ForgottenWoman

Can We Talk?

Y’all, we live in an age where division is rampant – between believers and unbelievers and more than ever, between believers. What I, and maybe you, used to consider non issues, or unthinkable are now common ways of thinking; common ways of treating one another.

It probably started a lot sooner, but as I’ve contemplated this, my mind immediately goes to 2020 and the Covid culture. It was then that it became so clear that not only were we divided in how the virus should be handled, but we began to tell each other how to think, what to do and if someone chose a different path, we went into attack mode. (I use the ‘we’ lightly here because I know that not all of us did!) Whether my church continued to meet or not became the concern of my neighbor. Whether I chose to vaccinate or not became the concern of my neighbor. Whether I chose to wear a mask when I went shopping became the concern of my neighbor. I was kicked out of one store and chased through another by individuals who not only wanted me to wear a mask, but accused me of making everyone around me sick, and even of causing deaths because I didn’t. I won’t even repeat the names I was called. As far as I know, I never had Covid – so how in the world was I responsible for the sickness and deaths of others? Even now, as some of you are reading this, you are feeling tense because you fully believe that everyone should have been vaccinated and everyone should have been wearing masks during those months. It was a highly emotionally charged time for sure, and even today as we learn more, we are shocked by how easily we were convinced of one thing or another and how quickly we turned on one another.

You and I having different opinions is normal. Attacking one another for those opinions should NOT be normal. It was during those days that I was called uneducated by perfect strangers who have no idea what education I do or do not have. I was called an idiot by those who had no idea what my reasons for my decisions were. And unless you were literally living under a rock, you witnessed this behavior, you saw the conversations, you heard the arguments.

Let’s go to politics (just for a minute). When growing up, I didn’t even know who my parents voted for, what party they alligned with or what they thought of those who voted differently from them! During high school and beyond, I began to follow politics more closely and gained an understanding of who stood for what and began to form my own opinions. I was even able to discuss them with others: those who agreed with me and those who didn’t and we were able to hear one another, consider and even ‘tweak’ where we stood based on absorbing as much knowledge and understanding as we could! One of my favorite memories in Civics Class was during an election year. We were all allowed to give speeches concerning the presidential candidate we were rooting for and had a mock vote in our classroom. And, no. We didn’t all support the same candidate! Oh, and we were all still friends! Hey, we were 10th graders – acting more maturely than many adults do today.

Those were also the days when I was able to have dinner with a friend who followed the Catholic faith – talk to her about what I believe is Biblical and what my faith is built on! I was also able to teach piano to a group of children from a Mormon family. Before and after our lessons, their mother and I discussed all things pertaining to life, faith and family – disagreed on the basics of salvation through faith in Christ alone – walked away as friends who loved each other and were challenged to consider what the truth is! A little neighbor boy who was from a different belief system spent hours in the yard playing with my sons and his mother and I stood at the fence and talked about what we believed and why! I could give multiple examples of these types of relationships that I’ve had over the years and I can assure you that never, in all of those relationships did any of us attack the other verbally, accuse one another of a lack of education or common sense, call each other names or try to belittle or shame into subjection and silence.

But today?! It’s a different world! My purpose in this post is to challenge any and every one who will take the time to read: if you are truly a believer; you and I have the responsibility to do this differently! We also have the responsibility to speak up! If you are one who doesn’t like to discuss things that matter, who steers away from controversial subjects, who wants to discuss surface things that really don’t matter (what you just bought at the store, what clothes are in style, what’s your favorite make[up brand or flowers) we probably can’t be close friends. I want my conversation with you to better me, to challenge me, to cause me to think, to help solidify my faith even further… Be willing to dive in, to speak up, to stand for truth – NO MATTER WHAT! Believe me when I tell you that the tactics of name calling, shaming, accusing of a lack of compassion and education – it’s all meant to silence us. And when we are silent: evil continues to prevail!

Many of the young adults in our world today are experts at this. Maybe it’s the education system they came up through, maybe it’s their lack of spiritual understanding, maybe it’s just plain arrogance: but the way they think, the way in which they speak, the way they choose to talk down to everyone else in their conversations and posts on social media is/are astounding! And when you and I dare to speak up on a subject that truly matters – they will not hesitate to try to put us in our place!

The most recent example and what has been breaking my heart is the Lindsay Clancy case. I’m not going to go into the details of the case or why I feel the way I do about it – but I will say that the ability for us to share our views has allowed us to see much about our society as a whole, how group think happens, how theories become ‘gospel’ and how anyone who doesn’t agree with a position either doesn’t have a right to an opinion, lacks compassion, hasn’t even watched the trial and therefore doesn’t know what we know, or is too “spiritual” to be educated. Now, that last line is a direct quote and it would take a book to answer it Biblically so I won’t do it here. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem and before you think to yourself that you cannot do anything about it, let me ask you to reconsider that thought! Yes, we CAN do something about it! How did we get here? We sat back and remained silent while those much louder than us intimidated us.

Righteous anger is what is stirred up within us when we hear and see what we know is wrong, what we know is evil. God created that ability to feel righteous anger so that we would act upon it. Righteous anger responds in love, with control and with truth. And you and I are capable of that! We can’t sit back and just let things be. We can’t ignore the news because it bothers us. We can’t pretend babies and children aren’t being murdered because someone might call us a name if we speak up. We can’t excuse evil because someone isn’t mentally well. Oh – I’m going to stop there, because we ARE going to address this whole notion soon. Much of this most recent case is based on the idea that because of mental illness, someone should not be held accountable for their actions. I may be too “spiritual” to be educated but both my education and my understanding of God’s Word as well as my personal experience as a woman with raging hormones before, during and after many preganancies tell me that when God says repeatedly in His Word that we should be actively, intentionally and regularly renewing our minds – He KNOWS all about these bodies and minds that He created! Maybe the rise in mental illness is because we’ve set aside His Word and what It tells us about our mental health.

Ok. Think about these things with me, please!

On another note: It’s been a little bit since I’ve added a blog post; and I apologize for the pause – but am excited to introduce a new aspect of The Forgotten Woman Ministries. We’ve begun a YouTube Channel that is currently focused on bite-sized pieces of our Forgiveness Study – for those who are unable to attend but would like to consider in small chunks what we are learning, as well as for those who do attend and asked me to do this. I’d love for you to check it out and subscribe and listen. It’s absolutely free – just getting started, so you being there is encouraging!

As always, thank you for your support!