Searching for Peace in a Troubled World

 There is no peace in the Middle East with the Taliban on the loose. We cannot forget the people’s struggles in Cuba. The people in Haiti are suffering from a recent earthquake, and people in New Orleans are battling a hurricane. Closer to home, fires are raging in Northern California, and two people that I know, who are great writers and mentor other writers, have evacuated from their homes hoping their houses are still standing. People are suffering and dying still from Covid. It’s a troubled world, so how do we respond? 

Some people think that if they believe in Jesus or people who believe in Jesus will not have these troubles. They are incorrect. Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV) Jesus never said that we would not have trouble, but that he would give us peace whether we have trouble or not. We don’t just have Jesus not to have troubles, but we have Jesus for salvation from sin. Along with salvation, Jesus gives us peace in times of trouble. 

If life was easy and pristine, we would not need a Savior. If life was easy and pristine, we would not need anyone around us. Life is not easy. Hollywood created stories in the 1950s and the 1960s of how the creators desired life to be. Viewers took these shows as what life is in some families. No family was or is like what we see in film or television. Life is not a fairytale. So, we need someone to be there for us when the trials hit, and they hit. Many times, they hit hard. 

We can look around at the world and see the troubles. We can go on social media and grouse about the troubles and the injustices. We can pray. We can trust Jesus with our trials. We can take the love of Jesus over those trials and serve the people who need Jesus who are in those times of trouble. For some of the world’s problems, we have no idea what to do, but we can serve someone in our own community, who then could serve someone else, and then they serve someone, and maybe it would eventually get to the people on the other side of the world. 

Serving others in times of need is like throwing a rock in the water and watching the ripple effect. We never know that the small act of kindness can do for someone, and how that person can do a small act of kindness for someone else. If we begin to think of others over ourselves, then our world would be a much better place. If we would all spend less time berating others for what they do not do and focus on what we can do, then the world would have positive changes. The more we sit back and just spew our righteous thoughts and not have any actions, the world continues to spin out of control, along with any type of peace that we desire. 

There are so many people hurting. We can choose to just demean and belittle them, or we can serve them. If we choose to serve the people around us, we are sharing the peace of Jesus with others who are experiencing trouble in their lives, and then we begin to experience the same peace. We don’t always know the troubles that people are experiencing, but if we know the one who gives us peace in time of trouble, we can bring peace to those who need it most. It’s our choice. We can bring cynicism, pessimism, or love with Jesus. I choose Jesus. 

What a beautiful world it would be if we would be less about trivial issues (politics) and more about people. If humans were a higher priority in our society, more people would have access to the needs in life. Jesus brings peace. His peace may not be without conflict. His love may still bring us trouble, but he will always bring peace. May we all bring peace to those who need it. 

In This Time of Need, We Need Each Other

In a Time of Need, We Need Each Other

When a seventeen-year-old girl, Lydia Jacoby, from Alaska was swimming in her first Olympic final race, she had no idea that the support from home was so energetic.  She was not the favored swimmer. She wasn’t even supposed to be a contender for a medal, especially a gold medal, but she did not focus on what she was supposed to or not supposed to do. She just did what she did best, and that led her to a gold medal. It is not her win that is impressive, but how her small town in Alaska that gathered to watch her race, mostly made up of her high school peers, responded to her race and her win. The reaction of this small town made me realize that we all need our own cheerleaders, especially in this time of need. 

The world is hurting. From the events in Afghanistan, Cuba, many people vaccinated and unvaccinated falling to Covid, death of loved ones, and people being diagnosed with cancer, we see the tragedies of the world. Along with these tragedies in my social media world, I have friends in Northern California who had to evacuate from their homes because of the fires and are not confident that they will return to a house. With all the tragedies, some people begin to give answers for the reasons for these events. The argument for the reasons of these events is never a point. How we treat people who may be encountering these situations is vital. 

When we don’t focus on people in these situations, we then begin to prove that we are right on social media with issues, rather than give empowerment to those who are suffering. I am guilty of this as well as anyone else who uses social media. I’m misunderstood often, even today. So, maybe we should all take a break and begin to see the posts for those who need cheerleaders and become cheerleaders. 

We may not be able to jump up and down, but we can cheer for those who need to get healthy. We can encourage those who may have friends and relatives in places that are dangerous. We can empower those who work in a system that could get them sick, or in one in which people struggle because they are not encouraged. It is the church’s job to encourage and empower one another. 

In the Bible, Paul had Barnabas. With Barnabas, he also had the various cities in which he preached. The churches that Paul wrote to, became his best cheerleaders. Yes, I wrote that correctly. The church became cheerleaders. Imagine if the church would become cheerleaders for humanity today. I wonder how different our society would look and behave. Imagine, the church cheering for people to succeed rather than discouraging people. 

We can cheer for people and not their sin. We can cheer for people to be their best at what they do. We can cheer for people who serve others and are in the trenches every single day. They endure so many social media posts about the trenches in which they work from people who will never jump in those trenches and join them with the work. The trenches are messy, and they do not have glory. It’s why people who work in them spend less time arguing and more time changing the world with their innovations. 

Maybe, just maybe, the church needs to do more work for those on the outside to influence those on the inside and bring those on the outside into the church. People are not looking for the most correct group to join. People are looking for love and support. Jesus brought people inside when he showed them love and support. It’s time we learn from Jesus. May we all begin to become cheerleaders as we take note of the small town in Alaska that cheered their community member all the way to gold. Our goal is not gold, but hearts of gold that create love. 

 

 

Back to School With a Different Mindset

On August 16th, schools in Los Angeles will be open for in-person school for the first time since March 2020. Both students and teachers are anxious and excited. It will be different. It’s not just that masks will be worn or that everyone on campus will be tested for Covid and temperature checks every day. Those are just protocols that appear different. That is on the surface that everyone screams about on social media and never dive deep into the real issues. There are underlying issues that make this school year very different from any other school year. It will not just be about learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

As we enter the classroom, we all wonder how everyone will accept us. As a teacher, I’m feeling like it is my first year in teaching all over again. Do I remember all the details in routines? What new routines do I need to add or take away? Can I smile on the first day? Wait. That one does not matter as I’ll have a mask on my face. Whew. The students are also full of questions. 

The students wonder if their friends will still like them. They worry that others will belittle or bully them for gaining weight during the pandemic. They worry if they will get Covid. They wonder if they can stay in a classroom all day without walking around the room or doing whatever they were doing with online school. They wonder if the teachers are kind or mean. 

Do we even need to wonder why everyone is concerned? People on social media have been extremely rude and mean during the pandemic. During the time that most of us needed to connect with people with positive attributes, we were condemned, bullied, or ignored. We, as a society, need to do better. A whole generation depends on it. 

First, we need to learn how to inspire and encourage other people instead of guilt shaming them. I have learned that in the classroom if I can empower students, they will shine, but the moment I begin to lessen my leadership skills to guilt-shaming, they not only fail but our relationship is severed. We all need empowerment. Guilt-shaming not only produces bitterness, but it also backfires. The church has guilt-shamed people for years, just like the Pharisees and the other religious leaders did in the days that Jesus walked on earth. Jesus empowered people, so more people followed him and his ways, rather than the religious leaders and their ways. Guilt-shaming pushes people away. Empowerment brings people closer. 

Next, we need to accept people where they are in their present, so they can be successful in their future. Where they are on their journey in life is not for us to judge or condemn, but to meet them there and walk with them in their journey. It’s what we as teachers must do. I already know that my students are behind in their reading and writing skills thanks to last year. (They were behind before last year, so I must figure out how to bring them up from that too.) The same is with us accepting people in our own communities, whether in person or on social media. 

We need to let go of the past. we need to understand that all of us had different experiences during the pandemic. Some of us never said anything about our experiences on social media; we just lived life with whatever was thrown our way. We need to realize that everyone has their mountains in life. Instead of condemning, judging, and guilt-shaming them, we need to come aside and walk along with them. They may or may not come to the point where WE think they need to be, but if we are understanding of who they are as people, we will not need them to be where WE want them to be, but where THEY NEED to be. 

With our students, we need to be empathetic with their emotions and mental health. Their stress level is higher for so many more reasons than it ever has been. Not only are they concerned about Covid and their health issues, but some of them have been locked up with people that cause stress in their lives for various reasons. At a season in life that they should have been more social with their friends, they couldn’t meet with them. Some students struggle with being around people who are different from them. Some wonder if anyone will be their friend. Mental health is not a joke. We need to be more aware of the mental health of people around us instead of being right or authoritative. As a teacher, I need to recognize this daily.

Finally, this school year will be different, but we are all entering with gratefulness that we are not online, and we get to be in person with other students and teachers. We get to do learning activities that move us around the room. We get to talk with others around us. The students get teacher help immediately. As a teacher, I get to know the students as students and as young people. I can’t wait for the beauty that this year will produce. My restart of a first year just might be my best year ever. 

 

Moving Adventures to the Magical Home of Disneyland and the Angels

 If you’ve ever read any of my blogs on travelling or have travelled with me, then you know that I do not travel in a straight line. So, if I’m going to move to a new place, there is no straight line. In fact, there is no line. When this adventure started, there was hope and anticipation. I bought a house. It’s a manufactured home in Anaheim, California. I bought it for my mom and sister. I will live there for a while, and then move forward. The new house is in walking distance of the Angel Stadium and two miles to Disneyland. It sounds magical. The magic that will happen is when I can make the entire disaster of the movers, boxes and boxes of stuff disappear. 

Having lived in an apartment for twenty-one years, I found that material possessions accumulate, and many of them I haven’t seen in years. As I was packing, I found items from times long ago that brought good memories, and from times that do not need my focus nor my attention. I found items that I have no idea why I bought them in the first place. Many of those items were books. As the move progressed, I realized that I want to eliminate objects around me and become less intrigued with physical objects. That, or I’ve become less intrigued to ever move those physical objects ever again. 

Getting boxes from the grocery store, which looked like I was about to build one of those cardboard beds that they have in the Olympic village in Japan, using a plethora of packing tape, getting the tape all messed up around the tape dispenser, checking Facebook, putting objects in the boxes, putting some objects in bags that will be donated, watching the Olympics, and packing the apartment, filled my entire month of July, as we prepared for the movers to arrive. My sister and I have no idea how to pack a house. It looks like the Container Store had an issue with trash bags, which were a last resort when we ran out of boxes and bins. 

The maze we created was fun. We kept painting ourselves in a corner with boxes. If we were standing on the outside of the boxes, we needed something inside the maze of boxes, like chargers to electronics, and I climbed, jumped, twisted, and turned over boxes better than any gymnast in the Olympics. 

As time was running down, my sister and I had about three hours of sleep the night before the movers were supposed to come. Hence the phrase, “supposed to.” Every person who was supposed to set-up our house all came on the same day the movers were “supposed to” come. The movers were “supposed to” come between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM. At 12:15 PM, the movers called and said, “I think we were ‘supposed to’ come to your place and move you today, but when I called earlier, no one was there.” That was wrong because I was available all morning. My phone was always with me. The company claimed they had the wrong number. That’s interesting. I might want to remind them that they called me at 12:15PM on the correct number telling me that they thought they were “supposed to” move me that day. 

The moving company also told me that because they had other appointments, we would have to wait until next week. I’m glad they prioritized other people that they didn’t forget. To be clear, the day the movers were “supposed to” come, my sister and I safely moved my mom into the new house. I had to be creative to get her bed into the new house. I rented a SUV. I named it “Big Mama.” Do you know that everyone on Southern California freeways respects big SUVs? Big Mama got some stuff to the house! I bought an air mattress. I felt like I was camping. 

The moving company decided that they could fit us in their schedule four days later, which meant that I was trying to eliminate stuff from the apartment. When they finally moved us, one of the movers realized how cool our new community is and I think he got a beer from one of our new neighbors. Yes, we live in a friendly community that looks out for every neighbor. 

We are finally in our new place. Boxes surround us and I must try and find what I need, but it is peaceful and is working just fine. I’m back at work, so unpacking will move slower than I want, but at least everyone and everything that I decided to keep is safe and sound. I learned so much from this adventure.

One of the most important lessons I discovered that I must own less things and spend more time with people. People are not replaceable. Time moves and if we are not careful, it passes, and we may realize that we wasted it. Besides, the movers let me help them. I don’t know how they do it for a living. I was exhausted after one day of moving just one house. 

Another lesson I discovered is that memories are good to keep. Moving always brings memories of what has happened in the past, which brings us to a present that is here because of our past and leans into the dreams of the future. We cannot live in the past. We can admire the past with love as we remember the great times we had with family and friends. Any time we have had adventures, it was never because we had the most things but because we had the most experiences with other people. Most of my adventures were shared with many students from youth ministry days, and I wouldn’t trade them for any possession or any other adventure.

I learned that I may have to be in a place that I didn’t think I would live. Moving can be scary because we do not like going to the unknown. I’m a person who claims to thrive on change, but I was hesitant to move to a city two miles from Disneyland and in walking distance of the Angel Stadium. If we do not move, we stay stuck in a place that is not healthy, whether that is a job, a relationship, a house, a city, a service project, or even a community of faith. I should know because I tend to stay too long in those places. I’m learning to move forward. There comes a day when we must move to have a full life. Besides, adventures are built no matter the location but the people with whom we build them. 

In my new place I have discovered the beautiful sunsets and sunrises on my walks. I have discovered the diversity of people, just like we had in Culver City. I discovered the simple part of life, even when we are surrounded by an amusement park and a sports stadium. Time will tell where I will land next in life, but one thing I know for sure, that when I have a notion to move, I need to move. Now, if I could just find everything I need for the present, life would be great.