It's Time to Take a Time-Out!

My hands are in the time-out “T” sign right now, and I’m saying “We need to take a time-out!" That’s what I was doing last Sunday when my family introduced me to “their own new family rules” of playing UNO. Of course, they had been mastering their new rules, so I, the newcomer to this source of a high-stress way of playing a simple game that had simple-to-follow rules, was in overload. I kept pleading “TIME-OUT” using those hand signals, especially when they’d say (because of their new rules) “Nana, take a card. Take another card.” That was because their new rules included if a “7” is thrown out, you can’t talk until another “7” is thrown out. Well, of course, my hand was full of cards because I couldn’t help myself. I had to talk! That’s when my time-out “T” sign came out!

Whew! And, isn’t that what we need to do in this world of “He said. She said. They said.” And, “It’s his/her fault.” TIME-OUT! Thankfully, the mid-term elections are over. We made it! It was a tough one. People took sides on every issue under the sun, armed themselves with opinions and rights and offenses and wrongs, and proceeded to hurl word-grenades at each other, one after another, until the air became so thick with anger and frustration that we could barely see what they were fighting for. I silenced my TV or fast-forwarded through campaign rhetoric. I didn’t want to see another campaign speech that degraded another opponent. I'm just done with "those rules of improper behavior and lack of respect for our fellow man".

But even when we’re not in an election season, it can still be easy to get so worked up over a spoken word that we forget the person on the other side of our words. I know when it’s time to take a TIME-OUT and “refresh” like I refresh my computer when it gets stuck.

When I “refresh” after a time-out, I realize that I’m the product of my upbringing, my faith, my environment. Other people were brought up differently from my world. Other people have opinions based on their own core values and opinions. As wrong as their opinions and values seem to me, they still deserve my respect. It’s time for me to remember that I’m VERY human myself and that all of those people are God’s children, too. It’s time for me to ask Him for a heart to love them.

Today, let’s ask God for eyes to see His children the way He does — and the patience to put up with them like He does, especially when they seem “particularly CRAZEE!!!” Just like playing my family’s new version of UNO and when I needed a time-out, it’s TIME to take a TIME-OUT when you need one (and I promise to do the same), and let’s be grateful for everyone who loves us on our particularly CRAZEE days, too.

“May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.”
{1 Thessalonians 3:12}

Trust Me -- I Have a Purpose Here!

With all the “He said. She said” craziness in the news, it makes you wonder “Who CAN we trust these days?” How many times do we get sold a bill of goods and the goods are faulty, broken, or dysfunctional, yet we keep going back to the same merchant or using the same service provider? Before long, we could easily start to think "I just can't trust anyone!"

Think about all the people we DO trust, without even giving it a second thought. We trust pharmacists to give us the right medication from a prescription. We trust pilots, we don't know, to safely take us to the right destination, believing that they know how to fly that big bird! Driving our cars, we trust our lives to engineers and road construction crews, believing the bridges will hold. That’s a lot of trust in the unknown, on so many levels.

Here’s what’s most surprising. We, often, have trouble trusting God. People will say, "I can't see Him, so it’s hard for me to believe." Do we see the engineers who designed the bridge? Do we know the pilots? Do we really know what the pharmacist is putting into our medicine bottles? Not usually. Yet God, our Creator and the One Who knows all about us (our past, our present and our future) and Who loves us so unconditionally, is often the One we trust the least. It just doesn't make sense to trust imperfect men and not to trust a perfect God.

Trust is relinquishing our agenda to God's agenda. Trust is also believing that if we don’t get what we need or want, that God still is working out all the details of our lives for our good.

Case in point: My dear friend who was running for election to a public office, sincerely believed, with all her heart, that she was going to win this race. She trusted God for the outcome. The election took place and she fell short on the votes needed. Her reaction? “God is still on the throne and all things work together for good to those who love God." That’s bold, fearless, unconquerable TRUST. Trusting God when the outcome “isn’t as planned” in our eyes, but is “right on target” with God’s plans and purposes for us. God knows that if that door didn’t shut, we would never walk through the perfectly designed door that He has perfectly planned for us. His ways are so much higher than our ways!

Trust….when skies are blue and birds are singing. Trust….when the storms are prevailing and ominous clouds loom. Instead of hearing "You have such little faith." (Matthew 8:26) ....don't we want to hear "I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." (Matthew 8:10)