Take it to the proper place, Facebook!

      Everyone says never to air our dirty laundry publicly on Facebook or social media, but I think GOD disagrees.  Usually what man thinks, GOD is thinking the exact opposite, but with a twist of Omniscient Wisdom mixed in to it.  Some of us need to process our thoughts and pains and we think out loud. I used to be a journaler until arthritis made holding a pen so very unpleasant.  Age does that, it makes our thoughts clearer and our penmanship more difficult to decipher to even ourselves.  Do we have examples of journalers in the Bible?  I dare say yes, at least 150 times if not more. The book of Psalms is the writer publicizing his agonizing and invigorating thoughts for the readers to digest into their own lives. The Psalmist is processing his pain and the confusion into eloquent words until by the end of the Psalm, for the most part, he has acquired valuable wisdom from Above. Unfortunately, with much of that wisdom came even grievous sorrows, ah yet, to pull out his pen and start all over. 

      The book of Ecclesiastes is the work of the wealthiest and wisest king of Israel, in which he is griping about how meaningless life is.  All the way through it, Solomon is trying to process the intense Wisdom from Above, because he was given more than a flawed human would be able to bear and carry.  Let me tell you, it's true, the more you know, the more you wish you didn't know. By the time he gets to the twelfth chapter, he is able to put all his complaining and moaning together and come out with timeless wisdom that for 3,000 years we have benefited.  David and Solomon are gone, happily in Paradise, but they are still bearing fruit down here.  

     That my goal in life.  I want to bear fruit when I'm up in heaven, not while I'm down here. I know myself pretty well, and GOD knows me better.  I would not do very well with success. Failure, on the other hand, I excel at, and I am able to take it all in stride as I am quite used to it.  Failure is  safe, especially in obscurity.  It's in the failure that we learn the most about us, other people, life, and our Savior and GOD.  People give me a hard time about all the stuff I put up on my Facebook page, but what they don't realize, those are the little 2 am sessions are lessons of wisdom I get usually when insomnia from menopause takes control of my sleep schedule. It seems I sleep like a cow grazes, a nap here, a nap there, sometimes even standing up.  Those early Facebook posts are how I process the pain and lessons of the past twelve years.  Thank goodness for the delete buttons that I can just move those thoughts from Facebook to a blog post and delete the rough draft on my social media.  I always ask GOD the big questions during those, what I call, toddler temper tantrums, because to Him, I am that.   So, while I was having my little fit,  one of those deep questions.  "WHY ME?"  Not very original, but usually the question is "WHEN will this end?" to which there never is an answer.  So, I decided to go with a different approach today.   There are so many players involved in the causes of my broken heart and tears, and none of them are crying over it.  I happen to have a very deep and sensitive heart that holds on to things like GOD does, and I can never let it go, like memories, people I've loved, the things that hurt Him the most hurt me just as much.  GOD is the Author of our story so if someone has crushed us by doing us bad, it was GOD who took that bad thing to use it for good.  You could say He brought those waves into our storm, playing "devil's advocate,"  if you'll pardon the expression.  

     We all know the story of Job, and how GOD wagered a bet with the devil, knowing full well that He would win that bet, but the devil challenged GOD anyway, because he is evil and wants to do nothing but harm to YHWH's beloveds.  The Most High gave him free reign up to a certain point to wreak havoc in Job's life.  If you notice, he used weather, armies, and people partying to do all this damage to Job.  Then, when given another shot at it, GOD let him use sickness, and the devil messed him up good.  He was unrecognizable by his friends when they finally did come to his "aid."  The book says that they sat quietly with Job, not saying anything, which some people say was merciful.  I have a different perspective.  I'm going to guess they were processing all the bad that happened to Job and plotted in their minds just how they were going to explain this to him, putting all the blame on him, because, by golly, for it to be random, meant it could happen to them, so they had to place the blame somewhere.  They placed on a person, while Job the entire time placed blame on God, where it should have been placed.  

  

     This is not the lesson you would hear in a Sunday sermon, I can guarantee that.  So, when I asked GOD, the why me question, why am I the only one crying when there are multiple actors in this tragic literary story of my life, and like always, the answer came before I could finish the long e vowel sound in me.  He said, "Because, Kristina, you know how and where to process all this pain. They don't. "   GOD doesn't speak audibly to us, but He will put the answer in our head in a manner of thought, usually before we finish asking the question.  If the answer is bathed in Wisdom, something you wouldn't have thought of yourself, or the perfect answer, then, it's likely from GOD.   So, then I asked GOD, "Okay, I'm taking my griping and complaining to the right source, You want me to come to You, I get that, but I have to teach it to other bruised reeds, so You are going to have to show me and example in the Bible." And of course, before I finished the L sound in Bible, immediately John-the-Baptist pops into my head.  

     The poor dude was thrown in prison for doing what?  He was preparing the way for the Messiah, he was teaching about repentance, and he had the nerve to approach Herodias and Herod with what they were doing wrong. Well, that was gutsy, but it got him thrown in a dungeon for a set amount of time of which we are not informed.  After a while, hunger and fatigue started to get to him, and before you know it, he is starting to doubt the Lamb of GOD who takes away the sins of the world, when he was the one who gave him that title.  He saw the Holy Spirit come down on him, that was his cousin, the one that he experienced while still in his mother's womb who caused him to leap for joy. Now, he's starting to doubt?  Tell me, did he start griping to his disciple or guards or other prisoners with his doubt?  No, he went straight to the source and asked the Son of GOD himself, by way of messenger.  Did Jesus reprimand him for doubting?  Of course not, he gave him the answer that he needed to hear to comfort him while literally "dying" in prison.  

         So, I got my tears and frustration out on the Playwright to the story of my life. I sat there and griped and complained about how the waves were leaving me water-logged with no shore in sight, and here comes Yeshua, walking on water with the lesson I needed to calm the seas, and stop the tears.  It was wisdom from above that most people would not hear from a shame-inducing, holier-than-thou pew warmers who would never have gotten themselves in that kind of mess, hence they assume siliently to themselves that it was the bruised reed's fault.  As Job and Naomi right proclaimed, it wasn't always the broken person's fault, but it was in GOD's plan for their lives.  So, when am in suffering from another case of insomnia, because my arthritis has gotten so bad, instead of writing the question and answer session I've had with GOD  in my journal, I post it on Facebook.  Before I know it, I've posted a multi-paragraph post, and I realize that it's another blog post, so I copy and paste.  That my friends was how GOD's servants did it in the Bible in the wisdom books such as Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and that is why GOD gave us the book of Job.  I think that the friends of Job are a type of church people who need to blame the sufferer, lest such an unfortuante turn of events happens to them.