How to Formulate a God-Honoring Response to Current Events: Part 1

This is only one component of a multi-layered and important conversation that followers of Jesus need to work through. My goal is not to prepare you for a debate-team-style win but to prepare you to be a representative of Jesus Christ in your words, actions, and posts on social media. This episode covers the first and most important filter we must all keep at the forefront of any response. 

We'll cover more layers in the following episodes, so be sure to subscribe to the pod so each new episode auto-populates in your feed. This IS NOT a stand-alone episode! Please stick around for the entire conversation, and reach out with your responses along the way. Let's work together to empower the Church to live as effective lights for God in this broken world.

SHOW NOTES

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." Proverbs 25:11

"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35

Where this conversation began on As We Grow "BONUS EPISODE: On Division In the Church."

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I recently had a friend reach out and ask me about why I choose to post certain things about international matters that are happening, but I don't necessarily post very often about things that are happening here in our country. And her question was very kind and respectful, but she was asking, like, what do you think about what's happening happening in Minnesota right now? It took me a moment to be able to know what the proper response to that was, and to come up with a response that captured all the different layers of what I think and believe and feel right now about the situations going on. And I thought, you know, there's really some guiding principles that I have been following to be able to respond in a way that is honoring to God in any current event. And I thought this would be a good time to talk about those layers a little bit and to um share those with you in a way that I hope is helpful and equips you in a time that feels really difficult and divisive and hard to come up with a response that doesn't cause more trouble. I think that this series of conversations that we're gonna have is really gonna be helpful. So pull up a chair. Welcome back to the mentors table. My name is Joy, and I'm your host here at this table. And I am really looking forward to getting into this series of conversations about how to navigate responses toward people who ask you about current events as a follower of Jesus. But before we get into it, let's take a minute and be still before the Lord and come into this present moment. So if you could put your feet flat on the floor, open your hands in a posture of surrender with your palms facing up and take a deep breath in through your nose. Release it slowly. Help us release all the cares and the to-do list and all that is in our head right now, and be here with you in this moment. Open the eyes of our understanding that we may know the hope you have called us to. Open our ears that we may hear. Thank you, Jesus. Take another deep breath in and release it slowly. Okay. This is a um sensitive topic, and I want to treat it with respect and decency. I can imagine that there will be some questions that arise from this, and I welcome you to reach out to me. You can always email me hello at joybod.com or you can comment on my website under this podcast, which my website is just joyabod.com. That's J-O-Y-A-B-A-D-AzNDog.com. I'd love to hear from you and continue this conversation. A lot of things that I want to share with you. I want to make sure that if you hear something I didn't say but you inferred it from what I was talking about, please clarify and come to me and ask me about it so that I can have a chance to clarify for you and for the listeners in a future podcast. Remember, this podcast exists as a table, which means there needs to be more than one speaker at the table. Otherwise, we're just in a classroom where I'm downloading instruction to you. So I welcome your comments here at the table. As I mentioned before, I had a friend reach out to me on Facebook and asked very kindly and respectfully, hey, I've noticed that you post a lot about international events, but I haven't seen much about local or American events. Um, what are your thoughts on Minneapolis? Obviously, this is gonna date this podcast, but I thought it was a really important question. And she later clarified that the purpose of her question was because it's becoming increasingly more difficult to discern the truth of what's going on, and as Christians, it's also difficult to discern what is the proper response to questions about this, and so she she was humbly seeking guidance, which I just want to honor because I think that's a really beautiful thing, and not just, you know, haphazardly throwing out information or not saying anything at all. I think it's important that we are called to share truth, but I want you to listen carefully to this podcast, and I think we're gonna have to break it up into multiple podcasts as far as how we share that truth and when we share that truth is super, super important and cannot be ignored. That's the responsibility that we as followers of Jesus, as images of God, as representatives of his kingdom and the big sea church, we have that responsibility to make sure that we are careful with our words. In the book of Proverbs, it says that a word aptly spoken is like apples of gold and settings of silver. That aptly spoken is what we're talking about today. Also, I want to say that for the principle of our response that we're gonna talk about today, this is founded primarily in John 13 35. This comes from the New Living Translation. So now I and the eye is Jesus, it's in red in this translation, which is a dead giveaway. So now I am giving you a new commandment. Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. That was John 13, verses 34 and 35. And I've mentioned this before in recently in the podcast, but I really want to elaborate it now. We're gonna keep going back to that principle of we are set apart by our love. If you look at any other religions and belief systems, there is a lot of judgment and criticism and prejudice and instructions to accept people who believe these things and reject people who don't believe those things. Um, there is a lot of legalism and rules to follow, but what sets followers of Jesus apart is that our belief in God and the rhythm that we live out with Jesus as the leader and lord of our life is supposed to be set apart from all of those others because it is predominantly ruled by love. We are led by love. Now, if you're on social media right now, that generally unfortunately is not the case. And I've mentioned it before, but I think that it is so destructive to the church if we continue to post things on social media that immediately turn brother against brother, sister against sister, this church against that church. It's when it's divisive, we are not following God's playbook. God's playbook is simple. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. So, how do we respond to the current events that are happening right now in love? I want to share a story with you that I shared on my other podcast as we grow, but I think it's important to bring over here and share as well because it's so it helps frame where this conversation came from and it gives you a chance to have a visual picture of why this is so important. So this it's been a little while now, but somebody that I follow on Instagram was sharing that they had a dream, and in their dream, they walked outside and there were a bunch of people fighting. They were just all going at one another. And she noticed that in her dream, as she looked around and kind of took stock of the people that were fighting, there were a lot of humans fighting with each other, but she had an ability to discern that some of those people were demonically influenced. It wasn't even necessarily the person's personal convictions that they were fighting. There was some sort of dark influence that was using that person to instigate and push and further the fight along. Her warning and interpretation of that dream was simply that there are many, many people looking for a fight right now. And when we approach those situations, we need to understand what we're getting into, meaning that we are not called to fight everyone. Now, there are times that we need to stand up for the truth and in the truth, and we need to stand up and fight for the truth in love. We're never we're never gonna go away from that principle. But her point was that there's sometimes that you're in fights that are just meant to cause more fights, and we need to learn to discern when it's time to stand up for what's right in love, and when we need to walk away. Because, you know, in her dream, if it's a demonically influenced person who is instigating this fight, standing up for the truth is not going to change the situation. They're just luring you and prodding you into a situation that will cause more division and more problems and more fighting. The goal is not to get to the truth. So she was saying, listen, it's important that when you're in those situations, you need to be connected with God, with the Holy Spirit, and able to in that moment discern when you are supposed to stay in that conversation and when you're supposed to walk away. It was so interesting because I watched that on in the morning, and then that afternoon I was at the post office, and I was coming out, and I was heading back to my car, and I walked by this older lady who I didn't even really like see, except for maybe in my peripheral. Her back was actually turned to me, and she was walking towards her car, and I was walking behind her. And as I was like a couple steps past her, she said, Hey, would you like to join our protest tomorrow? And I was kind of like, Are you talking to me? Like it was so weird because she wasn't even looking at me when she said it. And I wasn't looking at her, like it's not like we had made eye contact or anything. And so I kind of did a double take and I was like looking around, and I'm like, Well, I'm the only one she could have been talking to. So I was like, I'm sorry. Um, what? So a little backstory. This is the week that I was really sick, and so I had not been on social media, I had not been watching any news reports or anything like that. So this was in reference to the initial um thing in Minneapolis with the ICE officer and the woman who was trying to drive away. I didn't know any of that at the time. So when I said, I'm I'm sorry, uh, can you explain? I'm so sorry, I'm like really behind right now. Uh, what are we protesting? And then she jumped in with um, you know, a couple of like main details that was supposed to trigger my memory. And again, because I had been offline, I was like, oh, I'm I'm really behind. I I just don't know what you're talking about. And so she saw that as her open door and then jumped in with a recount from all the different news sources that she had gotten it from of what had happened. And it was clear to me, because I knew zero at that moment about what had happened, that she was kind of skipping around in details, assuming that I already knew how to fill in the gaps. Anyways, and so the story didn't make a ton of sense to me because of the way that she was telling me, but I could just sense things starting to rise up in her and kind of things starting to rise up in me. I was like, oh, okay, this feels really emotionally charged, this feels really politically charged. I don't know what happened, I'm only going off of you. Anyways, so it became really clear that this was um not something that I was in any way equipped to wade into. And I really want to pause here, though, and say that in the current inventness of it all, my point is not to take aside or to give any sort of commentary on what that situation was. My point is to talk about the principles that we're gonna be talking about today in our response. And specifically as it applies to the dream that I had had uh the prophetic dream that somebody had shared on Instagram. So, anyways, I was about to say, you know, I mean, I've haven't you just gotten to the point where we it's hard to accept the first version of whatever comes out on the news and trust that that is exactly what happened. But I wasn't even able to get that full question out. I just said, you know, like, haven't you gotten to the point? And she jumped in with, where I want Trump dead. And I was like, whoa, this is this is quickly taking a turn into a slippery slope that I'm not sure I want to wade into. Anyways, um, I kind of like jumped over that and then finished my question. And the more that we talked, the more it became clear that she felt really, really strongly about this and felt that she had the truth about it. She went on to say at one point, oh no, no, no, I totally trust CNBC. I listened to all their things, they give me the truth, and I've given, you know, I've watched all the videos and all of this stuff. Now I'm gonna say something that's gonna sound bizarre to some of you, but as I live and breathe, I promise this is the full truth. In my experience at that moment, as she just continued to go on and on and continue to throw in like details that didn't really have anything to do with the current event itself, but just like political jargon and different things that were were meant to kind of be like pokes to get uh a reaction out of me. She started to change in front of me. Now it wasn't like a really noticeable or um necessarily physical change, except that her voice did start to change a little bit, but there was just this like boldness that came on her. There was this kind of like angry, um really looking for a fight and trying to prove this contentious voice and demeanor that came over her that just kept getting more and more riled up. And I felt like, you know, like when you feel heat literally rising inside of your body, and then my brain is racing with like, what's the wise thing to say? And how do I stop this? And you know, I'm just kind of like spinning through all these different thoughts and realizing how intense the situation is getting. I felt the Holy Spirit nudge and say, Hey, remember that um video that you watched this morning? This is not the time to fight. This is the time to walk away. So look, whenever she took her first, like real short breath, I literally started walking away. And as I was walking away, I was like, okay, well, thanks for letting me know. And um started walking to my car. And as the distance between us continued to extend, and we were only a few cars away from each other, she changed back. That's the only way that I can describe it. Into this kind older woman, her countenance changed, her voice changed, her face softened, and I was, you know, not trying to like answer any of the things, but I was just like, okay, let me or thanks for letting me know. And as I got to my car, she called out in a really kind voice, Okay, well, I really hope that you can come to the protest. We always have extra signs, so you don't need to bring a sign, just show up. And I was like, Okay, thanks for letting me know. And then I got in my car. Again, I know that sounds exaggerated or over spiritual, but I promise you, in my experience, she was changing before my eyes, and when I created some distance between us, she changed back to this kind woman who had originally started the conversation with me. It was bizarre, but it was a really good example of sometimes a response in love means physically walking away. I'm not saying all the time, but I am saying that there are times when you can walk in kindness and you can put some di physical distance between you and the person talking and not continue the conversation. What we're talking about requires a lot of discernment. And it's discernment to know when to stay and when to walk away. I want to make sure that I clarify that in saying all of this, I am not saying that there isn't a truth, capital T truth. There is truth, there is truth in all the current events that we encounter. There is truth, and sometimes it needs to be shared, and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on your discernment and in that moment. And if you do discern, okay, this is an opportunity that God has given me to share capital T truth, then number one, we do it in love. We don't do it as a weapon to somehow prove that the other person is wrong, we don't do it as a weapon. And to somehow prove that they're not smart enough and they didn't realize that they have a skewed version of what happened. When we're sharing the truth in love, we're not trying to prove that we're right. We're not trying to control the conversation and get the person to believe what you believe. It is all about motives. We can share the truth in a way that is not trying to control the situation or zing the other person or cast some sort of judgment, but we can share the truth in love. I'll be real honest with you. I know that that is possible, and I am a baby in maturity of being able to do that. I recognize that it is such a thin line between sharing the truth in love and sharing the truth in some sort of um motive of trying to control the situation or fix the other person. But going back to that dream about fighting, if my motive is not love, then when I respond out of my own emotions, I am pouring fuel on the fire of fighting and division. The Bible also says that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways are higher than our ways. And so, in order for me to be connected to his thoughts, this approach to current events starts way before you see a news story on social media or on the news. It starts in your quiet time, devotional time, whatever you want to call it, in your time spent with God. Being able to tap into his higher thoughts and his higher ways requires unity with God that is only available through time spent building a relationship with him. As a sheep, getting to know your shepherd's voice, as a disciple getting the dust of your rabbi all over you. It is time spent with God, developing that relationship that allows us to access in these moments of heightened emotions and people yelling at each other and flinging mud at each other to be able to connect with God and know: hey, God's thoughts right now are fill in the blank. One of the things that Gretchen and I talked about in as we grow is that sometimes a response to something that is so charged is simply showing love to that other person. It may not be answering any of their comments, but it may just be asking for permission and offering them a hug. There is huge power in physical touch, and that's why our bodies matter to God, because He's designed us that way. And like I said, ask for permission. Do not be that weird Christian that just runs up and um wraps your arms around somebody without their consent. But there are options to respond in love that may not even respond to the event itself, but show love. Can I give you a hug? You know, and again, when we spend time in our relationship with God and develop that unity with Him, then as those moments happen and you ask and they give permission or they say no, He will continue to lead your thoughts. He won't just peace out right there, but he'll continue to lead your thoughts so that you know the way that you can respond that shows God's unconditional love to that person. When I was responding to my friend who was asking my thoughts on Minneapolis, I really felt that it was important to just share the human connection part that I truly deeply feel. And so my words to her were simply it's horrible, devastating, it's a messy story that really began years ago, that's filled with humans who are inherently flawed. I feel sad anytime there's a loss of life. That is showing God's love, that is showing God's compassion, that is not even taking a side or addressing it, but it conveys to the person who asked you a question, I see that there's humans involved here, and I hurt for the pain that is going on right now. But any time that we begin to fall into some sort of stereotyping of others that dehumanizes them, we are quickly going to slip into some sort of prejudice or racism that is destructive. God created us as people. And it starts with remembering that they're humans just like us, that they feel pain just like us, that they've got families just like us, they are gonna have to deal with consequences just like us, and remembering these are humans who are flawed involved, as much as I would like to think that anyone who is in a position of leader, leadership, or even harder something like law enforcement, any time that I want to think that they are somehow trained to be perfect to know how to response and not let their humanness of it all kick in at any point. But I just know that that is an unreasonable expectation for anyone. And so we should always give space to be able to recognize that there are humans who are hurting, that are involved in the situation, and begin praying for those humans and start there. That's sharing God's love. Next week we will talk about other aspects of how and when to share God's love and respond to things that are going on in current events. It's a difficult time. I see that. It is really charged right now. There is a lot that has happened just in the last few weeks, and so I hope this helps you have a starting point and a focus to filter your responses through that is honoring to God and honoring to the humans that are involved in on both sides of the story. A real quick update. I am past our initial season of hosting, we've got more coming up later on in the year, but right now it's just a matter of keeping up with the house on top of all the other things that we are doing. And I'm just finding that this house that I am so so thankful for, but is also quite large, it has become really consuming in trying to keep it up. To be clear, I am not complaining. I am super thankful that this is my life right now. I'm super thankful that we can host multiple people here. But what I am saying is that I don't have the systems dialed in to really keep up the house in a way that is sustainable. And so I'm asking you guys for help. I have a couple of walls that are made, interior walls that are made out of stone, dark colored stone. I have an interior wall that is made out of brick, I have a lot of light fixtures, and I have a lot of floor space that needs to be swept or vacuumed. And so I'm just putting a call out that if you have a larger home and you have found a very simple system that has been really helpful to you, or a trick for cleaning, you know, stone walls or brick walls or whatever, um, in a really time-saving small atomic habit form, I would love to hear from you. I'd really like to get some of this cleaning routine dialed in in a way that is sustainable because I can easily consume my day with cleaning and picking up and noticing things that need to be decleaned. And I have not taken care of myself, my family, my walk with God, this podcast. It just can become pretty consuming. And so I would love to hear from you if you guys have any systems or tricks or tips that you would like to share with me. I would really, really appreciate it. As always, you can email me hello at joyabod.com or get on joyabod.com and just post under this podcast episode. I would really appreciate it. Have a great week, guys, and I will see you next week. Nerd alert, nerd alert. Guys, I am such a nerd. I geek out on show notes. So if you ever want to know how to contact the show directly, how to find us on socials, links to books or anything that we mention on the show, go to the show notes. And at the very bottom, there's always a link that says support the show. It doesn't matter how little or big or how often you want to give, it's super easy to do. And I like to consider it a way for you to take me out for coffee and say, hey, thanks. And you know what I say? Thank you. You guys are the best.