March 20, 2020

I don’t know about you, but with all that has been happening in our country this past few weeks, it would be very easy to lose perspective on anything and everything. It has been a surreal experience. I would really like to keep my perspective grounded from God’s point of view as His perspective is where I will find peace and calm among the chaos.

When things get tough, we can sometimes do one of two things. Some of us may want to stay busy so we don’t have time to think about what’s going on OR some of us may think too much on the problem, accomplishing nothing but worry.

Worry is like a rocking chair.
It will give you something to do,
but it won’t get you anywhere.”

Our family tends to have a pretty full schedule that I write out every Saturday evening for the next week so we know where we are to be and when. Some days are more full than others, so for us, timing is important as well. Once I put down all the weekly activities, I write down daily who I am specifically going to pray for and with as well as when I am going to workout as those are super important to me.

Sometimes, there are things that will not fit for our week, and we have to decide what is going to be given up to be able to make whatever it is work. One thing I have also learned is that if we have something on the calendar that doesn’t get done, not to worry. It is best for us, if we choose to let go of something rather than stress to fit it in OR if we’ve had a full day the day before, we may decide to ease up the next day.

I can be one to think way too much sometimes. I can easily overanaylize everything which can bring on the anxiety. That tends to happen to me moreso in the evenings or middle of the night. I have learned how to combat this with God’s Word and prayer. It is the only way I will not feel like I am going to go insane at times. I must take every thought captive, replacing lies with Truth.

With our Spring Breaks not being at all what anyone was expecting to do with their time, it would be super easy to fall into these extreme categories. We must choose to make the most of every opportunity we have been given.

So what are we choosing to dwell on and how do we see things? We have all seen people have a toilet paper scare, for whatever reason, and my husband showed me that there is actually toilet paper being sold at crazy dollar amounts on ebay, and people are bidding! Have we lost our ever living marbles?!?!

Earlier this week, I started reading where I had left off on a book titled, Created for Commitment, by Bible Study Fellowship Founder A. Wetherell Johnson, and she’s talking about toilet paper, and I was thinking, “you have got to me kidding me?!”

Her perspective is SO much different than ours though. While she was in a Japanese Internment camp for over three years, they were told that each prisoner was going to receive a gift from the Japanese Emperor one Easter. Guess what that was?! A roll of toilet paper! Yes, ONE roll of toilet paper was their gift, and they were overjoyed!

I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how to make toilet paper last a month let alone years! I almost cried reading this! She found the JOY in everything, no matter how bleak it looked. Then I wonder, has she, and others who didn’t take things for granted, been looking down from a window of heaven lately, wondering what the heck we are doing? I am here and still wondering that as I am sure many of you are as well.

Our family has a monthly calendar to pray daily for nations who are being persecuted. I listen to Voice of the Martyrs radio sometimes though cannot listen every day because it is so overwhelmingly different than how we live here and can really break my heart which is what is needed to be the change in the world we want to see, right? How can we make a change if we are clueless on what needs changing? It is way too easy to ignore the other countries and even the needs right in our own community when we are just fine and dandy, wanting for nothing! Oh, but we do! We want more! It is never enough!

Last week, I received this picture, and I could not stop staring at it, realizing how we are way too comfortable! When you first look at the picture, you may think to yourself that these people are in trouble, that maybe an earthquake, or something similar, just disastrously happened.

These people, from China, traveled to their church, most on foot, many miles, to come together to worship and have a church service. Their building was destroyed by people who are against them meeting to worship, and I am sure they thought that would keep them away BUT it didn’t PTL! These brothers and sisters in Christ know that the Church is not a building they meet in but instead THEY are the Church!

And look at the child just running around as if she has no care in the world. Why? Because the adults are choosing to not live in fear.

There are children living in war zones every single day hearing bombs go off. Do we think about them? There are people in prison for their faith in Christ. Are we remembering them, and what are we doing about it? Are we suffering and crying with them when we hear of and read their stories and listen to them?

So, maybe our country is in need of knowing what we have taken for granted for all our lives while other people in other countries are finding the JOY amongst the chaos that we couldn’t even imagine living in but the perspective is they, more than likely, have done it all their lives as well, and if not, they adapt, and they do it together.

So, don’t you think we, as a “Nation under God”, should be able to adapt together in unity instead of fighting? What is this teaching our children? I personally believe it is teaching them that it’s okay to have an entitlement attitude. I also feel it is instilling unnecessary fear in them when they see grown humans running around like chickens with their heads cut off in panic thinking that the end is near. Is that really how we would want to live our last days? To me, that just sounds like miserable living!

Don’t you think that there are more important things we can be doing with our time and resources we have been blessed with? I love hearing the sweet stories like landlords who are giving tenants a break until everyone is back to work again. How about the people who are donating their time to pack care packages and deliver meals? I am seeing workout studios do live streaming so you can workout at home! Then, there are people that are sharing videos of hope and encouragement to those who cannot get out! I just love the selfless things I am seeing that people are doing with their creative juices!

So, back to Miss A. Wetherell Johnson’s story that I highly recommend you read. When the war ended, they had packages dropped from parachutes for them, and she remembers all the pretty colors floating down.

They stood in line to get what she thought was a canned good for each of them. Guess what? They each received a container with multiple canned goods including some rolls of toilet paper!

While waiting to go home, some people traded their toilet paper for a canned good; however, to be somewhat discreet, they renamed toilet paper, “The Emperor’s Gift”.

So, please, let’s LOVE each other by practicing selflessness, and the next time you complain about what you don’t have, remember how “The Emperor’s Gift” can go a very, very, very long way!

Blessings,
Jennifer