Recently, I heard J.P. Sears say, “I like nature. Nature doesn’t lie and we seem to be surrounded by lies in our world”. That resonated inside me.

For 8-9 years I didn’t watch news or political broadcasts. Amazingly, life went along just great and I was never at any great disadvantage because of it. Then a couple of years ago, when the world somewhat fell apart, shut down, and freaked out, I began listening. Not because I was afraid, but because everyone else was and I didn’t understand that. It was weird to me that one-minute people were talking trash about pharmaceutical companies, and the next minute they were nearly on their knees to them.

As I watched, our world seemed to cling to one crisis after another. Panic seemed to be nearly predictive in its ebb and flow and the masses embraced it more readily than the latest cheeseburger. Fear and anxiety were the newest fads that nobody admitted having. Instead, it was accepted as normal. And I was not normal. (Ha, go figure, lol).

So, I began watching news. And as I gravitated toward those who seemed more closely aligned with my thoughts, I found podcasts. Some became my favorites and others…well, I truly began to wonder about this division between groups. It reminded me of the religious sector quite a lot. The traditionalists don’t understand the reformers and each group becomes hateful extremists toward the other.

I pondered this aspect of human behavior and discovered how easily humans are led like sheep. And I discovered Jordan Peterson, who explained these behaviors in ways I could understand. Then I heard him explain right/left brain behaviors and perceptions. He said, “They can’t understand the other and never will”. Suddenly, the truth of it rang like a gong in my soul.

How many times I’ve persistently tried, with love and peace in my heart, to talk calmly with a fundamentalist? Hoping they could find one thread in their heart to understand me. But my efforts were always futile, appearing to be a waste of time. We’d separate, with them holding a wall between us.

Not everyone would understand me, my ideas, or my beliefs and I couldn’t understand rejection.

But in the last couple of years, I’ve begun understanding it more and accepted it as a normal part of human behavior. History shows us a panoramic view through the ages of these exact same human traits over and over. The same ideologies under different disguises. We can’t understand them, so we clash, then we war, and then we kill and destroy the whole thing we’ve built. In the end, the cycle starts all over from scratch. Building, building, building until the scenario repeats again.

That seems very cynical, I’m sure. But search your heart and see if you can understand a thread of the “other side” or accept any part of their ideology.

No, I haven’t forgotten that Father still lives. And that in him I still live and breathe and have my Being. That in him all hope, peace, joy, and love vibrate in my life. But he reminds me not to be naive and forget that evil exists in the heart of mankind. Like the right/left brain who will never understand each other. Being ignorant of its existence inside is to miss one of the greatest teachings of the serpent in the garden. It doesn’t stop the growth of creativity, but will always pop up to change the outcome.

Father has convinced me to stop hiding my head in the sand about it. It is a side of us with a redemptive use, but without seeing it clearly in truth is like owning a pit bull and not purposefully guiding and training the beast within. (No offense is intended to pit bull owners who have nurtured loving animals). Every animal has animal instincts within them even if you never see it. And under the right circumstances, it can emerge.

Under the right circumstances, the snake in our own garden can strike. Ponder the last couple of years and whether you have experienced a moment of animosity you’ve never seen in yourself before.

It’s time for me to be fully awake. Not only to Father’s wonders and miracles but also to the instincts laying dormant within me. We may be coming into times when our tree gets shaken to its core. Has that deepest, hidden evil truly been redeemed yet? That happens in me when I face it in truth, and understand Father’s unconditional love for all of me which includes that. And what he’d like me to learn about that redemptive process and the part I play in it.

Anyway, whether Father has a miraculous intervention for our country or whether he allows its path of destruction as he has so many millions of others throughout the ages. I can’t hide my head in the sand.

There are not only times he saved a community or nation, but there are times he told them to “RUN!” And told them where to go. I should be ready to not stand in shock, but to hear him in peace and then go where he instructs.

Sometimes I face crises like a champ and know exactly what to do. But other times I have stood in shock and taken too much time to gather my peace. Being conscious of this means my recovery time has gotten better and better. Almost so much that people have watched me and wondered if I even had a heart because I didn’t need to stop and sob for a while.

Life is a school. It isn’t a vacation from eternity meant for me to languish on beaches with Mai-Tai’s (no offense to vacations, lol). So, I try to remember to focus and learn…now, while I can.

Most likely in a crisis, “End-of-world” teachers will become louder. Politics will become angrier. And Armageddon plans will pop up freely. Decide now what you want to learn.

Ironically, I’ve noticed people joke about “end-of-world” even more freely and frequently. It’s in the air. I feel an “impending”.

The world is “impending” these days. But what is impending depends on my reaction. Whatever upheaval, and whatever blessing, I am training for him to make “all things work together for my good” as he always has. Therefore I may experience shock in something I never expected, but I will also remember that his Kingdom lives within me. I have faced life and death and many principalities and powers. I’m never alone. Never unable to walk forward in whatever situation. And never without blessings following me all the days of my life. For I dwell in the house of the Lord, now and forevermore.

Faith

(this is a place of love, not challenges)