Blessings

So in this time of year when we are giving and receiving gifts from each other, it made me think about blessings and gifts that we receive from God. I want to address something I have noticed in myself and others around me that goes a little deeper than the usual message to Christians about "counting your blessings."

Sure, we can always use the reminder to remember that God gives us everything we have and that we have nothing by our own doing completely. Everything that we have, every gift, every possession, every cent in our bank accounts or secret drawers, EVERY thing, is from God. That is something we do all need to be reminded of often, especially this Christmas and Advent season. However, I want to tackle something else entirely.

I admit, I need the same reminder I just mentioned, but not that often. The reminder I need daily it seems goes a bit deeper and I think that it will ring true in your hearts as well. It is not that we don't believe God will bless us, but sometimes we don't see them always coming to fruition. We think, "why am I not finding a job? I am looking so hard and praying about it, why won't it work out?" Or, "I am praying for my relationship with so-and-so, yet things are still tense and not getting any easier." Or maybe something like "why is my vacation time still so stressful? I have been praying for it, yet I am still burdened."

Before I go any further, I want to point out that in every scenario, I included that the person was praying about the thing that was troubling them. This is essential. If we aren't asking God for something, he still will provide for us, but its a relationship, he WANTS us to ask and look for counsel in him. Anyways, back to the blessings...

We tend to think we know the areas in which God will bless our lives. We think, well, the biggest deal in my life right now is unemployment/relationships/stress and so God will obviously take care of that right away or at least make that his priority as well. This is not always the case though. I know, it seems crazy that we might not know exactly what we need and exactly when we need it, but we don't. God does though and we need to remember that as we keep our eyes open for the blessings he IS providing.

There is a book titled Walking With God, by John Eldredge and he talks about this very issue. He talks about his struggle with not receiving the blessings he expects from God, that he misses out on the ones God is still giving us. Eldredge is a man who lives in Colorado and is a HUGE outdoors fan. He has a really big passion for hawks and just really loves collecting their feathers and watching them in person out in nature. He has a cabin up in the mountains he frequently goes to. He tells a story about one time he was up at this cabin and how God showed him to see and appreciate the gifts God does give. He went out one afternoon to look for elk antlers from where the elk had shed them. He was very excited to find them and spent a whole afternoon scouring the mountain sides for some. He tells how he was continually in prayer for God to guide him and help him to find some. He said he kept feeling like he should go certain directions, but never came across the antlers feeling that they were JUST over the next hill. Never found them though. He was about to give up when suddenly he came across a beautiful red-tailed hawk. He got to watch it for 10-20 minutes, seeing it spread its wings a few times to keep its balance on the branch during the gusts of wind. Finally it spread its wings one last time and flew away. He said it was the biggest hawk he had ever seen and it was the closest he had ever been to one. He recognized this event as a huge blessing from God allowing him to see one of his favorite things in nature and to enjoy its beauty and Gods beauty, power, and majesty in it. He never found the antlers he set out to find, but he was given something much more valuable to him that he did not even expect to find when he woke up that morning.

I wonder how often we all have this happen to us, but we are too focused on the blessing we have not received that we don't notice the awesome gift God has set aside for us that day. I am going to make it my goal, and I encourage you to do the same, to be more active in allowing God to give you the gifts he wants, rather than have your list of blessings you demand of him. Yes, still ask him for things. Everyday. However, still be open to the fact that maybe God has better things for you than what is on your Christmas list.

I encourage you to pray and ask God what he has in store for you that day and to bless you in ways that HE sees fit, and to allow you to be open to seeing and appreciating those blessings. I also ask you to pray for me to be able to do the same as I will be praying for you all.

Thank you for reading, you all are truly a blessing to me for caring enough about what I say to read and encourage me to keep up writing and studying and sharing with you all my thoughts and feelings on the things I see and how I see them.

Political Confusion

OK, so I must write a preface for this post before getting into the observation that I have made. First of all, this topic has the potential to be quite controversial and it might hurt your feelings. Maybe because you think I am a fool, maybe because you realize I have a great point, but you don't want it to be true. Regardless, just wanted you to have a heads up. On the subject of being a fool, I have very little political knowledge or interest. I don't really concern myself much with political affiliation or worrying about the goings-on of the political world. I see it's value, but it is not something that I care enough about to have an extensive knowledge on the subject. That being said, I am still going to point out something that I seemed to notice about the correlation between political affiliation and our religious identity. Again, PLEASE understand my very shallow understanding of political views when you read this. I only hope to BEGIN to shed a light on something I think might be flawed about our connection of political and religious identities.

First off, I will explain my understanding of the two major political stances so that you can better understand what I am seeing and why I am seeing it. Conservatism to the best of my understanding is mostly about traditional values. From what I have seen, it does not agree with giving extra support to the poor, homeless, those without insurance, and whatever else you may lump into that category. Something I have often seen from the conservative side is "this country was founded on fending for yourself and individual liberties, if they can find a job themselves, too bad. I am not giving up my hard earned money to help someone who isn't helping themselves." That is a completely fair and valid point. I agree with that to an extent. However, the Christian in me feels weird about it. That is a very selfish stance if we really think about it, regardless of how logical it may be. Funny thing is, most traditional Christians relate to the conservative side of the political spectrum.

I am closely connected with two different denominations, both Methodist and Presbyterian. One is more traditional than the other and one is more liberal for sure. In the Methodist church, I do find a lot of liberal thinking people. However, I think if we look at the amount of conservative Christians to the amount of liberal Christians, the difference is clear.

The point I am making here is that Christianity does not teach what traditional conservatism seems to be teaching. In reality (this is going to upset some folks) Christianity is very much a system closely related to Socialism. I am not calling Jesus a "Commy" or anything here, take a deep breath. Look at his teachings though and the teachings throughout the Bible. We are taught to make sacrifices for others. To give to the poor. We are taught to not only make sacrifices, but to serve others. We are called to be a community, which the IDEA of communism is about. The problem with communism is that our human nature can't support it because we are corrupted and we cant make it work because instead of making it all about helping everyone, the people who have been rulers in charge of socialist societies have been incredibly corrupt and taken everything for themselves instead. THIS is why we have such a negative connotation for a system that was designed to help EVERYONE live a successful and fruitful life by working together and supporting each other. AGAIN, not saying the previous attempts of socialism were good. In fact they were warped and manipulated by the rulers. The fact is though, the teachings of our Christ are EXTREMELY similar to the idea of what the ideal socialist society and economy would look like.

Why is it that Christian conservatives are so against plans that tax us more in order to help the less fortunate? "DUH HUNTER! It's because they are not trying to get a job or help society!" Did Jesus care about what THEY did? Did Jesus care about what others did for him in return? Nope. I don't blame this mindset. I fall into it often, but the more I read scripture, pray, and try (and fail) to be like Christ, the more I understand that most of these staunch conservatives who also attend church very devoutly every Sunday are leading separate lives. They seem to believe one thing on Sunday and a different thing the other six days.

Liberals though often seem to be "of the world." Most of the non-religious friends I have tend to connect with a liberal view. Liberalism, as I see in what they say and feel, tends to be leaning towards helping the poor, in socialistic ways. It seems as though these ideas are more closely related to Christian ideals. If you don't understand, it is the opposite of everything I have previously said about the conservative outlook. Including acceptance of alternative lifestyles. This is going to cause a little stir...get ready....

Christianity is clear about gay marriage not being what God intended. Conservatives are fighting it seems very hard to keep marriage between one man and one woman and I think that is good. However, I think that the derogatory to which it has come to, is not good. In this case, it seems that liberalism ALSO takes a valid Christian stance in not condemning people who live alternative or even sinful lives. We are all sinners, judgement is not ours to pass. Regardless of political stance, to my understanding as Christians the view we are to take with something such as homosexuality is to understand that it is a sin, just like lying, murder, or not having faith in the Lord. We are to not agree with the sin, but since we all sin, we are not to say that the homosexual individual is somehow worse than anyone else. It seems that homosexuality has somehow become a more potent sin, which is ludicrous, but that is a whole different topic...

Anyways, I feel like we are circling now. I hope that the point that our political views tend to not agree with our religious beliefs was made or at least planted in your mind. I pray that you reflect on this. Maybe you will realize I am a blabbering fool. Or maybe you will see that I have a valid point. Better yet, I hope that some of you have already noticed this and we can talk about it sometime. Again, I am no political expert and I never will be. But in hearing different discussions from supposed Christians, it caught my attention and worried me a little bit. Just food for thought.

God bless you all and you are all in my prayers. Until next time...