Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Unsubscribe

 This morning I was checking my emails, and became annoyed at all the junk email there was.  Do you get them too?  From different places you may have contacted in the past by ordering something, or checking their website, and now your email in-box is loaded with constant emails from them.  I’ve tried to keep up deleting those unwanted emails, but then keep piling up on me.  So I again started going down the list and unsubscribing.

    There are  other things in life that need to be unsubscribed to also.  How about negative thoughts, unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, etc. the list could go on and on.  Things in life that just clutter up your mind and heart, and don’t let you get to the things that are really important.  The clutter makes finding those wanted personal emails, hard to find.  So even though I unsubscribe to emails every once in a while,  without careful diligence, unwanted emails can pile up.
         I love how the Amplified Bible says it in Hebrews 12:1, ““… let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,”
‭       All those little things that entangle us, like getting caught in a net or trap.  We unknowingly step in, and slowly but surely we get more and more tangled into the mess of the trap, till we can’t get out without careful and purposeful action.  The next verse in Hebrews 12 tells us just how to untangle and unsubscribe to this mess.  “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”  Look to Jesus.  He can help you unsubscribe to those things that are weighing you down.  When we’re free of the clutter and extra weight it has caused in our lives, we can then run our race with freedom.
     So maybe today, take some time to clean out your email in-box, and unsubscribe to all that junk, and also start to click unsubscribe to a some unwanted junk in your heart.  

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Chasing Dust Bunnies

      I recently moved all my belongings into a storage unit, and emptied out my house.  As pieces of furniture were either removed because I sold them, or loading them into the moving truck, there always seemed to be those never ending dust bunnies underneath.  Some were so large, I had to call them 'dust buffalos' because a bunny just didn't seem to fit them.  Having a long haired cat has certainly added to the added dust collection.   Nobody likes them, but most everyone has them, a dust collection, unwanted, unseen till deep cleaning happens, or you move the furniture.  Dust bunnies don't hurt anything, just make you sneeze and are hard to sweep up, as they float around the floor.   They float around gaining extra particles of dust, and hair as they roll across the floor.

     Dust bunnies can be a lot like negative thoughts.  They start out small, and almost unoticed, but start to pick up more dirt around them, till they start to take form and become a real nuisance in ones life.  As the dust bunnies in our mind collect more dirt, they start to take on form, often of something that really was never there.  We imagine the worst.  Negative thoughts  attract more negative things.  It takes real effort to change them, just like it takes moving the couch to find them underneath.  That’s why in Philippians 4:6 says to think on things that are true, noble, just, pure and lovely and a good report.  We have to purposefully think on those things.   But if we will actually change our thinking, we’re promised that the God of peace will be with us.  
   “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:8-9‬ ‭NIV‬‬