learning from loss

Thank You Jesus Christ for Creating The Way of Your Word!

What are you doing now?

I’m listening to theJoyFM.com Podcasts as usual. Ok, I confess I had trouble getting to sleep last night, so I awoke late today, yes that means I had to click my blog links to get to today’s podcasts. . . . . !

What about last night?

I knew you would ask this forcing me to share my learning . . . ! So yesterday, I helped Dr. Jim again with Addys & Jay. They were moving into their own apartment, while their house gets fixed; and they had a U-Haul truck to get everything there in one trip. I showed up at the first apartment, where they were getting a dresser and chair. I noticed the ramp for the truck out of place, and stepped into loading and tying up the truck. Dr. Jim said he hadn’t done this for twenty years, and I admitted I could share a few stories about moving.

Anyway, I was up all night as I “took responsibility” for loading, and all but “bragged about” knowing how to load a truck. . . But then one thing fell. Yes, one thing moved that I had tied down. Only one, but it was the TV, that fell over and crashed. FIGURES! Jay commented about how it was an old TV, but still worked saving him some cash as he handed it to me in the truck. Yes, he then said we were all done?

I thought we were filling up the truck, so I had tied down layers and covered the TV with a blanket ready to pack more together. But that was it, nothing more!  I had pulled the truck into the driveway, and thought I needed to pull-it out too . . . So I jumped down ready to drive, never thinking about the TV or anything else packed into the truck. But then seeing how the TV had crashed, I realize I tied it in and covered it ready for more to hold it in place. Then I “was done,” no more to pack. I never checked anything or tied it all up with another rope.

Yes, I was using ropes inside the truck, as I mentioned the layers I’d tied. But then never finished it? So I was tossing and turning all night realizing my mistake, which was the loss of their TV.  Yes, it was my own irresponsibility that LOST the TV.  Course, the TV is filled with crap anyway, and I’ve got four here that I never use. . . But if I had professional movers, who were packing up my house and they dropped a TV! Wow would I be pissed, and would be submitting for their insurance to replace it, even if I never watched it anyway. And so last night all I could think about was how much Jay and Addy had lost already. Their house had almost four feet of water in it. And now my own irresponsibility had lost their TV too.

Lost, we lose and struggle all the time. It’s the Anxiety of LOSS that hit me this morning with the morning Podcasts. . .   

The Anxiety Opportunity: Backwards culture of Prayer or prescribed medical treatment to make "anxiety to away!" Anxiety is actually the opportunity for spiritual growth. That's the invitation for all Christians . . . with the rise of smartphones and social media anxiety is increasing to over 60% of the western population. Basically what's happening is we are getting bombarded with images that are designed mythically by the algorithm, to actually stoke anxiety, because it turns out that anxiety is a great driver for clicks . . . More clicks, more money. 

More anxiety, the algorithms are actually set up to give you some relief momentarily and then to ramp up the anxiety a little bit later to keep you hooked on it. And there's nothing wrong with asking God, so hey, please take this cup away from me. Jesus prayed to avoid anxiety himself. But ultimately we have to make that same transition to say, "Your will be done," right? Jesus went through the anxiety with trusting the Father. Hold the Loss and Grieve it, we can endure and grow. . . Jesus Grieved in the Garden and invited his disciples to share.

Anxiety is the fear of something, a fear of loss; bringing the native “Fight or Flight” response, as the first reaction from Adam and Eve, right? They hid after eating the apple. We hide our anxiety by pushing it away from us, pretending it's something else. And so what that illustrates, is we all have cover stories that we are prone to hiding our anxiety and that actually gives anxiety more power. Like the “Hindsight Window,” how long does it take you to find "the silver lining," from a loss in life, a short window is happy life … a long window is a life of fear, more resentment, more regret … https://youtu.be/cD16oT4tqVs

Things that we keep hidden actually have more power in our lives and more power precisely because we're not looking at them. We learn to cover up our losses. We learn the ways of Adam and Eve, to cover up and to make excuses for things, and then we just carry that trauma into our teens, adulthood, etc. . . . This is the deepest invitation of God to actually go through our anxiety as an opportunity, as an opportunity for spiritual growth, to get at the parts of our heart that we ourselves don't want to look at, or actually have created some cover story around. 

Anxiety, if we're willing to actually follow its path and go through it, actually, it's like the bread crumbs that lead us to the actual state of our soul, that if we can follow that Psalm 139 injunction to say, search me, O God, know my anxious thoughts, know my innermost being, we will find actually deep, deep realities that are actually like the key, the key, the keyhole to profound spiritual growth. 

That I mean and so we all say, how do we get there? You must actually experience loss, because the real promise of the gospel is not loss avoidance or loss prevention or loss insurance. The real promise of the gospel is loss restoration. It's resurrection. 
It's resurrection and resurrection, you only get to resurrection through death. You only get to the restoration of life through the loss of life. Getting back on the rails with our own avoidance of loss, you say there's two main types of habits that people fall into. So if I'm f fearing that I loss of a job and the economic insecurity, can I imagine going through that and the resurrection day when the feast is laid out on the mountain Zion, where there's no want, there is no need any more, right? So I think there is actually something here to cultivate the Christian imagination for what happens on the other side of loss, which is a which is a beautiful picture of bodily resurrection and the restoration of all things. . . https://www.focusonthefamily.com/episodes/broadcast/best-of-2024-handling-anxiety-gods-way/

As a Christian Certain things we need to know. . . Read bible daily, get baptized, join a church, and give 10% and trust God, so our life is to make a difference in someone else’s life…. Philippians 2:5-18 whatever He wills, He works it, enabling everything for his Good Pleasure…to live out the life of Christ! https://www.intouch.org/listen/radio/i-am-saved-now-what-pt-2 Romans 8:29

God the Master Potter has a plan for every piece of human clay brought to life… Roman’s 8 all people to be like Christ Jesus: https://www.intouch.org/listen/radio/molded-by-the-master-1 

What about Romans 9:20 God knows best through His Power, Purpose, Plan, Patience, Perseverance Personal 

I got slammed again . . . it was so much to get this out. Half of this story came from my children, and i've learned more and more.

We need you to do the Spiritual Work, for you to accept your own learning, makes the truth more visible and clear to others. 

I Love You Dearest Loving Lord Jesus Christ.