Dear Prudence

There is a lot on my mind right now.  There’s a lot going on in the world that directly effects my family and I. I’m pretty sure a lot of people feel that way right now. It’s the realization that my personal experience is not so different from a common thread I share with most people right now. 

Our everyday life, our “normal” has been seriously and potentially permanently shaken up.   We’ve got death, destruction and hate shoved down our throats every time we log on to Facebook or watch the news. 

I’ve just watched the news and, as usual, I’m annoyed and ruffled. More times than not lately I’ve shut it off after only moments of actually paying attention. 

There is a lot going on in the world that I disagree with but, to compound my aggravation the way the media and social media interpret it and present it is often skewed, biased or there are too many liberties taken in order to summarize a complex issue into a 30 second segment. We collectively speak to the lowest common denominator of our civilization who cannot rationalize for themselves. 

Now, there are a lot of soap boxes I have been eager to jump on and preach from as of late but that’s not what I’m here to do today. 

The things I’ve mentioned are reminders of some important facts.  

First, freedom of speech is a two edged sword. Yes, you can say, print, yell, speak what you feel and think but you ALWAYS, whether it be a proclamation on a public and visible platform or a small change to your Facebook status, need to be very careful about what you say. You always need to be thinking about to what end your actions and voice are aimed at, suited to. 

What is the desired conclusion?  

Who does it impact?

Is this a simple gesture of support or am I part of something bigger, in a place I don’t need to be?

Most especially if you follow Jesus. 

It’s a reminder I’ve had to give myself recently, as I type something out and end up deleting it and moving on to the real life happening in my household instead of the gruesome things going on in social media land. 

It’s called prudence. 

Finding facts, that are at this time and in a confusing world are hard to find, is boring for most folks. It’s burdensome. It’s not cool or smart. Not only are facts hard to come by, they take time to find. It takes a prudent mind to hunt them down.

It’s a lot easier and more emotionally satisfying to jump the emotional band wagons that come our way; to latch on to a cause that sounds good but as it stand alone is very basic. It’s also a lot less popular. 

Prudence. 

Prudence is hard. Especially when you’re fired up. 

One of my favorite books is pride and prejudice. I know I’m not alone in that but one of my favorite themes is the fact that Darcy, despite what would’ve been fuel to proclaim his distaste for some things and his passionate love for other things, he chose the calm, rational, gentlemanly route that best benefited the others involved. 

This is true nobility of character. This showed prudence. 

I’m a very emotional human being. I tend to feel emotionally and then my body reacts to that emotion instead of the other way around. 

Over the years of being a grown up I’ve had to cultivate a habit of prudence and strive for a noble character that did not come naturally to me. It still doesn’t by I try!

It doesn’t come naturally to most folks. It’s still necessary. 

I feel like, for us, the whole book of Titus is timely. First, don’t be a Cretan; someone who is known by this world as the basest of creatures.  Also, beware of those who are of meaningless talk and corruption.  Beware those who sound good but have nothing to do with God’s plan. 

Read Titus, three quick chapters that are refreshingly direct in these times. 

Be careful with what you say and do. 

The second point I wanted to make, and I’ll be brief, is that if you find yourself hitching yourself to a worldly bandwagon you need to step back and make sure God and scripture are your foundation not the other way around. My family is involved with organizations based on the fact that their beliefs align mostly with our own, we feel like they support our walk in Christ. Not the other way around

If you work it the other way around, looking for biblical guidance within and hitching your wagon to something worldly, you are more vulnerable prey to Satan. 

I love my country and what it was built on but it is of this world. We have common goals with our Nation’s founders as to how God wants us to treat each other but our Nation is not our God. As some of these National goals  have become Grey lately, skewed and twisted, and we have, as a people argued how to get these goals met, it’s important to remember what (and Who) our foundation is and to return to it first and foremost. 

I disagree politically with a lot of the narratives on the news. 

Prudence. 

My actions, choices and how I treat people are all best actions for the time if they are rooted along my walk with Christ. 

So, whether we agree or disagree, this is still a FREE country. That fact can be mistrust or change. Our true, unchanging Freedom is in Jesus if we seek it

So, Happy Fourth of July!  I’m stopping short of my soap boxes and I’m going to make some cobbler and potato salad

Now, go eat some BBQ and blow up some fireworks, you know, within reason.