What is fake news? What is real? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
But what about when fake news is about us?
Who will be a witness for the truth?
Read the rest, “Is This Fake News? I Need a Witness”
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We’re looking at 3 ways to disprove fake news with the Spirit’s witness. It is Do Not Depart’s new series, #WhoIsTheHolySpirit. Will you join me there?
While we shouldn’t categorize people too rigidly, at times I do.
Mark Batterson does it, too, in In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.
He uses these two categories for our relationships with God: Complainers and Worshipers.
But for horizontal relationships, I often use Complainers and Encouragers.
I notice the difference the most when I need encouragement myself. In those times, I’m often surprised by who excels at giving encouragement. And who doesn’t.
So now whenever I’m most aware of needing encouragement, I know who I need to hang around for positive, spiritual encouragement. And who to avoid. It makes a difference.
But in which category do I place myself? Both. Ugh. I don’t want to be a complainer, but I know sometimes I am. It’s ugly. A bitter edge is never attractive.
Perhaps the best way to succeed in becoming an encourager to others is to also become more of a worshiper of God. Success in one flows down to success in the other.
Worshiping and encouraging are both beautiful ways to live.
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Are you more of a complainer or an encourager? Who encourages you most in your life? Please share in the comments.
My app tells me we’re in for thunderstorms. It’s mid-60s now, but it’ll be 34 degrees by morning.
I’ll have to crank up my electric blanket tonight. I don’t like cold weather. I may even have to turn up my heat.
I ask the two young men in my car if they keep up with the temperatures. “Oh, yes,” they say. “It’ll be 34 tomorrow.”
I don’t know how they know.
They’re homeless.
But they know.
I’d been talking to one of the boys earlier that night (I’ll call him Sean here), asking how he was doing, how his week has been.
“Not too good,” he says, “things haven’t been going well.”
I never know quite how to respond.
So I mainly just ask more questions. I listen harder.
I ask Sean if he has somewhere warm to stay tonight.
I already had heard that the sally (the Salvation Army) fills up fast. A mom we’d talked to earlier in the day was telling us that. Her grown homeless son was visiting her but he wasn’t allowed to spend the night. It’s against the rules in the public housing apartment where she lives. She asked us to come inside and pray over him. Night and cold and storms are coming.
Sean answers that he isn’t sure where he’ll stay tonight. I’m concerned.
So he asks if I could possibly drive him and his friend to the Rescue Mission.
Oh.
Well, it is on my way home. My car is warm. My tank is full of gas.
I run it by Jeff to get his okay. We both have known Sean for awhile. Sean used to be a volunteer at Manna House before he was homeless. He’d ride his bicycle there from where he lived with his dying mother.
His mother has since passed and Sean is on his own. He and his brother and girlfriend stayed at an apartment for awhile, but it didn’t work out and they were evicted.
Sean lays his backpack in the back of my SUV. His friend sits in the back seat with the loaf of bread he got from Manna House.
It’s all he has.
I ask them about the best places to stay around town, how the Mission compares to Breaking Free or the sally. They fill me in on things I’d never know on my own, about the food they like (or don’t), about the time dinner is served, etc.
I ask how long it would have taken them to walk to the Mission. The friend says an hour and a half, but Sean says longer for him because he walks slow.
We get near the Mission and they say they’ll get out at the stop sign and walk the rest of the way. Sean grabs his backpack. Both guys thank me (I’ve been “Yes, Ma’amed” all night, they are southern boys, after all). They wish me a really good night. Same back to them.
I drive home, a little colder now in my middle-class guilt.
But I roll down the windows anyway. I need to change the smell.
I pull in my garage and unload my own backpack with my Mac computer and one of my many warm jackets and my uncracked iPhone.
But what is on the floorboard of the back seat?
The friend’s loaf of bread.
That does it.
I cry.
It was all he had on him, and now it’s here in my car instead of in his belly.
This is not fair.
I hear the storms rolling in. I turn up my electric blanket a little bit higher.
Not fair at all.
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How does life seem unfair to you? Please share in the comments.
I’ve joined a new small group. My daughter Jenna is co-leading a Freedom group through her church. For 13 weeks we’re meeting weekly with other ladies to live into our freedom in Christ.
Together.
As our country feels more separated than ever, I’m feeling the need for more togetherness.
Our Pastor Pat preached on it yesterday, “Building Community” (Acts 2:42-47). He referenced this scene from Rocky (1976).
Paulie: [talking about Adrian] You like her?
Rocky: Sure, I like her.
Paulie: What’s the attraction?
Rocky: I dunno… she fills gaps.
Paulie: What’s ‘gaps’?
Rocky: I dunno, she’s got gaps, I got gaps, together we fill gaps.
We’ve all got gaps.
[Click here if you can’t see the Rocky video, “What’s Gaps?“]
And there’s this story. Do you remember this event from December 2015?
More than 100 Muslim and Christian passengers were traveling on a bus in Kenya. They were attacked by al Shabaab militants who ordered the Muslims to separate themselves from the Christians so they could kill the Christians.
Passengers are frisked before boarding a Makkah Express. Photo/Stephen Astariko
The Muslim women refused to separate. Instead, they gave their hijabs to Christian passengers so they could not be distinguished.
They told the gunmen, “If you want to kill us, then kill us. There are no Christians here.”
Instead of widening the gaps, they filled them in.
The Shabaab eventually moved on.
What God promised us is his presence. He is together with us, as he is together as Father, Son, and Spirit.
And he tells us to be together with each other.
11 “Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night.”
12 “By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.”
Ecclesiastes 4:11-12
Tomorrow night I’ll meet again with my Freedom group. We’ll learn a little more about each others’ gaps. Our holes. Our empty places.
We’ll also learn how to let Christ fill them.
But not alone. Together.
Find someone with a gap this week and fill it. Let someone else fill in one of your gaps.
Together we fill gaps.
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Can you listen to someone’s story this week? Tell someone yours? Please share in the comments.
Here are favorites from January and what I’m looking forward to in February. We share once a month at Leigh’s.
[If you can’t see the 1 Second Everyday video, click here]
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• 25 Words Turning 25 in 2017
by Erika Okrent of MentalFloss
“If you were born in 1992, not only are you as old as the Mall of America, the nicotine patch, and Super Mario Kart, you got to grow up with these words.”
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• 25 ways to be politically active (whether you lean left or right)
By AJ Willingham, CNN
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• 7 Ways Smartphones Can Enhance Your Spiritual Life
by Joe Carter
“We should not overlook the ways that smartphones can be useful for spiritual formation.”
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Where do you get your news? I try to stay near the center. I’d prefer it best if I could get only the facts, no spin either direction. But everything has a spin. Likely, even this graphic…. But it is a starting point.
• 10 books that will change how you see the world
“Books can be our greatest mentor, of sorts, challenging us to become a more loving spouse, parent and leader.”
• A. N. Wilson recommends the best Christian books
“The British writer, A.N. Wilson, recommends books that have helped him understand what Christianity means and to truly believe.”
• 8 Books I Recommend
These are books I really liked from my January reading.
• Currently Reading
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• New Tuesday Freedom Group
My daughter Jenna is co-leading a ladies’ small group through her church and invited me to join! I’m so excited to watch her in action and also become friends with sisters I didn’t know before.
• Two Year Olds
One of our godsons turned 2-years-old in January. And the next day, one of our great nieces also turned 2.
Celebrating with Isaak
Emme turns 2
• Love My Siblings
Family birthday parties for kids are also fun times with the adults, too. Here we are with my youngest sister and brother and spouses.
Brent, Liz, Bonnie, Lane, Lisa, Jeff
• 100 Days of School
Jenna let me and her cousin Danielle come to school last week to help her kids celebrate 100 days of school. It’s as much an accomplishment for teachers as for students.
Crown of 100
• You, too?
Credit: David Sipress, The New Yorker
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• Unfollow a Friend to Keep a Friend?
Have you ever unfollowed a friend on Facebook to keep a friend in real life?
• Slow But Forward – 10 Minutes a Day
I’m taking 10 minutes a day to organize my digital pictures. Whatever you’re trying to accomplish this year, remember small steps in the right direction will add up.
• Do We Talk about Suicide?
“Every forty seconds, someone in the world dies by suicide.” Can we afford not to talk about it?
• When You’re a Book Person, You Do This
We learn a lot about a person by the books they choose. Who they are. And who they want to be.
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What was one of your highlights from January? What are you looking forward to in February? Please share in the comments.
