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 into 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. . In fact, a few of his enemies who did him wrong are in the book of Psalms.  Paul and John had no problem naming those in their letters who were attempting to do them much damage. 

 3 John 9-12  I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.  Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.  Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.   Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.

Two other books are the writer penning their frustrations with GOD and with life in General.   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.  Job is another who did a whole lot of complaining to GOD, blaming Him for his dire straits, although, usually we are not taught that.  The Most High gave the devil free reign up to a certain point to wreak havoc in Job's life.  Most of the Job’s words were his complaining to GOD and why I wrote the book, The Wrath of Job, In His Own Words.  It’s not a commentary, it’s just Job complaining to GOD, airing his frustrations.  The most part, we get so lost up in the selfish and evil motives of his “friends” trying to pin blame on Job, that we miss the entirety of Job airing his frustration with GOD.  I spent a whole weekend once just writing Job’s and only Job’s words down in a notebook, and boy did I get an eyeful, one I never got in any Bible study specifically on that book in any church setting.  

So, like David, Solomon, and Job, my goal in life in life is to bear fruit, fruit for those who have already experienced the pain of betrayal, the loss of hope, and endless days of drowning in their seas of despair.  I tell people, I want to be a lighthouse for those who can no longer swim in their seas of despair.  One of the place where I can best process my thoughts is on Facebook, believe it or not.  Sometimes, I’ll see a post and before I know it, I’ve written about four paragraphs about that specific post and how it helped me process some kind of pain. That’s when I know it’s time to change the privacy settings and re-write it into a new blog post.  In fact, that’s how this original blog post came to be. 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 is that 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.  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.  

 One night, while I was having my tantrums, lying down, kicking my feet and shaking my fist at GOD when those familiar questions popped into my mind: "WHY ME?" or "WHEN will this end?" to which there never is an answer.  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.  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 to 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.  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 get my tears and frustration out on the Playwright to the story of my life. I sit 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 warmer who would never have gotten themselves in that kind of mess, hence they assume silently to themselves that it was the bruised reed's fault.  As Job and Naomi rightly 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, 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. 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 imperfect people going to a Perfect Savior for help and wisdom.  I think that the friends of Job are a type of church people who need to blame the sufferer, lest such an unfortunate turn of events happens to them. They taught us what not to say, while GOD teaches us to Whom we should turn, and if complaining is all we can do, well, then, do like David. Who knows, if we publicly pour out our complaints to GOD, there just may be another drowning soul who can grab on the the Buoy keeping you afloat!