Being Sick

            I was supposed to go see a friend the past weekend, but I ended up messaging him to say I didn’t feel quite right, so I thought I should stay home. I’ve had this happen a couple of times in recent months where I make plans, but don’t feel right, so I stay home. Those times it turned out to be a false alarm. This time it was not.

            When I woke up Monday, my throat was sore and I was so congested I couldn't believe it. If you’ve ever been unable to breathe through your nose, you know what I’m talking about. I managed to do the dishes at home, but that was about it. I did do one of the exercises in Latin and try to write, but I barely got through the Latin and writing was like, “cannot comprehend what I’m looking at.” So, I gave up.

            When I woke up Tuesday, I was so tired, I dragged myself out of bed. I’d even gone to bed early and woke up late. So, instead of hopping on my computer, I sat/laid in front of the TV all day binge watching season four of “When Calls the Heart” till I had to make dinner.  Thankfully, dinner was simple. Eggs and pancakes.

            Wednesday started out okay, so I figured working at the gym as usual wouldn’t be a problem. I took it pretty easy there. I checked my e-mail and Facebook for the first time in over 24 hours. I seriously didn’t turn on my computer all day Tuesday. Before I finished my shift at the gym I rode the stationary bike for a bit. I didn’t get all the way through the usual 30 minutes, but I figured I was getting over my cold, so no biggie.

            When I got home I was so exhausted I did something I almost never do. I read in bed for a while then took a nap. I hate taking naps, so if I’m taking one, you know I’m not feeling good. When I got up, I felt better and cooking dinner was no big deal, but I did tell my roommate that if I felt that way the next day, I may tell him he’s on his own for dinner. He asked me if he could do anything to help me make dinner the next day. There wasn’t, but I remembered a simpler recipe I could do using the chicken I’d thawed.

            The next day I went to the gym as usual. When I got home, there was a flyer in our mailbox from our favorite pizza place. They were running a special and after discussing it, we ordered in pizza for dinner.

            Friday I put dinner in the crock pot, did dishes and that was the end of me doing anything more for the rest of the day. I literally sat in front of my computer menu planning and playing Runescape till dinner. Just too tired to do anything else.

            So, now it’s Saturday and I’m finally writing this blog. There are other things I’d rather be writing about, but this is the best I could do for this week.  The hardest part of being sick, to me anyway is that I not only missed visiting with my friend, but I couldn’t do some things this week that I wanted/needed to do. Things like shortening pajama pants for my roommate and baking bread. Such is life when you're sick.

            There have been a couple of bright spots.

            One, my roommate offering to help me cook dinner, then ordering pizza.

            Two, my little kitty, Rusty. She’s been my faithful companion this week. Laying on the couch with me and in bed with me when I took my nap. Normally she runs around the house like a miniature horse or sits in the window watching birds for hours on end.

            I did think about writing this blog during the week, but was simply too sick to do more than that. I’m just thankful I got my monthly menu planning done. It helped that I’d been thinking about since before I got sick.

            I hope you’ve had a better week than I did. I’d love to know if you want to leave me a comment. Take care and hope you read my blog next week.

What Moana Taught Me

            When “Moana” came out, I had no desire to see it. Another Disney movie. Big, fat hairy deal.

           

            Then a friend posted a blog titled, “What I Learned from Moana About Trauma.” (https://www.parent.com/moana-taught-trauma/) – Warning, if you read this blog it may make you cry. It did me.

            After reading the blog, I had to watch the movie. Thanks to my wonderful son, we have Netflix, which had “Moana” (I don’t know if it still does). I loved it! I also learned something myself, but not about trauma, although that certainly applies, too.

            The lesson I got was from Moana’s growing up years. She’s the chief’s daughter who’s always drawn to the ocean. The ocean seems to like her, too. Unfortunately, her parents keep pulling her away because beyond the coral reef the ocean is stormy and dangerous. Not long that, as her parents and the villagers kept telling her, they had everything they needed. There was no need to go beyond the coral reef.

            This brings me to what this movie taught me:

            As long as we have everything we need, we’re content. Therefore we stay in our comfort zone. There’s no need to explore or possible improve ourselves or our situation in general. It took an impending disaster to make her people more open to the possibility of going past the reef and even then they were hesitant.

We, the church, are a lot like Moana’s people. As long as our needs are met and our theology is comfortable, we see no reason to change the way we do things. We tend to assume that being covered by  Jesus’ willingness to sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins, we’re fine. No need to do anything more than go to church on Sunday.

            We’ve either forgotten or never been taught that when Jesus came back from the dead, he told his disciples to wait. To pray till His father did something specific.  They did and it happened on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2

            The second thing I realized was that there’s this concept that the blood of Jesus not only covers our sins, but it purifies us, therefore we won’t be judged on judgment day. The Bible says otherwise.

            In Romans 14:10 we read:

But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

            Again in 2 Corinthians 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

            The point here is that a lot of Christians I’ve met in recent years seem to think that as long as they’ve accepted God’s priceless gift of salvation, they’re fine. They can go to church on Sundays, live by whatever laws/rules they’re taught and everything’s fine.

            I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s not the whole truth. The biggest truth we’re not taught as Christians in my opinion, is that our relationship with God can go as deep as we want. As deep as we’re willing to allow God into our lives. Salvation in a real sense is the easy part. You could call it getting acquainted with God. It’s a first step in a journey that can last a life time.

            Baptism in the Holy Spirit as described in Acts 2, is the next step. Now, I won’t claim there’s a “sound of rushing wind” every time someone gets baptized in the Holy Spirit, but there is evidence of praying in tongues. I know, you may be thinking that doesn’t apply today. But think about this, in Hebrews 13:8 we read:

Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

            I believe the same applies to God. God doesn’t change, we do. As we grow in Him, our concepts and understanding of who He is changes. That can’t happen however, if we’re stuck back at step one – Salvation.

            God wants more than Salvation for us. He wants to be a friend to us in good times and bad. He doesn’t just want to be a heavenly father we call on in times of trouble and stress. He wants to be someone we talk to everyday. Someone we tell not only our troubles and stress, but the highs and lows of our days. Someone we can say, “Hey Lord, I had a good day today. The sun was shining and nothing seemed to really go wrong today. In fact, I actually got ahead of things at work today. And did you see the cute thing that Rusty my cat, did today? I’m so glad I have You in my life.”

Or, “Lord, I’ve had such a bad day. My alarm didn’t go off. I must have forgotten to turn it on. Then I had a run in my last pair of hose, so I was late for work. I swear my boss was on a rampage today. It wasn’t just me he seemed to be mad at, but everyone. Then that car nearly hit me on the way home. Thankfully, he swerved in time, but that was scary. Ugh! Thanks for listening to me.”

            There’s also the fact that God wants to heal us. I know that when I say “heal us,” most people think of physical healing, such as healing from disease or infirmity. In this case, I’m also talking about healing the wounds of our heart.

            I know most, if not all of us have suffered emotional trauma of some sort in our lives. If you’ve been following my blog, then you know about a significant portion of mine. I haven’t written about all the emotional trauma I’ve suffered, but I plan to in another blog. In this one though, I want to let you know if you don’t already, that God wants to heal the wounds of our hearts, no matter how old they are or how deep they run.

            In Luke 4:18, we read:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

            In this verse Jesus is in the synagogue reading to whoever is there. I’ve done a thorough search for any reference to healing of the brokenhearted and this was all I found. I pondered on it for several days. “Why only this one mention of healing the brokenhearted?”

            I finally asked my roommate as I know he’s done extensive studying of the Bible in addition to having graduated from a now defunct Bible College. He told me it was there because it was important to God. How about that? It’s important to God. Most of us think of healing in only the physical sense, but God sees the need for the wounds of our hearts to be healed and He wants to heal our hearts.

            So, if you’re reading this and you’re Christian, I have a question for you. Are you content where you are or do you want more of God?

            If we look at Revelations 3:20 we read,

            Behold! I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

            It doesn’t say he stops knocking. He keeps knocking on different doors in our hearts. Are we willing to let him all the way into our lives or do we restrict him to the front room that we “keep clean” to show our guests?

            If you want more of God, start talking to him. Read His word for yourself to see what God would say to you. Too many of us take our pastor’s word for things rather than looking them up. I’ve done that in the past.

In 2 Timothy 2:15 we read:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

            That’s a pretty strong hint that we should be reading the Bible for ourselves. It is my hope that this encourages you to seek more of God in your own life.

P.S. All scriptures are from the KJV and the emphasis is mine.

#Me Too Backlash

I started to write this before the holidays, but it was difficult. Then I realized that with the holidays coming up, I didn’t want to tackle such a tough subject. So, I’m doing it now.

As the #Me Too movement has gained traction and brought out the fact that for decades women have had to deal with inappropriate sexual behavior from men to get or keep jobs, I’m also seeing a backlash against these women.

Matt Damon is saying that things are being conflated – fused together. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alyssa-milano-matt-damon-abc-interview_us_5a348697e4b01d429cc8fc19) Speaking as someone who’s experienced everything from a man saying inappropriate things to a man putting his hands where they didn’t belong to full on rape, it all hurts. It doesn’t matter “how small or large” the infraction is, it hurts.

Not only that, but as Alyssa Milano points out in the above article, it’s the micro that make the macro. The little things add up to big things.

She also points out that victims are tired of being ignored. Tired of being gas lighted. Tired of being treated as if sexual harassment or abuse is normal. She’s right: we are.We're tired of men treating us like objects to be used for what they want rather than people to be respected.

There’s a woman on Facebook who calls herself “The Activist Mommy.” She has put out a video shaming all the women who are now speaking up, in some cases as much as 40 years later. She’s not the only one shaming women who speak up years later. If you click on any of the articles about women crying sexual harassment years after the fact and read the comments, the majority of them are saying things like, “Their careers are on the decline, so they’re seeking attention.”

Here’s the thing though, even if their careers are declining, they’re probably speaking up now because they’re no longer powerless. They’ve established themselves as actresses and no longer need to fear for their careers so much; especially if they’re careers are in decline. At this point, they don’t have a lot to lose the way they would have when they were just starting out.

A lot of commenters also wonder why the harassment/abuse wasn’t reported when it happened. Even if it had been, most victims will tell you that when they do report it, they’re often not believed.  Even in cases where there is proof of what happened, they probably wouldn’t have been believed or they would have been ignored or treated as if they were radioactive. The people who produce movies have power over an actor/actresses career, which means they can do virtually anything they want and get away with it.

The only way the abuse might not have happened is if every woman who ever went to Hollywood seeking an acting career said, “No” to the abuser. If that had happened, then the abuse might not have happened. Truthfully, though, that’s no guarantee. I’m sure there are men who would have just raped the women, then told them they could work in Hollywood. The really sad part is that this has been going on for decades. The abuse that these women are reporting is nothing new in Hollywood.

Given that the abuse is nothing new in Hollywood, I know there are those of you that are thinking something along the lines of, “then these should have known this would happen and shouldn’t have become actress’.”

So, ask yourself this. How many times have you said to yourself, “I would never do . . .” Then later you find yourself doing whatever it was for whatever reason.

I once watched a documentary about Judy Garland. She worked with a director who would poke her in the left breast when he was particularly pleased with her performance in a film as he said, “That came from the heart.”

Or words to the effect. One day she told him that he didn’t need to poke her like that, he could just point. Apparently he stopped after that, but at that point she was an established actress. If she'd been new, he'd have probably fired her on the spot.

The Lord of the Rings director admitted that he’d been told by Weinstein to not cast a couple of women he was seriously considering as they were “difficult to work with.” The real reason was probably that they would not submit to Weinstein’s abuse. (http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/12/15/harvey-weinstein-smear-campaign-kept-ashley-judd-mira-sorvino-from-lord-rings-director-claims.html)

I believe it was the “Activist Mommy” who called out Salma Hayek for doing a lesbian love scene for one of Weinstein’s movies. Apparently, he stalked her and threatened her life if she didn’t do it. (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42344533)

The thing that bothers me most about people who act like these actresses are to blame in some way for the abuse they endured is that they’re not in those actress’s shoes. They didn’t have to endure what these ladies did to get where they are. The hard reality is that in Hollywood, the people who make the movies, TV shows, etc. have control over careers. Some of them choose to abuse that control.

So, it seems to me that these women were “damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.”