart..."   ... Hebrews 3:8



Heaven forbid.

Man, these latter days, this Internet, have brought such responsibility. How easy it used to be to say, "I hadn't heard what happened. I didn't know. No one told me." 

But now I do know--and with lightning speed. And with great power/knowledge/love of God, truly does come responsibility.

And when I stand before God someday, oh my, may He not tell me I had a horrible case of armadillo heart. 

Instead, may we both know my heart remained soft, pliable and always desiring to become more like His-- full of love-in-action toward those folks who lived down here while I did, also.

(Speaking of Facebook, my friend, Dolores, shared this timely quote there yesterday.)



Hopefully before leaving this earthly plain, we'll have spent our time's majority upon what truly mattered--and left alone what didn't.



Sometimes we don't feel well because we're not living up to what we have learned to be true.


Does it take much time to show others we care? Yes, yes it does. But I can't think of a better way to spend my time--can you?



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Another room from local real estate spied online. So cozy, right?

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A favorite recent photo of Naomi and Justin--

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"Walk ... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love." ... Ephesians 4:2