Brave, Anyway

Author: bravegirlwannabe

  • Hell in a Handbasket

    Hell in a Handbasket

    I failed a class in college. Political Science 101. I love all things politics so you’d think I would have earned an A++. But that class started at 8am, in a building at the top of a very large hill, during the very cold winter. I skipped it. A lot. 

    That professor taught me two things:

    1. The phrase hell in a handbasket.

    2. Always read the syllabus.

    His class had an attendance policy, which I didn’t know but I also thought shouldn’t matter because I was smart. Wrong. But I am actually very thankful for the lesson, which I have thought about on dozens of occasions since. That lesson made me better. 

    Hell in a handbasket was a phrase he said often, and at 18 I thought it sounded a little crazy and overdramatic. But now that I’m the age he was when teaching the class I find myself thinking a lot of things are going to hell in a handbasket.

    For instance, there is absolutely no reason to rearrange the TJ Maxx. We go there to wander around until we hear the call of the things that need to be in our home. But when some new manager decides to move whole sections around, shoppers can’t hear items calling them while trying to navigate the new walkway pattern and aisles. 

    Put. It. All. Back.

    But that’s not the real reason I’m annoyed today. This evening I passed a church with a sign out front that said “Everyone Welcome. No Exceptions.” And it made me angry. Why would anyone NOT be welcome? In any church, anywhere?

    Maybe because we’ve been getting some things wrong, like our responsibility to show the world the love of God. To live lives that reflect Christian values, to the best of our ability. To vote for policies and people that reflect Christian values, to their best of their ability.

    So many church-goers give Christians a bad name, with a lot of it boiling down to the refusal to obey God’s call to love your neighbor. So many church-goers give Christians a bad name, we have to put up signs – SIGNS – that show where the people who are marginalized are welcome and safe.

    We have so much repair work to do, and what that sign represents makes me mad.

    Sometimes I feel like half of America has put hope in a man because they desperately want to hold some sort position, at the expense of others. That’s not going to save anyone or make disciples. Sometimes I feel like half of America has put hope in a man simply because, whether or not they realize it, they no longer have hope in their hearts or their churches.

    Either way, it seems like a path to hell in a handbasket.

  • Father’s Day, by Numbers

    3: Number of Father’s Days without our Dads.

    11: Number of Father’s Days Audrey had with her Dad.

    15: Number of years my bonus Dad, my father in law, lived with us.

    17: Number of Father’s Days Ella had with her Dad.

    18: The day of June that my Papa passed from this life to the next, Father’s Day that year.

    48: Number of Father’s Days with my Dad.

    91: The Psalm that was my Dad’s favorite, that he prayed over all of us each day and that I now pray over all of us each day. Arguably the most important learning from my Dad.

    775: Days that Ella and Audrey have waited so far to get their Dad’s belongings.

  • Starting My Day

    Starting My Day

    Father, I thank you for today and I ask you to help me today. Help me to do your will in all things, act like your child, and be a good citizen and representative of your kingdom. Help me to stay on your straight and narrow path, and not stray into sin traps and mud puddles. Help me to steer clear of reasoning, people-pleasing and pride, and fear, anxiety and worry.

    I thank you that this is the day that you have made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I believe the love that you have for me and I expect great things today. I thank you for supernatural favor everywhere I go and in everything I do. Traveling, in the car, with family and friends, with my clients, bosses, colleagues and team.

    I thank you for your promise in Acts 16:31 that everyone in my household is saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your household.

    I ask for your hedge of protection around, over, and under me and my family. I pray that we won’t break any bones or have any accidents and I thank you that everyone in my household is cancer, disease, condition and addiction free. Cancer and diseases cannot take root in us and they cannot prosper in us. in any way, shape, form or fashion.

    I pray Psalm 91 over and I plead the blood of Jesus over (all family names).

    We who dwell in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. We will say of you Lord, you are our refuge and our strength. Out God in whom we can trust…Under your wings we shall take refuge. You will be with us in trouble. With long life you will satisfy us and show us your salvation.

    Psalm 91

    I lift up everyone on my teams, and (teammates’) teams. I pray that we make good decisions and act like good leaders, that we find success in all we do, and for our physical and mental health.

    I pray in accordance with your word, and in agreement with many other people, for complete and total healing for (names of little cancer fighters). I thank you for their complete and total healing, for their long life and salvation, and that they do not have any short, long or late term side effects of their treatment course.

    And finally, I lift up all these folks. You know the needs in their lives. I pray above all for their relationship with you, but also for their healing – spiritually, mentally, physically and in every area of their lives. (Names on my phone list, on the church prayer list, friends and family and neighbors, church leaders.)

  • The Same Coin

    The Same Coin

    Heads or tails?

    So much of what we are reading about and dealing with today are two different perspectives on the same situation. Two different visuals of the same thing. When you pick up a penny and flip it, you may get heads or you may get tails – but you still have the same penny.

    A family all on their phones in a restaurant is a broken unit that doesn’t communicate. A family who’s spent the day visiting grandpa in the hospital appreciates together downtime and a meal.

    People on Medicaid don’t work. People on Medicaid can’t work.

    A woman that marries a man who dies a few weeks later is a tragic figure. A woman who marries a dying man, and in the few remaining weeks of his life while he’s hospitalized and medicated his beneficiaries change, is a woman with a lot of money.

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

    In some cases, there’s a clear right and wrong side. But generally I think both sides of the penny have some level of truth.

    Sometimes we are unaware. Sometimes we choose to be ignorant. Sometimes we just choose wrong.

    A lot more of us have to be willing to look at the other side of the coin with a mindset like what am I missing or what would I think if this was me, or someone in my family? We have to stop being afraid to look at the other side of the coin. We have to stop acting like we lose if we give the other side any attention. We have to have open and honest dialogue about both sides.

    We also have to stop refusing to admit when we are wrong. Sometimes you don’t know until you know – like Medicaid is not mostly utilized by people who don’t want to work but mostly by people who can’t work or who lost their job. Maybe they had a tragic accident or their child is critically ill.

    We can’t rely on politicians to talk about or even look at both sides of the coin. They don’t benefit in that. We, the people, must do it – refusing to believe there are two coins. We must approach issues as they really are: and sometimes that’s two sides of the same coin.

  • Land of Confusion

    Land of Confusion

    My thoughts right now are a little all over the place – kind of like the world we currently live in, I guess.

    What is the appropriate Christian response to all that is happening, and what is the acceptable human response? What would an angry Old Testament God do and what would a forgiving New Testament Jesus do?

    Even the people who (supposedly) read the Bible, pray, and worship on Sundays can’t agree on this.

    Over 70 years ago, Orwell told us Ignorance is strength in the Ministry of Truth…and if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’

    Who and where is the Winston Churchill of our time? Please stand up.

    So many neighbors hung Ukrainian flags a couple years ago. Many of those same folks posted Trump signs in their yard last fall. Are they suddenly convinced that Russia did not invade Ukraine or are they the kind of humans that can easily just abandon oppressed people? Our righteous anger must need a new and exciting target.

    Fox Christianity has taken over the country – a version more about people who are bad or wrong instead of neighbors we need to love. If 90 people are getting aid so they can live and feed children, why are we so focused on the 10 who “gamed the system?” Do not preach to me your stories of the 10 if you cannot tell me even one story of the 90. You are the problem in the Land of Confusion. There’s too many men, too many people Making too many problems
    And there’s not much love to go around.

    Social Security and Medicare decisions should not be made in a room of only wealthy people. The vast majority of people who have paid into those benefits need them for survival, and they need representation in those discussions. It doesn’t matter who is to blame for why we are here right now. To move forward in any way, we must agree that millionaires (and billionaires) cannot possibly understand the impact on those lives while driving around in their Teslas or flying to warm weather for the weekend.

    All Presidents are thoughtful about their first 100 days and the story it will tell the American public. Administrations throw darts hoping maybe 25 percent will stick. While the goal of blitzkrieg is to defeat an enemy before they can mobilize, the risk of blitzkrieg is that the aggressor on the march is exposed and his troops tire quickly. Blitzkrieg worked in Europe, but not against the better prepared culture of the Soviet Union.

    Long Live the King? I hope we’re talking about LeBron James.

    I have to limit social media and news consumption right now. It’s just too much. You need to calm down. You’re being too loud. Please, Taylor Swift. Write a part 2.

    Why are our ugly old Washington guys targeting the countries with the hot leaders? Jealousy is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

    Photo from NDTV

    We’re two months past Christmas, but I still put Matt Maher’s Let There Be Peace on a lot these days.

    One voice speaks for the voiceless
    Hope for the hopeless, Emmanuel
    One love brings us together
    Now and forever, Emmanuel…Do not be afraid, His love is strong
    Enough to save us
    Nothing stands in the way
    His love is strong enough to lead u    s.