How to Formulate a God-Honoring Response to Current Events: Part 2

In this episode, we'll continue to build our God-honoring responses to current events. Not only are we called to walk in love but to take responsibility for our words that could potentially de-humanize the people we are talking about. Dehumanization is a slippery slope to "rejoicing in social injustices," which, according to 1 Corinthians 13:6, is NOT God's love.  

We'll also talk about the importance of soul care and some practical tips to keep your soul energized and strong during this deluge of emotionally taxing current events. Let's be counter-cultural and slow down rather than jump on the urgent-train and feel compelled to spit out hot takes within moments after another painful current event causes our heads to spin again.

Pull up a chair 🪑 

SHOW NOTES

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

John 13:35 NLT "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

I Corinthians 13:6 NLT "[Love] does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out."

Isaiah 61:1-3 CJB

The Spirit of Adonai Elohim is upon me,
because Adonai has anointed me
to announce good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted;
to proclaim freedom to the captives,
to let out into light those bound in the dark;

to proclaim the year of the favor of Adonai
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn,
yes, provide for those in Tziyon who mourn,

giving them garlands instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit,
so that they will be called oaks of righteousness
planted by Adonai, in which he takes pride.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Holy cow, there's a lot going on in our world today. I've noticed that as I started this series of conversations about how to formulate some sort of a God-honoring response to current events, I see lots of people online who are also going through the same process trying to figure out how do we formulate a response in the midst of so many things coming at us so quickly and all at once. So let's continue to dig into this and find what the biblical precedence is for us as we cloak God's truth in love. Here we go. Pull up a chair. Welcome back to the mentors table. My name is Joy, and I am so excited to have you at my table. In case you don't usually get a chance to hang around till the very end, I just want to remind you you can always go to joyabod.com for everything that you need. You can get signed up for my newsletter, you can comment on the podcast episodes that come out. And even easier than that, I would love for you to share this podcast with somebody. When you get to the end of this podcast, if it ministers to you in any way or encourages you or gives you something substantial that you can use to help make better decisions, or you find that it's helping you in as the title suggests, uh formulating a response, a Christian response to the current events that are going on now, I would really appreciate if you shared that with somebody else. And before we get into our main content, which I'm feeling really strongly about today, I want to take a minute for all of us to center ourselves and take a deep breath and get into this moment. So if you could put your feet flat on the floor, open your hands. We're gonna do just one minute of silence and solitude. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Release it slowly. Open your hands in a posture of surrender and continue breathing and focusing on your eyes to the eyes of your heart. Have your way. Okay, here we are. We're starting a second conversation. If you haven't already, please go back and listen to episode one. I'll link it in the show notes, talking about how we as Christians formulate a God-honoring response to the current events. And gosh, I gotta tell you, in real time, I feel like we're just getting a deluge of current events. It's just every time I wake up, there's a whole new slew of things that have happened that I'm just like, as my pastor would say, I need to keep my head on a swivel because man, it's just left and right a lot over and over. A lot of them take emotional tolls on our souls, and it's hard to just kind of keep our head above water, let alone know how to respond in those times. And so I recognize that, and we'll talk about this a little bit more next week, but can I just encourage you to slow down? You don't have to have a response immediately as you're processing through these things, you don't owe that to anybody who is pressing you for some sort of answer. You do not owe that to your social media following. You can take time. In fact, I think it's in the hustle and the hurry and the urgency of the matters that Satan is able to kind of push us off into the weeds and get us to say things that we don't even know if we really mean. And so I just want to encourage you that when you are hit with so many different things, you can take a minute, you can take your time. The Bible says that we're to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, which means it's okay to take time. But today we're gonna continue talking about this idea of how we can respond in love. Last week we spent a lot of time talking about John 13 35, and I just want to read it for you one more time because I think it's so powerful and a really helpful filter that we can put all of our responses through. This is from the New Living Translation, and it simply says, Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Now, I want to be clear because I recognize that speaking truth will naturally divide, not because of you, but because of the truth itself. When truth is spoken, people are having to process that, deal with their own convictions, decide whether they agree or align with it or not, and it will cause a reaction. And we're not in any way trying to say that you're gonna be able to come and formulate this amazing response that causes zero reaction, only lollipops and unicorns. That's not what I'm saying. I recognize that the truth is going to cause division, but before we allow the words to come out of our mouth or we type them with our fingers on our social media, we want to make sure that we are cloaking the truth in love because the way that we're presenting it is our responsibility. We're not responsible for defining truth, but we are responsible for conveying it in love. That's what sets us apart as disciples of Jesus, is that our love for one another is gonna prove to the world that we are God's disciples. Today we're gonna talk about this idea of as we are conveying the truth, are we cloaking it in some sort of a package that dehumanizes a people group? There are lots of people groups that I thought of as examples for this. It could be uh, you know, a very hot topic now, but has always been it could be Jews, it could be Palestinians, it could be government leaders, it could be ICE officials, it could be victims of ICE, it could be musical artists, A-listers, influencers, it could be other churches, it could be other followers of Jesus, it could be people who hold traditional biblical values. When we choose how we're going to convey the truth, we are responsible for if our message is somehow dehumanizing any group of people that doesn't a hundred percent agree with what your beliefs are. It's so easy to fall into that. The Bible says that we're supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, it doesn't say just ignore them, it doesn't say label them as wrong and allow them to suffer their punishments. It says to love them, it says to pray for them, and so anytime that we get up on our own righteous high horses and say, Well, we've got it right, and I know the truth, and you're wrong, and you're doing things that are hurting other people, and so you are bad. We are dehumanizing those people, we're putting them into a category instead of recognizing them as children of God. Whether it's a terrorist, a murderer, an adulterer, those are all children of God. We're still called to pray for those people as well, which means that when we are speaking truth, we do not have license to dehumanize and label them in a way that allows us to rejoice when injustices happen to them. I'm getting this terminology from 1 Corinthians 13, 6. Those of you who grew up in the church with me know that 1 Corinthians 13 is the love chapter. It's all about the definition of love. It's a great one to continue to keep in front of you and to continue to contemplate the many, many facets of love. But I love verse 6 because it says love does not rejoice about injustices, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. We are tempted to rejoice in injustices when we see the quote unquote bad guys have those injustices happen to them. And when we choose to rejoice in those injustices because they had it coming, now we have stepped out of love. We've stepped out of the mission that Jesus Christ came to this earth to model for us. His mission was clearly stated. But he's quoting from Isaiah 61, one through three. And I want to read this to you because I think it's important to keep these words in front of us and try to remember: hey, when I put words out, whether spoken or typed or written, am I aligning myself with the mission of Jesus, or am I aligning myself with an agenda to dehumanize so that I can rejoice when those guys get what's coming to them? Isaiah 61, I'm gonna read from the complete Jewish Bible because I really love some of the words and the way that the phrases are put together here. The spirit of Adonai Elohim is upon me. This remember, Jesus quotes this as this was this was a prophecy spoken hundred years ago, and is talking about me. Because Adonai has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and to let out into light those bound in the dark, to proclaim the year of the favor of Adonai and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Yes, provide for those in Zion who mourn, giving them garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness planted by Adonai in which he takes pride. Did you catch those phrases in there? If we're aligning ourselves with Jesus' mission, then the things that we say and the words that we write are supposed to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom to captives, let out those into the light that have been bound in darkness. These words of ours are supposed to comfort all who mourn. They're to give garlands instead of ashes, a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit. I don't know about you, but I can't even begin to count the amount of heavy spirits that have been handed to me on a regular basis right now, just scrolling through my um social media, watching the Olympics on TV and the commercials, and then just hearing, you know, the uh news in general. But Jesus came to do it differently. He said that his mission was to give a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit. And I love this because I have an affinity to trees. I love trees so much, I think that God has so much to say about us through trees, so much to teach us. But he says at the end of this, so that we will be called oaks of righteousness, planted by God. An oak is a large, sturdy tree. An oak is something is a is a tree whose roots go down deep. An oak is a tree, a really great tree to watch and use as a model for your life of how seasons affect our daily rhythm. An oak in the winter looks like it is dead, it is so non-glamorous. All the leaves have left, the branches are bare, it looks forlorn and gray. But wait until the spring. There's important things happening during the winter, but primarily it is resting and building up those nutrients that it needs to really show off in the spring and summer and bring forth loads and loads of fruit. We had an oak tree and it has some sort of a nut on it, nothing that was edible, but oh, a good oak tree will just cover your yard in so much of its fruit, and you can't just leave it there because other little oak trees are gonna grow up from it, and it's gonna hurt your feet if you're running over it with bare feet. What a beautiful picture! God has planted us, He has put us in the place that we are in time and space on purpose so that we can be mighty oaks of righteousness, our roots down deep, our branches reaching far and wide, our fruit covering it, saturating the ground. That's what we're called to. So when we are formulating a response to current events, I want you to remember these two um points to hold in transit in. I want you to remember these two points to hold intention, and or maybe even consider it like a filter, a filter that you look through all of your words through and decide: is this leaning towards dehumanizing a group that I don't agree with, or is this leading me, or is this message that the truth is enclosed in a garment of praise? Is it or is it a heavy spirit? Is it giving comfort or is it binding people in more darkness? The problem with dehumanizing a group is that we get to the point where, like I said in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 6, we get to a point where we somehow find a way to rejoice in injustice. And when we get to that point, when we have forgotten that these are humans, these are images of God, these are brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, when we forget that and we begin to rejoice in their downfall, then we have stepped out of love. And if we're going to prove to the world that we are God's disciples, then they will know we are his disciples because of our love. So what do you do when you feel the pressure or when you decide, I am going to take a stand for truth? I believe that once you have your words formulated, whether written or getting ready to be spoken, I think that is the time that you stop to surrender those words to God. Ask him, God, is there any motive? Is there any inferred message? Is there anything in how I am presenting truth that would dehumanize a group in any way? And then it doesn't stop there. You take time to listen. And when you listen, you write down what you hear, and then you go and you obey it. We've talked about this before, but the word Shma in the Hebrew has two sides to one coin. It does mean to listen, but it also means that you follow it up with an action of obedience. You haven't truly listened if you do not follow it up with obedience. Next week, we're gonna talk about how to be discerning and the importance of who we receive our information from. Listen, I just want to recognize again, like I said at the top of the show, we have got to keep our head on a swivel because things are coming at us left and right, and it just feels a whole lot heavier than it usually does. And there is a lot more information to take in. There's a lot more people making a lot of decisions that directly and indirectly affect us. A lot of people calling for Christians to take a stand, to make a decision, to be bold in what they believe is the truth of the situation, a lot to wade through. You know, the Epstein files alone is over three million documents. What? Anyways, all of that to say, now more than ever, I think it's really important that we prioritize our own soul's care. The world is gonna tell you you need to hurry, you need to take a stand, you need to move right now, and you need to know exactly how you feel right now. And I am telling you, the Bible says, nope, this is the time to slow down. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. You know, this is why we talked about Sabbath and why it's so important to put the practice of Sabbath into your regular rhythm when things are easy, when things are going really well, because then you've already developed that rhythm, that neural pathway, that expectation in your physical body and in your schedule and your routine that says, I stop, I let go of the steering wheel of my life, I surrender to God, and I know because I have practiced that the world keeps spinning, God remains on his throne. This is really Sabbath, is a time for God to show off, to prove that he can do all of these things, he brings about fruit regardless of. Our own toil. He is still God. Now, if you have not put in a practice of Sabbath, I am not here to judge or condemn you. I'm just acknowledging that it's a little bit harder to prioritize that when we are in a time that we are in right now, and you have not already made that a regular rhythm in your life. It doesn't mean it's impossible. It doesn't mean don't do it. It just means recognize, man, when this is harder than it feels like it should be, or this feels like it's really fruitless. Recognize, oh wait, that's because I chose to start this in the middle of a lot of crises. Some simple soul care tips that I want to leave you with is that number one, you need to set times where you completely unplug. Turn your phones off, turn your devices off, turn your notifications off, and turn your computers off, turn your TVs off, unplug for sets amount of time. It will do so much good for healing and restoring your soul. I would recommend at the same time that you unplug, but it doesn't have to be. Go outside, get sunshine in your eyeballs, walk, get your body moving, breathe deeply of that fresh air. And it doesn't matter if you're in a cold climate like me or a hot climate or a city or the country, get outside and move. You can do it. This is how you take care of your soul. This is how you make sure that you don't go so hard. And I can imagine because I have done this so many times I can't even count. But I know that I'm hustling, I know that I'm not taking care of my soul, but I also look around and I know, hey, I'm doing a pretty good job. This is fine. I can keep going in that pace. I feel fine. And the problem with that is that it's ignoring the rhythm that God established for us, number one. But number two, it's fine until it isn't fine. And then all of a sudden, when it isn't fine, you well, I'll just speak for me. It's spectacularly not fine. I find that I hit a wall that creates such a deficit that if I were to have maintained my soul care up until that moment, there may be a time that I need to take an extra little bit of time away to heal. But generally what I have found is that if I am go, go, go, go, going and I don't take care of my soul on a regular basis, then when I crash, the time that I spend healing and resetting and trying to get back up to normal is an excessive amount of time. I lose a bunch of time. I don't actually save time by rushing. I actually lose time because the healing is so much more time consuming than it would have been if I had been following God's rhythm and taking care of my soul along the way. Other tips for soul care: practice Sabbath. Unplug, turn off, stop and celebrate God's goodness. Feast with your family and friends. Another great soul care is set aside time for silence. Breathe. Focus your heart on Jesus. Follow his example. When Jesus was here, he often, the Bible says he often withdrew to lonely places. He didn't wait for ministry and life to slow down and then go out into the wilderness and spend some time in solitude and silence, conversing and communing with his father. He did it often, no matter how busy or how hard things were. And finally, one of the best ways to take care of your soul is to get yourself into your community. Do not pull away. This is the time that it is the most tempting to pull away from others, to feel discouraged, to feel drained, and to justify. I've just gotta, I just can't even. I just gotta go home, go to bed, and and just be away from people for a minute. If you have a godly group of people that you are doing life with now more than ever, this is the time to continue to see them, to spend time with them, break bread with them, talk to them, and allow your soul to be rejuvenated and refreshed by community. If you've held on this long, thank you. I'm gonna go ahead and give my quick personal update at the end for those of my friends who are listening. I, in this last week and a half, have gone on our first college tour trip for my oldest daughter who is now a senior, and it has been a learning curve that's been pretty steep. We've had people along the way telling us, you know, when you're out on vacation or when you're on a trip or whatever, go visit the colleges in that area. I ignored all of them, and now I'm paying for it, literally, by having to schedule trips that we have to pay out of pocket to get my daughter, our daughter on campus in these different colleges so that she can make an informed decision about where she wants to go. We ended up this trip originally was supposed to span sorry, three states. And unfortunately, the first two states ended up getting cut out because of the big storm on the eastern well, half of America. It wasn't even just the coast. Anyways, um, so we headed to California, which I really believe was a God-inspired moment because it gave us an opportunity to visit a college that we originally weren't going to visit, and I feel has quickly put itself in the running as one of the top choices. And I'm so thankful that we went to see that and to experience that campus. We got to see friends who live on both campuses or who have lived on each campus and get firsthand accounts of what they feel about that school. And honestly, a big part of this was just for me, my goals were to get the process started with my daughter to give her some on-campus experience so she can start to understand what's important to her and what things stood out to her. And for me, I also wanted to take advantage and be intentional in this trip to make sure that we created some memories, just the two of us. You know, when you have multiple kids and a senior who has a license and we live 25 minutes outside of town, then that means that you don't see your daughter very much. And I just wanted to make sure that we just didn't let this senior year go speeding by and not have those intentional moments. So we were able to get dinner one night, we got takeout, and we spent our initial Shabbat hour eating dinner on the beach and watching the sunset. It was a really special moment. We had lots of car time where we were able to talk and just learn new things about each other and have more conversations. And I just love that I was able to be with her in her initial college experiences, getting on campus and starting to process what she really wants. I thought that was really special. Thank you so much for joining me here at the mentors table. Remember, your voice matters to us. I'm not here for a monologue, I'm here for a conversation. Jump on Instagram or get on joyabod.com, leave your comments so that we can all see them and continue the conversation. What do you think about this approach to formulating responses to current events? What holes do you see in that? What things, factors do you see that I maybe need to consider in the way that I'm presenting this? I am open to hearing from you, as we talked about throughout this whole episode, cloak it in love. The goal is not to zing me and to somehow prove that I'm wrong and you're right, but there is, I am very open to hearing truth, cloaked in love, and to weigh my own convictions and to be able to walk in discernment. And so I welcome those comments. Have a great week, and I'll see you next week.