Skip to main content

Bwaigda


            The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 
           "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

            Riding my bike the other morning, I thanked God for guiding me in the past. I thanked Him for guiding me in the future because if there is one thing I believe that I really believe (I said) it is that God will guide me. I have three weeks before I relocate and have to set up my other half-life, with many questions about what that is supposed to look like, but I know God will guide.
           I got off my bike and decided to get the breakfast dishes out of the way. In the midst of scrubbing oatmeal "glue" from a bowl, anxiety kicked in. What was wrong? Nothing. Just amorphous anxiety, my heart grabbing hold of the leash of that same old rabid dog that has bitten it before. I think it's name is Bwaigda ("But What Am I Gonna Do About.") 
       Didn't I just say that the one thing I knew was that God will guide me? Yep. Is it any less true? No. But my heart, oh, my heart likes to be in control. It likes to tell me stories. Unfortunately, the stories it tells aren't really good stories. They're often stories of baseless fear, amorphous anxiety, anonymous anger, and spectacular revenge. They aren't the source of the sort of behavior for which I want to be rewarded. 
         This time, I noticed what I was doing and thought about what a good blog entry it would be. I let go of Bwaigda's leash before she bit me. My answer was that I was going to use her as an example to help others.  Does Bwaigda stalk you, too? Don't try to make friends. She's infectious and the cure is painful and only works if provided very quickly.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...