Category Archives: What Do You Think? Wednesday

Doing is Believing

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

“Sometimes I don’t know if I believe the Bible,” one of my mentees recently said to me. This she said because “If I believed the Bible then I would live differently.” She had great insight into herself. Our beliefs should dictate our actions and when it doesn’t, surely our beliefs or our actions need to change. If, as Christians, our actions don’t line up with the Bible then we should change our actions to line up with the Word. But what if you find that belief is not your issue? You’re just emotionally, spiritually or physically too tired to live the Word. What if you don’t do the Word because you are too tired to fulfill the Word? Where does that leave you?

Have you doubted God’s Word or just been too tired to fulfill it? Even strong black women have doubts and don’t do the Word sometimes, but what is the recourse for getting back to following the Guidebook for our lives? I really want to know what you think. Please, chime in.

I Am George Zimmerman

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She made me mad, refusing to do what she knew she was supposed to do. I was there to help her and she wanted to lay there and take a nap. How could my mama refuse my help and to do what she knew would benefit her? That was Friday afternoon. Then late that evening, as I was climbing into bed and just then remembering that I had never gotten to my Bible study lesson that day, I wondered why I hadn’t done what I knew would benefit me. Funny how your words will come back to haunt you, pin you down and make you cry uncle, surrender to the fact that you ain’t all that and you spiritually stink sometimes, too.

This was my personal revelation, but my Christian brother Timashion Jones made all his Facebook friends reflect on how we spiritually stink and needed help being brought out of that funk (a challenge that he got from our pastor, Christopher W. Brooks). He said that while we are saying that we are Trayvon Martin, stereotyped, mistreated and suffering from injustice, we should be saying that we are Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman: “…(I)n light of the Gospel we are really ‘George Zimmerman’ (Mark 7:20-23). We all need a Savior! Yeah we all want justice thats (sic) deserved but do WE all want the Justice (sic) that WE deserved.” And with that, I paused, saw his point and considered asking God to have mercy on Zimmerman, who still, because of God’s law of sowing and reaping and submission to authority, has great consequences coming to him for hunting and killing an unarmed child. But in light of the Gospel, how do you feel about Jones’ statement that “we are really ‘George Zimmerman’”? Please, tell me what you think.

How to Do Better

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

“I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.”—Jeremiah 10:23

When you know better you do better, at least that what my mama says and that’s what should happen. But sometimes we know better and just don’t do better for a number of reasons:

  • We may know better but not how to do better.
  • We may know better but are afraid of the result of doing better.
  • We may know better but like the result of not doing better.
  • We may know better but don’t want the inconvenience that we think comes with doing better.

Or we may avoid doing better because we just want to remain in control, any change throwing off our well-working system. Sometimes avoidance is about control. Regardless of our reason, we are guilty of not doing better when we know better; there’s no way around that: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). But how do we get over the obstacles we let stand in our way of doing what we know is right? How do we follow after righteousness and forsake sin?

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Pray for wisdom and then follow it. That teaches us how to do better.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

God is always with us and won’t ever fail us. We can know that our outcomes will be divine because we have God’s power and provision. That should freeze our fear of doing better.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20).

We think we like best what we see but God can do far better than that. That shows us we’re likely to care more for the results of doing better.

“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me” (Psalm 119:33). When we ask God to order our steps according to His word, God’s ways and not our ways will be the order of the day. “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

That puts the convenience in our doing better.

Our way to doing better is a constant press. When we stop pressing, we stay the same or get worse. When we stop pressing we give Satan room to press into our path and wreak our lives. We have our place. We have our plan. We must press. We can press when we

listen to God;
let Him guide us; and
love God enough to follow and love others through Him.

Doing better when we know better is the Christian obligation. What are some other reasons we don’t do better even if we know better? How are you handling doing better because you know better? Please, let me know what you think.

Out to Lunch

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

Actually my break from regularly scheduled activities started well before breakfast and has lasted way past dinner. This now is my life as I care for my family (husband and 2-, 4- and 9- year-old sons), which now includes my 70-year-old mother. My blogging times have been later these past few days, with my new life seeming to crowd my writing space. This is hard, trying to maintain this blog in such a season, but I haven’t heard the Lord tell me to stop. He initially told me to post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and for more than three years I have done that (with the exception of a couple maternity leave days). “Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Because God called me to manage this site, I will remain faithful to the calling, posting by midnight my three days a week. Lord willing, you will hear from me on Friday.

How have you managed major seasons of change in your life?

Homeschooling and Other Foolish Parental Notions

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

I never thought the challenges would come like this: mostly from family and friends who don’t understand my evolution and want me to be the woman they knew me to be. I was fierce and fought battles that I now know were not my own; I took on assignments and roles and a demeanor that God never meant for me. These shaped my strong black woman mantle that I later laid at God’s feet to pick up the charge He had for me. Marry who I say marry; vote for who I say vote for; parent the way I say parent. Follow me the way I say follow me. But my loved ones’ responses to my choices should not be a shock to me. Jesus’ family didn’t believe He was the Messiah and folks in His hometown dishonored Him (Mark 6:1-4). So if that happened to Jesus, surely I should expect the same to happen to me. And if my loved ones challenge (persecute in some cases) me, even if the Bible didn’t say so I should expect the world to do the same (John 15:20). My job is to shrug off the criticism, respond if I’m led and do so in the manner Jesus would have me to. This is not always easy. I’m clear about my ministry calling, to the world and to my family, and this clarity gives me the direction I need to accomplish my calling. Trying to explain, defend even, my choices beyond what God tells me to, takes time and energy away from fulfilling my calling and can lead me back to my strong black woman fierce talking ways. I must remember that the only one who needs to understand what God has called me to do is me.

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11-16).

Though these verses compare the spirit of the world to God’s Spirit, which all believers in Christ have, the spirit of the world can apply to believers who the Spirit hasn’t spoken to about our calling. Their response to us may be just like someone who doesn’t understand something spiritual; they may follow the ways of the world and may use the mind of the world when challenging us. So we must know what God is saying to us. We must ask, believe and walk out what He says (James 1:5-8). All this pondering came about today as I reflected on a challenge from my mom to participate in a sorority event, a friend questioning the depth of one of my analyses and a New York Times editorial on homeschooling, which is how my husband and I educate our children. Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum and his wife’s decision to home educate their children was the author’s launching pad; the story was bigger than home schooling, though, and challenged the effects of parents’ choices to in any way isolate their children. Another Times article outright said home schooling “is shortsighted and cruel” and “misguided foolishness,” comparing it to “home dentistry.”

In this world, you have to know who God has called you to be and what He has called you to do. If not, you will doubt what you heard and be a double-minded woman, unstable in ALL your ways (James 1:6-8). We are called to stability and can stay focused with God’s help (2 Timothy 1:7; John 15:4-7).

For those of you who have learned to shrug off comments and respond to others according to the Spirit, how did you come to that point? You can read the New York Times articles here and here and, please, tell me what you think. Also, check out my best friend Carla Yarbrough’s blog post Purpose and Persecution and Kim Cash Tate’s posts Strategic Plan and D6 Parenting and chime in on those too!