Image created by Ginny McKinney using Meta AI

I have some very special friends. You know the sort. They’re the ones you can pick right up where you let off. The kind who sees your name pop up in caller ID and you can hear the delight in their voices. Terri is one of those friends. She’s been with me through thick and thin for…oh my goodness…nearly forty years. I can’t even remember exactly how we met. She helped me through a difficult divorce. She celebrated with me when I found and married Mr. Virgo. Then she held me up when I grieved his loss. She is my sister in Christ whose wise counsel I covet. We pray for and with each other. I love her dearly. When I go to Colorado for visits by myself, she has a “suite” ready for me. I usually get to visit her a couple of times during every trip. 

I’ve been struggling a little the last few weeks. I’ve involved myself in the news (noise is more like it) far too much and I found anger, fear, and sadness nipping at my heels. I started praying about it and asked God to help me with this. He put it on my heart to talk with you about it this week…hence my last few posts. I had an appointment in town yesterday. I arrived early, turned off the truck, and invited Jesus to come sit with me for a little while. We didn’t say anything. We rarely do. He knows my heart and what I need, and when He knows I’m ready for it, he presses something into my heart much like pressing a coin in the hand of a child wanting ice cream.

“Call Terri.”

I dutifully picked up my phone and dialed her number. (I’ll paraphrase.)

“Well….how are you doing, Miss Ginny?”

“I’m struggling with this dystopian society I find myself living in.”

She immediately began speaking about Christians and judgment, anger and the enemy, control and release. My biggest takeaway was this…it is not our place to judge anyone. I am no less guilty of talking bad about those I view as “the other side” than they are. This stems from investing in worldly things. The enemy is in the middle, pitting one against another. He thrives on chaos, angst, retribution. He prods us to think we are “better than those who we deem destroyers of peace.” Terri spoke with an earnest, unbroken cadence that held my attention. And with each profession of the Holy Spirit, I felt the angry thoughts falling away from me. 

Does it mean I don’t still have strong feelings? Does it mean my anger and disillusionment will simply fall away and the void filled with songs like Kumbaya? Hardly. But her rapid fire witness shot holes in my preconceived notions that were too readily leaning towards an us vs. them world. I am, after all, a fallible human.

She helped me gain some perspective and led me toward a change of heart. Anger and frustration breed the very divisiveness I rale against. And who am I to assert myself as judge, jury, and executioner? That isn’t very Christian of me. To quote Terri, “Our only job here is recruitment…to lead others toward the Light to a relationship with Jesus.” It is not our job to solve problems that are not ours to solve.

But, isn’t that relinquishing control? Literally, yes…when you’re trying to control something that is not yours to control. Give it to God. There’s another side of relinquishing control. It’s called accepting responsibility. It’s about taking care of the assignment we came here to do. To do the things we DO have control over. Our vote and our voice. And the liberal application of self-restraint, forgiveness, charity, grace, and love. Towards EVERYONE…no matter what color hat they wear. No one said it would be easy but the way is narrow.

I know…on my own…I don’t have that kind of strength and patience. But I have a Father who loves me, a Holy Spirit who guides me, and Jesus who walks by my side every step of the way. All I have to do is listen closely, follow directions to the best of my ability, and grow with every lesson and experience. To love Him with all your heart and all your mind with all your strength. And let Him do the heavy lifting.

God doesn’t ask any more of us than that.

🩵🌷🩵

““Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”   ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

***Gratitude Journal***   
Today I am grateful for dear friends with wise counsel and a strong faith. Iron sharpens iron.