Life sucks, but . . .

Let's face it, guys:  Life sucks.

I had an appointment with my counselor yesterday, and at the end, I said that right now, certain parts of my life just plain sucked.

Government shutdown?  Sucks.
Kid with autism?  Sucks.  (The kid doesn't suck, but dealing with autism day in and day out?  Sucks.)
Financial concerns?  Sucks.
Current events?  Sucks.

On the way to my car, I thought, Jesus' life sucked, too.

I mean, think about it.

No home of his own, sleeping on the ground, persecuted, criticized, betrayed by a friend and abandoned by the rest of them, convicted and executed for things he never did.

Sucks.

And that was when the following verse dropped into my mind:

"In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world."  (John 16:33, NIV)

I thought, That's it.  That is how you deal with the fact that life sucks.

"In this world you will have trouble."

Translation:  Life sucks.

Jesus never said that life would not suck.  Life is going to suck.  Period.  If it sucked for Jesus, the holy Son of God, it is going to suck for us.  Period.

"But take heart!"

You can translate that as "be brave, take courage, be courageous, etc."

Why?  If life sucks, and it sucked even for Jesus, why be brave?  Why can we have courage, take courage?

"I have overcome the world."

I have overcome.

Not, "I will," but "I have."

Jesus said all of this before the garden of Gethsemane, before he heard the muttering of the soldiers coming for him, before the torches lit up the trees, before Peter swung his sword and cut off Malchus' ear.

"I have overcome the world."

I wonder how many times he thought this while he was being marched towards Pilate, standing on trial, listening to everyone accusing him, lying about him, while the whip cut into his back and sprayed blood and bits of skin and bone on the ground.

My Merriam-Webster dictionary app defines "overcome" as a transitive verb meaning "to get the better of".  When I read that definition, I don't see a shiny Jesus holding up his hand and saying in this holy-sounding voice, "Take heard, I have overcome the world."

No, it's a Jesus that says, "Ha!  Gotcha!  I have overcome!  Yeah, things suck and they're going to suck, but guess what?  I'm the Son of God and I have gotten the better of things.  I win!"  Not an, "na-na-na-na-na-pfffth", but, "I win!  No one has gotten the better of me; I have gotten the better of the world.  Ha!"

John 16:33 isn't going to solve our financial problems.  It won't miraculously reopen the government or make autism easier to deal with.  But maybe, just maybe, it will put a new spin on the outlook that I have.

"I have overcome."

He has overcome.

He got the better of the world, and so will we.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Last night's speech, and other topics

I did not watch last night's speech by President Trump about the wall. 

I honestly don't know what to think about the wall, or about anything, because I am afraid of losing friends on either side of the aisle. 

I am afraid of being shamed for what I think, and unfortunately, there are people powerful enough to shame and silence others. 

I run conservative in my politics, and I feel like I am committing a sin by doing so.  I'm not "woke", and I'm not a social justice warrior, and I feel like those opinions are the only ones that count.  Anything that leans even a little bit to the right, politically, is to be silenced. 

I am afraid of losing my friends on either side of the aisle for what I believe.  I am afraid of being thought of as racist or bigoted, even by other Christians.  If I say "a", everyone else will say "b, c, d, e . . ." and I'm left with just saying, "Uh-uh-uh-uh . . ."

My little "squeak" gets drowned out by the screams of those around me.

I've said to my son that the only people who should have sex with each other are a man and a woman who are married to each other.  Am I wrong?  Because people use the Bible to teach that yes, only a man and woman who are married to each other should have sex with each other . . .and people also use the Bible to teach that a loving, same-sex relationship is okay. 

People use the Bible to teach that a woman shouldn't preach . . . and people use the Bible to teach that it's okay for a woman to preach.

People use the Bible to teach that you must be baptized in order to be saved . . . and people use the Bible to teach that you just have to "accept Jesus as your personal savior."

And then there are all the back and forths about the original Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic, the original audience, the context of the verses, the culture of the times . . . and I'm left feeling that I can't understand the Bible without a degree in theology and fluency in Biblical languages.

Then I'm told, "just love everyone and let God sort it out".  But sometimes, "love" is defined as "overlook my sin" or "don't tell me that what I am doing is wrong".  When you tell someone that they are doing something wrong, that's "judging", and we are not to judge (Matthew 7:1, yet another example of people using the Bible to "prove" that they are correct). 

I am supposed to "welcome the alien" because of the verses in the Old Testament that talk about "welcome the alien among you because you were aliens in Egypt" (my paraphrase.)  When we talk about deporting people here illegally, those verses are used to "prove" that the people who want to deport people here illegally are "hateful".  (I'm not going to tackle the topic here of children brought here by parents who came here illegally.  Because right now, I don't have an answer.) 

I am supposed to ALWAYS, without question, believe people who claim they have been assaulted.  If I say anything like, "I'd like to withhold my judgment until more facts come out," I will be accused of not believing victims.

The only women who are real women are those who are in the STEM professions or who are CEO's or high-powered lawyers or politicians.  Real women break glass ceilings and smash the patriarchy.  Real women don't get married or have kids because that's depending on a man for your worth and value, and by all means, you don't need a man for your worth and value!  If you want to have kids, okay, we'll let you have kids, but you'd better be back at that desk within six weeks.  Real women don't work in "traditionally female" occupations, like teacher, librarian, court reporter, secretary, waitress, because that's buying into the "traditional stereotype" of a female, and by all means, you do not want to do that, do you?  </sarcasm font>

In fact, if you as a woman have to get married, it's your husband that should stay home and take care of the kids while you go out and earn the living.

And above all, real women are STRONG.

I don't fit.  I don't fit any of this.  I'm not "woke", I'm not a social justice warrior, I haven't smashed a glass ceiling in my life and I'm not actively campaigning against the patriarchy.  But my voice squeaks in comparison to the gatekeepers of society and social media, and they have decided that people like me are to be shamed into silence. 

And frankly, I do not know what to do about it.  The fight just seems hopeless.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation

Say that again, Siri?

I like Siri.  I like the convenience of just saying, "Where is . . ?" "Can you . . ." I've asked her "what day of the week was  . . .?" mainly because when I proof, I need to make sure that the date is correct.  I've actually run across a couple of occasions where the day of the week did not match the date of the year.

But the disadvantage of Siri is that she's voice-recognition . . . and that leads to a few, shall we say, interesting situations.

Last year, during a cold snap, I was trying to figure out what the wind chill was.  I kept saying "wind chill" to Siri, and Siri kept translating it to words I was not saying.

One of the translations, I will not repeat here, because it garnered the following response from Siri:  "I hope you don't kiss your mother with that mouth." 

I got a reminder of Siri's translation abilities, or lack thereof, today when I spoke a reminder to her about a friend of mine.

Laura is a woman in my Bible study group who just discovered that she has an aggressive form of breast cancer.  She is fighting back just as aggressively.  (On her way home from her PET scan, she posted a video of herself singing along with the song "Radioactive", commenting that she was a bit radioactive after the scan!)  Today I saw a picture of her holding a martini glass filled with juiced vegetables.  Juicing is one of the weapons she's using in her war against cancer. 

Laura had her port put in today and had given people the time of her appointment.  So I asked Siri to "remind me about Laura's port".

The reminder that came up? 

"Laura sport." 

So I shared her response with Laura and she sent me back a laughing emoji. 

I wish I could tell Siri, "Make Laura's cancer go away," and have her say, "Your wish is my command."

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

What's the word?

In the last few years, I've seen that it's customary for people to adopt a "word" for the next year.  This word is one that they use to be their emphasis or their guide for that year.

Brian Hardin, from the Daily Audio Bible (www.dailyaudiobible.com) has adopted a word for the last few years.  Last year it was "hope", this year it was "maintain".

So, do I have a word for this year?

Well, yes . . . and no.

I have two words and a phrase for this year.  It's stuff I've been thinking about for some time, and it's about time I put the words into practice.

They are:  Foundation, fundamentals, and back to basics.

I've worried about several issues within Christianity over the last few years, such as, "Are we allowed to have instruments in worship?"  "What is the role of women?" and on and on and on.  Lately, it's occurred to me that answers to those questions aren't worth it if I don't have the proper foundation . . . which, according to I Corinthians 3:11 is Jesus Christ.

I can squabble about "women's roles", "instrumental music" and everything else, but what good is it if I am not building on Jesus? 

So here I am, picking up my shovel, and clearing away the rubble, leveling the ground for the foundation of Jesus, and praying that I will build on it with the proper materials. 

Happy New Year, all.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.