Friday Update (March 8, 2024)
A reminder for those who are feeling weary and weighted down.
I began this week thinking I had a wide-open door to work on content for S,S&T and eager to get so many of the thoughts that have been swirling in my head down in writing. But then the rain forecast got pushed back a few days and my husband felt we needed to spend the good weather days making some headway on our property (for those who don’t know, we have five heavily wooded [and extremely rocky] acres of raw land that we’re prepping for an off-grid homestead, and trying to get moved onto it ASAP). The rain arrived yesterday, and just as I sat down to at least get some thoughtful words down for today’s update, two freelance writing assignments landed in my inbox.
That leaves me with about half an hour today to get something down for you guys.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m in a bit of a funk today, brought on by a lot of things. Frustration over how my plans for the week got trashed, weariness with the world and with chronic pain, an overall sense of heaviness that I’m finding difficult to shake.
I think a lot of us, if not most of us, have been feeling that weariness and heaviness of late. I was walking and talking about this to the Lord this morning on my way to feed the chickens, and I think at least part of it is that the world keeps trying to lay on us things that we were never meant to carry.
We’re expected to keep up with and care about and plan for so many things, way beyond our human capacity. I think this is another way the Enemy tempts us with the forbidden fruit of knowledge that’s too much for us. Another way to tempt us to be like God, trying to stay aware of everything that’s going on and feeling pressured to do or at least say something about all of it.
And it’s too much for us, because we’re not God.
As for me, personally, part of what makes me so tired is all of the deception in the Church, watching and listening to deceived people deceiving others and feeling this burden to point people to the truth. But I know that God can do that without me. He led me out of deception, and he can do that for them, with or without me, and he’ll do a much better job of it than I can.
I was also reminded this week that, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, we’re not going to be evaluated on whether or not our understanding or our theology were correct. We’re going to be judged on how we lived in the light of our understanding, how faithful we were with what we were given. And lest I get puffed up by my Bible knowledge, I need to remember that there are a lot of people who, though they may not know scripture as well as I do, are much better than I am at living out what they do know and understand.
Anyway, I think a lot of this heaviness is also a sense many of us have that the other shoe is about to drop, and all of the uncertainty that brings. What will it be? Are we prepared enough? Do we have enough food and water stored by? Will we still be able to make a living and pay our bills? Will we even survive whatever happens? Will our loved ones?
But these are also burdens that belong to God. He knows, and He is our certainty. Seek first His Kingdom, and He’ll provide. We do what we can, and leave the rest to Him.
I think a lot of us need to get better at letting God be God and trusting that He’s on His throne, He’s in control, and He’ll take care of us. And remembering that we’re charged with taking care of our neighbor, not the whole world. That’s HIS job.
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I have a lot more I want to say about trying to hear God’s voice and seeking experiences and the dangers therein. A lot of this was summed up in a popular podcast I listened to last night. A regular guest, who has done some good work and provided some insights I can appreciate, is also someone I’ve grown leery of because she mixes in a lot of NAR stuff in. In this particular episode she said some things that were just wildly unbiblical and in line with Bethel’s Physics of Heaven teachings, although she never referenced that book.
I don’t have time to go into all of that this week, but I can point you to this Mike Winger video on that book and the pitfalls of trying to apply a poor understanding of quantum mechanics to attain secret knowledge about Heaven and how to gain access.
Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you and lead you into all the truth!
