God2Share

GRRR…..

The sound comes from deep within me before I can stop it some days.

This animal-like growl signifies that I have been inconvenienced, interrupted or annoyed in some way.

Maybe I have to wait longer than I would like to in the check out line, or one of the boys has asked me to get up to make food literally two minutes after I have sat down or walked in the door (If you have teenagers, you know exactly what I am talking about). Maybe I haven’t eaten or had my coffee yet.

You get the picture. It doesn’t take much to trigger our GRRR button.

The GRRR is our default setting.

It takes more effort to get to a place of grace.

But there was One who did not growl when inconvenienced or interrupted.

He did not get easily annoyed with people or circumstances,

“And the Word (Christ) became flesh, and lived among us; and we saw His glory, glory that belongs to the (One and) only begotten Son of the Father, (the Son who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, who is) full of grace and truth (absolutely free of deception) “ John 1:14

For Jesus, there was no GRRR before the grace.

He didn’t become impatient when the lines of people wanting to see Him became great. He repeatedly and consistently offered love and mercy.

“ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Matthew 14: 14

“And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them” Matthew 15:30.

After a long day, the disciples were tired and hungry. They were ready for Jesus to send the people away.

Jesus had other ideas.

“When the day was nearly gone, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is an isolated place, and it is getting late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

But He replied, “You give them something to eat!” And they asked Him, “Shall we go and buy 200 Denali worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” Mark 6 :35-37

I am guessing this was a GRRR before the grace moment for the disciples.

They were probably thinking: does He really expect us to go into town after a long day and buy food for all of these people?

But Jesus, who also had to be tired and hungry, performs a miracle.

“He said to the disciples “How many loaves of bread do you have? Go look! And when they found out, they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” Then Jesus commanded them all to sit down by groups in the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and two fishes, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of fish. Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men (not counting women and children).” Mark 6: 38-44

When Jesus became flesh, He did not offer the human response when He was interrupted or inconvenienced.

These were opportunities to show His love and mercy to a broken world.

Jesus offered grace spontaneously.

No hesitation.

No GRRR.

Today, may that same grace come before our GRRR …so that we, too can share His love with others.

Amen.

Now more than ever, we are saturated by news.

Even if we choose to turn off the television at home, “breaking news” seems to follow us wherever we go: going out to eat, waiting in the doctor’s office or even pumping gas (yes, even some gas stations have tv monitors in the gas pumps).

We cannot escape it.

So I have started to wonder how busy the fact checkers of the world are right now.

What is a fact checker?

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines fact checking as “the process of checking all of the facts in a piece of writing, news article or speech”. The goal is to ensure that nothing that is shared is ingenuine or fake.

“Fake news” seems to be a hot button right now for so many.

But “fake news’ is old news to me.

Let me explain.

I am 100 and it’s none of your business pounds.
That is a fact.
The scale is my fact checker.
But I can take that fact and turn the newsreel that plays in my mind into something completely different than truth.

The “fake news” commentary sounds something like this:
“You are unattractive.”
“You are undesirable.”
“You will never look as good as that person.”

Facts can apply to anything in our lives: appearance, belongings, or circumstances.
Wearing no brand shoes, the dollar signs attached to a salary, the address someone lives at… all of these may be facts in someone’s life.

Facts can be confirmed, but facts do not always equal truth.

A childhood friend had to move into an apartment following the divorce of his parents.
It wasn’t until we were adults that he shared how that fact translated into a truth for him that he did not measure up to his peers. Another friend who is a stay at home mom shared that she felt less than her peers who worked outside the home.

Friends, we do not need fact checkers in our lives.

We need truth checkers.

We need to verify what we believe to be true before allowing it to penetrate our hearts and allowing “fake news” to overrun our thoughts about who we are.

This is a daily act of choosing which station we allow to play in our minds…our truth or His truth.

Trust me, His truth is the most reliable source. There is no “fake news” in His word.

To become truth checkers, we must be truth seekers.
What does His word say about who were are?

~Valuable (Matthew 6:26)
~Set apart (Jeremiah 1:5)
~Chosen (1 Peter 2:9)
~Children of God (1 John 3: 1-2)
~His (Isaiah 43:1b)
~Known (John 10:27-28)

Father, help us to be accountable to each other, making sure we always check Your truth against our own.

Lord, Your Word says, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free’ (John 8:32).

Amen.