Does anyone else feel overwhelmed by news, opinions, and the realization that you don’t know what you can actually trust? Everyone has an agenda, everything is spin. There are underground bunkers somewhere and computer nerds are generating bots to churn out misleading drama....it can go dark if you let it...
No matter the motivation, I’m so tired of feeling like the only way to know what is real is by trying to become an expert on all the things. I think we either tend to shut down because it’s overwhelming, or we become obsessed.
One side effect I have noticed of the obsessed option, is that when you have done so much work digging up facts that support the opinion you have settled in to, you can become vicious with people who either disagree or aren’t as passionate about it. I say this not to be vicious back. I say this because I feel like I often walk around bleeding out of the gashes those conversations leave in their wake. Please stop. Please 🥺
I LONG for people who want to sit and talk. I LONG for people who have wisdom, but also the commitment to never assume they have reached the end of what they can learn. I love people who are willing to seek absolute truth over what they believe to be true. I long for deep conversations where you aren’t required to have an arsenal of research, where you can ask questions, where it’s safe to learn from each other and safe to disagree. I long to be able to play devil’s advocate and hash stuff out in a conversation where you never feel unsafe or awkward.
The reality is that we are suddenly aware that the “experts” are also human and therefore susceptible to their own agendas {and outside pressures} persuading them, more than pure intentions. The days of simply trusting your nightly news are over. Now that our blinders are off, the reality is that the experts are so far removed from us, we have to be even more discerning in our search for truth to not be mislead by charisma over character. It’s exhausting.
Out of this, so many of us feel like we simply have to do the research ourselves. WE have to become the experts in the things that really matter to us, and we become obsessed.
Here is the problem for a believer living in a world where agendas try to set the moral compass: the enemy is having a field day sending us on rabbit trails. He dangles scents he knows will distract our attention and waves them just so. Suddenly we are sprinting down paths—often following GOOD things, but they ultimately take us away from our actual purpose.
Seeking truth is definitely important. Please don’t hear me say due diligence is wrong!! Please don’t hear me say that speaking out against sin is wrong. However, giving God glory and making disciples is our PURPOSE. If we have created followers of anything other than Jesus, even if the facts we share are true, have we accidentally lead them away from absolute truth?
Here is where scripture, as always is our ultimate guide.
1 Corinthians 13:1 says “if I speak in the languages of man or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal”.
Has anybody else been around the church people with agendas they separate from following Jesus and inviting people to join? Have you BEEN that person? I cringe when I think back to times when I have. I have no doubt I was churning out some pretty loud and distracting noises.
Here is the tension. Following Christ doesn’t compete with being passionate about the current world situations. It isn’t an invitation to laziness or naivety. We should be incredibly wise and passionate! It just requires an adjustment or realignment...sanctification
Look at Ephesians 4:11-15
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
This is the best news ever to me! God set up a system to teach His people through His Holy Spirit, so the saints (all surrendered followers of Jesus) would be equipped for the work we are called to do. In that process, we will have unity because we are growing together in faith and knowledge. We will not be naive, but mature—not just in churchy things, but in the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. That literally includes absolutely everything.
This isn’t a call to blind or dumb faith. This is a divine process that stops the feeling of being tossed around, drowning in chaos. It keeps us from feeling pulled and ripped apart by all the agenda driven information. It literally takes all the power away from cunning and crafty people who scheme deceit. Gone. Just like that. It offers us this alternative. INSTEAD, we speak the truth in love {God’s truth that we have gained through His word and being discipled by people we KNOW because we literally do life with them, we see them in their highs and lows. We trust them. We get to hash out hard things safely with them because we are learning to speak truth in love. It cannot be separated}.
When we set our minds to learn absolute truth the way God designed us to learn it, we are told we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Christ. It’s not a disregard of current events and issues, it just changes our starting point, our why, and possibly our end goal.
That is how I want to spend my precious time. I am banking on God’s wisdom covering all of the past, current, and future situations. If I truly believe He is all knowing and all powerful, I also believe He is intimately able to help me find wisdom in whatever life throws at me and my family. He is also able to help me know how to share this wisdom in a loving way that builds up others instead of tearing them down. Only Jesus can create that kind of unity.
For those of you who are just worn out from the pressure, or the fear, or the constant noise, give yourself a hot minute to just rest and be still with Him. Let Him tend to your tired heart. Let Him calm you down and create in you a clean heart. Let Him restore your you the joy of your salvation. Joy is one of the best overflows of following Jesus!
“If you hold to my teaching, you are my disciples. THEN you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. John 8:31-32.
I made the art for this blog my little girl’s butterfly because it is my favorite assignment to teach her the process of letting Jesus set her free. 