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Doing What is Right — Even in the Face of Unjust Treatment — is Always the Safest Path to Walk
A classic tale (and a great encouragement to keep doing the right thing!) from the consummate storyteller, Ken Sande:
"When John's wife, Karen, divorced him and moved in with her high school sweetheart, John was devastated, especially when his church refused to do anything to try to save their marriage. But he drew on God's grace and resisted the temptation to give in to self-pity or bitterness. He refused to criticize Karen, especially in front of their children. He bent over backwards to accommodate their every-changing visitation schedule. Most of all, he continued to pray for Karen, and whenever they talked with each other, he asked God to help him speak to her with genuine love and gentleness.
After about a year, Karen and her boyfriend were fighting continually. As she compared his behavior to John's unfailing kindness in the face of her betrayal, she began to realize what a terrible mistake she had made. With great trepidation she asked John if there was any chance they could get together again. To her amazement, he said yes and suggested that they start counseling with the pastor at his new church. Eight months later, their children had the joy of seeing their parents renewing their vows and reuniting their family.
Whether Karen came back to him or not, John's decision to keep doing what was right honored God. His behavior was also a powerful witness to his children about the love and forgiveness of Christ. And he later learned that his example had helped some other divorced people to respond to their ex-spouses graciously, even though none of them came back.
As John showed, doing what is right–even in the face of unjust treatment–is always the safest path to walk." (from Chapter 12 of The Peacemaker)
And a few of my favorite passages of Scripture to meditate on (over & over again!) when I am struggling to do the right thing:
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." (2 Peter 1:3-9)
"Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly … Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing." (1 Peter 2:18-19, 3:8-9)
"When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." (Psalm 73:21-28 ESV)
PCA Women's Ministry Connection Series – Videos on Key Doctrines and Women's Ministry Topics
I am so grateful for the entire PCA Discipleship Ministries team (PCA = my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America)! Their prayerful, sacrificial and wise ministry creates wonderful, biblical, Christ-centered resources and events for our denomination and I thank God for them every day.
This year, the PCA women's ministry is releasing a series videos to help connect women to key doctrines and Women's Ministry topics. Each video is paired with questions for your own personal reflection and to encourage conversation and connection among your women's ministry too. I encourage you to check them all out! I was so honored to get to participate:
To access the other videos and the discussion questions for the PCA Women's Ministry Connection series, click here. With videos by Melissa Kruger, Susan Hunt, Ellen Dykas, Courtney Doctor (and many more!), you definitely do not want to miss this series. (Oh! How I admire and deeply appreciate these women.)
Sending my love and praying for peace—
Your friend,
Tara B.
I Belong to You and You Belong to Me (And thus, we genuinely care for one another!)
I am truly enjoying Jerry Bridges' new book:
True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia
Here is a quote from the final pages to give you just a taste of its wisdom:
"The foundation of daily experiential fellowship among believers is found in Paul's statement that "in Christ … each member belongs to all the others" (Romans 12:5). I belong to you and you belong to me, and we each belong to and have "ownership" in every other believer in the world. This mutual belonging to one another is the thread that ties together all the seemingly diverse elements of fellowship.
As we recognize and apply the fact that we belong to each other, we will genuinely love and care for one another. We will seek to build up one another through spiritual sharing, and we will meet each other's material needs. We will enjoy one another in times of social fellowship, and we will suffer with one another in times of trial. All of these many facets of fellowship are rooted in the concept that we belong to one another."
Amen! And thank you, Pastor Bridges.
Apart from a miracle, a good relationship with this person is just never going to happen. That's OK. Grieve it. And LET. IT. GO.
I once received an email from a friend whose dear friend, an adult Christian woman, was "distraught" and "destroyed" over how her parents treat her. She was "terrified" of this relationship.
Knowing that some of us have these difficult relationships in our lives, I thought I would redact some of the content of my response with the hope that it might be a blessing to you too …
Perhaps a starting place would be to consider:
Why does the fact that your parents are so incredibly cruel to you "destroy you" and lead you to the point of "not being able to take it"?
Why does it matter so incredibly much?
Yes, our parents love is important and it does affect us when they treat us horribly. But … everyone has suffering to bear in life and apparently, her parents' treatment of her is a major "cross" that God has ordained for her to bear.
So what is her only hope? The Lord. The Triune God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ: Who God is and all that He has already done for her in Christ.
But like all of us … in her deep pain, maybe even in the shock of the moment when people she has wanted to love (and be loved by) have hurt her again … she may be forgetting eternity. The pain of today so often blinds us to the Hope of tomorrow (and a million tomorrows once we are Home).
Sometimes, when we are distraught beyond words, that is a clear indication that we are grieving. We need to lament. Throw ourselves into the arms of the One Person who knows our suffering and knows so much more! And Who will never let us down. Never abandon us. Never give up on us.
So your friend may need to weep. Maybe you can hold her as she sobs and help her by your compassionate, steady presence (and multiple handfuls of Kleenex).
At an appropriate time, it may also be that your friend's strong emotional reaction to this situation has its roots in her demands (James 4:1-3) and her responding in these ways not because of how her parents are treating her, but because of her heart regarding how her parents are treating her. She's not getting what she wants (demands/"needs") regarding a very important thing to her. How does she respond? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control? Praise the Lord! It's probably not an idol! Anger, rage, bitterness, malice, slander, filthy language from her lips? Uh-oh. Careful. Our legitimate grief sometimes turns a corner into sinful, judgmental, vengeance and demands for "justice" that seed into bitterness in our hearts.
When that happens, we may have what your friend describes as "anger issues with God" and we may find ourselves graceless and loveless toward the people who are hurting us (in your case, your friend's attitude towards her parents).
(As an aside—your friend describes herself as being "miserable" and "terrified" of her parents. Sometimes, angry and miserable people are actually scared people–and in this case, that sure seems to be possible.)
So what is the solution? Well. Of course. Just like all of us, your friend can't just choose to "be joyful." Sometimes we need to lament. Grieve. Even Jesus wept! So I encourage you to be there for her. Love her. Let her make your shoulder wet with her tears as she cries out over her deep suffering in this fallen world. Point her to Jesus–remind her that he knows her pain and he cares. Help her to worship God rightly–because if any of her heart issues are actually idolatrous demands, the only way to displace wrong worship is right worship of God. (I know you know that this is the entire section on "Idolatry" in my video series/standard retreat.)
Re: her "terror" at her parents … you know I write on this topic a lot because just as Dr. Ed Welch describes himself in his wonderful book, Running Scared, I, too, am a "fear specialist." So maybe perusing some of my old posts on fear would be of help to her. Or would you consider going through with her Ed Welch's workbook, "When I Am Afraid?" This might be very encouraging and helpful to her. But whatever you do, keep pointing her to God! (I know you do!) Because the only way to get rid of that level of fear is to replace it with a bigger fear—the fear of God.
As she worships God rightly and remembers Christ and reminds herself that God is with her and for her, only then will she be standing on such a firm rock that she will be able to say with confidence, "God is sovereign over even my tragic family situation. I would not choose this for myself, but I know that God is always good. I know that He loves me. And He will give me the grace to wisely and lovingly and mercifully interact with my parents."
Just like us all, she must begin by running to Christ–the real Christ. Our resurrected Lord and King! Apart from Christ, there is no hope. None at all. Then … to persevere, she will need to be nourished by the feast of God's grace by willingly and joyfully submitting to the authority of a local church so that she is regularly strengthened by the means of God's grace: the preaching and study of the Word, the sacraments, corporate prayer and worship, accountability, oversight, etc. etc.
There are way too many enemies that lead us away from Christ (our flesh, the world, Satan). We need the regular, faithful ministry of the Body if we are to remain in the faith and grow in sanctification and conformity to Christ.
Not to say that any of this is easy … I don't mean to imply that I know what her previous conversations with her parents have been like … but if I were to venture a guess, I would presume that they have been her trying to lovingly develop a real (sincere, open and honest, genuine) relationship with her parents. And probably, she has (rightly) thought that they could never have a true friendship and experience genuine love if all of the past hurts and offenses were not brought up and dealt with through repentance, confession, and forgiveness. Of course she's right on many levels—true love and friendship requires that we tear down those walls and root out those hurts and angry demands for vengeance or punishment. (This is a lot of what my pastor and I do in our marital mediation cases.)
However, I can't imagine that these conversations have been anything other than depressing, discouraging, and probably very, very ugly. Why? Well … for one thing, it seems as though your friend (like all of us) has some aspects of her life that are not secure in Christ. Rather than needing Christ alone; she believes that she needs her parents' love and her parents to treat her well. This means she is living (at least in part) for a good relationship with her parents. To the extent she is investing her hope, confidence and emotions in a good relationship with her parents—rather than in Christ alone—she really seems to be manifesting a heart of wrong (idolatrous) worship. ("If only my parents would love me and stop being so mean to me, then I would be happy." Really? I don't think so! That's not how God created us. We were created to worship God—not people. Not even our parents.)
In addition, it sure doesn't sound like her parents are very godly, Spirit-directed, biblically astute, wise, generous, loving, mature people. But boy your friend really wants to have a great relationship with parents who are all of those things. But here's the thing that I really, really, really encourage your friend to just embrace … it's never going to happen.
Ok, Ok, I'm not God, so of course, I can't say for sure. But barring a miracle, your friend is never going to have a loving relationship with her parents. It's just not the family situation God (in his perfect, loving, mercy and care) has apparently ordained for her.
From her parents' perspective, "everything is her fault." Yup. "They are never going to hear what she says." Sure sounds like it. Is this sad? Absolutely! Should she grieve this? You bet. But I truly encourage you to help her to let it go. Grieve but stop pining away for something that is never going to happen.
"In as much as it depends on her" – she is called to live at "peace" with her parents (Romans 12). But she has neither the power nor the authority to change them. And it sounds like she's been making herself miserable trying to get them to understand her position so that they can be "reconciled." Again, barring some amazing miracle, I just can't imagine that this will ever happen in this life. (I will mention that if they are professing Christians and members of a biblically-faithful church, there may be trained mediators and/or ordained leaders who could help. But it sure doesn't sound like her parents would be open to such a thing.)
Regardless of what her parents do or don't do, from the security of right worship of God, basking in His grace toward her, trusting in His sovereignty and goodness, your friend can move toward her parents in a new way … needing nothing from them, putting no "good" expectations on them (in fact, expecting them to be cruel and insensitive to her), but blessing them and doing acts of charity and mercy to them anyway.
She is called to love her enemies—who happen to be her parents. (Our closest "enemies" are often are family members—husbands, children, parents—aren't they?) Not judging them—but instead trusting that either they will suffer the torment of Hell for eternity for their sins OR that Christ's suffering on the cross and descent into Hell covers their sins. In either case, it is enough. She does not have to poison her heart and soul and mind and life for one more minute over her parents. A) It's just not worth it; and B) It doesn't change anything anyway.
Of course I need to point out that being kind and merciful toward "abusive" and mean people can look like different things in different situations. And I do not mean to imply that she is going to be called to sit there for hour after hour while they heap unkind and cruel words on her. She may need to confess her sins to them. She may need to share Christ with them. At times, she may sit through their barrage of meanness.
At other times, it might be OK to (gently, lovingly, humbly, mercifully) say something like, "Mom, Dad, I love you. And I want to have a relationship with you. But right now you are saying some words to me that are not redemptive and I can't see how this will help us to love God or love one another. So I'm going to go ahead and go now—but I want you to know that I love you and I'm praying for you. OK. Bye-bye."
But she's no longer furious at them. She doesn't leave condemned by their rejection of her. She is not "destroyed." In fact, she moves on in her day the exact way that she was before their cruelty—secure in God. Secure in Christ. Heart fixed on eternity. Walking her pilgrim days on earth with faith and hope.
(And when she's too tired or weak to do this, her friends in the Body come alongside of her and carry her for awhile. Just like our home is always open to you my friend.)
I hope this email is even a tiny blessing to you (and to her!). If she's a visual learner, she could also watch a keynote I did at a Peacemaker Conference a few years ago that I think would be particularly on point to her life situation:
Thanks again for writing! I love you, my friend! So very sorry for your friend's suffering.
Tara B.
The Very People We Are Called to Serve Will Break our Hearts
"If our ultimate motivation for service to God is simply because we love people, we will never be able to sustain the call to service that God has given to us because the very people we are called to serve will break our hearts. It is only the grace of Christ that enables us to persevere." J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, Women's Ministry in the Local Church
Church is a Band of Natural Enemies
Just a few scratchings from one of my many listenings of Pastor Tim Keller's sermon, The Community of Jesus (taken from Luke 6:12-36). This is a sermon that is worth listening to more than once …
Why do we have the law of God?
To find law and be saved? NO.
Exodus shows that is impossible.
God does not give them the law and then save them from slavery.
He saves them and then gives them the law.
So, if God has already saved them from slavery, why did he give them the law?
Because He is going to make us into a people; a true human community. A new human community.
(It's as though God is saying …) The reason why human community has unraveled everywhere; the reason individuals are at war with individuals and families are at war with families and nations are at war with nations; the reason all of that is happening is because when your relationship with me unraveled, all other relationships unraveled. And when a relationship with me is restored, that restores all other human relationships. And therefore, I am creating a community in which we show the world that if you restore relationship with me, all of the unraveling is woven again together into a fabric.
I'm going to show that when you relate with me you are brought into a new human community …
… So …
The reason there are so many exhortations in the New Testament for Christians to love other other Christians is because the church is not made up of natural friends, but natural enemies.
What binds us together is not common—race, accents, nationality, job, education, etc.
Christians come together not because they form a natural convocation; but because Jesus died for them.
Church is a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus' sake.
Be patient.
We need it.
Jesus gives us the power for it.
How DARE the pastor say that I shouldn't take communion! Just because I'm in this big fight with someone in my church? How dare he! (Or. Dare he not?)
I always enjoy Dave's posts over at our Redeeming Church Conflicts.com site. But this post was particularly challenging and edifying for me:
I hope you will click through and read the entire post, but for a quick summary, let me just say that Dave reminds us all of the seriousness of coming to the Lord's Table in an unworthy manner; especially the warning in Matthew 5:23-24 concerning partaking in corporate worship before making any effort to reconcile broken relationships. He then responds to the people who were, shall we say, not pleased with this "fencing" of the Table when it happened recently at his church.
One reason why I think this post was particularly meaningful for me is because I spent my early years in churches that never taught this to me and thus, I have many memories of people (including myself!) taking communion while harboring bitterness and resentment in their hearts towards one another. What a mockery of the Cross! Jesus died to save us from our sin and make us his adopted children; he kisses us through His Supper to grow us all up into him, our Head. And we respond with cursing, gossip, slander, and bitterness? This is surely not the way it's supposed to be. (And the human wreckage in these churches was great—"friends" who walk away from one another; marriages ending in divorce; even one of my churches splitting due to unresolved conflict. None of this pointing to Christ and glorifying the justice and mercy of God.)
Thankfully, I am now a member of a church that fences the table rightly. And thus, pretty much every time we share the Lord's Supper, you see people abstaining. Holding back. Letting the elements pass. It is a normal thing in the culture of our church and if it is noticed, it is only a further call to pray. We pray for our own hearts (when we are the ones caught in bitterness and refusing to even try to be reconciled). We pray for wise and experienced peacemakers (laypeople and leaders) who are undoubtedly helping in the process. And we pray for "the unity of the saints through the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3); that the testimony of our lives would clearly demonstrate to a watching world that we are the Lord's disciples:
Oh! Those Christians! Look at how they forgive and love one another!
May this be true in all of our churches.
In Christ Our Only Hope,
Tara B.
If you haven't re-read Bonhoeffer's Life Together in awhile, I encourage you to do so. Chapter 5 ("Confession and Communion") is alone worth the price of the book. Spurgeon also has a sermon that is worth the read (doesn't he always?): Fencing the Table. The Spuurgeon paragraph most on point to this post (my emphasis added) is:
And, dear friends, once more, there is a necessity for us to examine ourselves, because we must know that there are, among us, some who are, doubtless, partaking of the Lord's Supper unworthily. We have known, to our great sorrow, of some who have been harbouring an unforgiving spirit, yet who have dared to come to the communion table. When I have really known that this has been the case, I have prevented the wrongdoer from sitting down with us; but, unknown to me, and to other ministers, it must often have happened that persons have come, professing to be Christians, yet all the while not manifesting the true spirit of Christianity toward some offending brother or sister. You remember how even the loving apostle John writes, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"
In full disclosure, I found the link to the Spurgeon sermon and the wonderful graphic at the top of this post on JoeThorn.net. I do not know Pastor Thorn personally, but I am in a writer's group with his (delightful! wise!) wife. I hope you check out his blog—especially if you are one of my many Baptist friends. I think you would enjoy his "byte-sized experiential theology" very much.
(Still) Recovering from a Lifetime of Disordered Eating
[This is an updated version of a 2013 post ...]
I have lived for ten+ years now as an obese woman. (With a sweet couple of years in there of making some progress on my spiritual and physical health goals … but then, as is so often the case, losing ground very rapidly. Bummer.)
It's a very strange thing for me to be so overweight. I didn't used to be. But most of my current friends have no other picture in their mind of me. And with each passing year, I feel the painful consequences of my unhealthy choices more and more. I also continue to be in the battle of faith's fight against sin and I am grateful for the blessed consequences of wise choices too.
There are so many things I wish I could discuss at length about this topic (and maybe I will one day), but in the few moments I have this morning, here are just a few thoughts:
- I always pray for overweight people who are doing active things–walking, exercising at the gym, riding a bicycle–because I know how hard that must be for them to do. It's hard to exercise when you are in shape—it's even harder when you are out of shape. And so I pray. And when I know the person, I also look for intentional ways to encourage and bless them; to cheer them on and build them up because I know the sting of a critical word and I know the sweetness of genuine kindness too. And I want to always be kind.
- I would love for some brilliant biblical counselor/CCEF person to write about the role spouses and good friends play when the person they love so dearly struggles with weight gain / disordered eating / lack of health. What a difficult issue! To a very important extent, we must never judge our spouse or friend by worldly standards of "thinness" and "beauty." At the same time, when we see destructive, enslaving sin happening in the life of someone we love, we have a duty to help to rescue them. And trust me—it is a lot easier to help someone to get on top of a ten or twenty pound weight gain than it is to help them to recover from a 100+ pound weight gain. So what does wisdom combined with love look like in this situation?
- Unless you take the time to get to know me, you don't know me. And if you judge me based on externals and then try to "speak truth" into my life, you may give me the exact opposite of what I need at that time. For example, I may be on the downswing of weight: losing pounds, getting thinner, looking so much "better." How do you respond? Do you praise me and ooh-and-aah over me and gush about how disciplined I am being and how Jesus is giving me the victory? Careful! What if I am giving myself over to bulimic or anorexic behaviors? Poisoning myself by misusing medicines? Living every day enslaved by my food journal / "weigh-in" / exact calorie count? Does weight loss always equal victory, wisdom, and right worship? By no means! And what if I am giant/huge/you see me and cringe and gracelessly criticize me in my stupid stretchy black pants that are the only things I can fit in right now? What if you confront me and rebuke me? But during that season, I am for the first time in years, eating nutritious food with people (not compulsively in hiding), in moderation and I'm actually exercising daily all while delighting in Christ alone, being washed in His Word and fed by His sacraments? What if I weigh 100+ pounds more than a strong and healthy weight, but that is actually a huge victory because I used to weight 200+ pounds more than a strong and healthy weight?
These are complex issues, aren't they?
Sure, there are seemingly obvious answers like, "Eat less!" and "Exercise more!" And for the vast majority of those of us who are unhealthy in our morbid obesity, we probably should eat less and exercise more. That is wisdom and good stewardship! But for most of us, there are also far deeper issues that touch on giant, gaping holes in our spiritual health—damage that has been done to us and damage that we have done ourselves; life in a fallen world; spiritual warfare. To ignore those foundational issues (while only focusing on the surface issues) is like laying down a clean carpet on rotting floorboards. It might get you through a hastily convened dinner party or your 25th High School reunion … but ultimately, it will never last.
So, yes. I continue to be in the battle. Yes, some of my choices are simple choices of wisdom and obedience. But also? I am acknowledging and facing things from decades of pain and shame and hurt. I am seeing ties between my thinking and believing and behaving that I have never seen before. Some of these insights require feeling and grieving and believing and hoping with the confident, biblical hope that we can have in Christ that all of the promises of God really are "Yes!" in Him. So I need to eat less and exercise more—I do! But I also need to remember and repent and believe.
God is at work. I am growing. And I am loved, even while I am in process on this lifetime journey of sanctification.
I wonder: Do the overweight people in your life know this is true of them too? Can you say with confidence that your spouse, parent, child, pastor, friend knows that you are for them even as they tackle / run away from / enjoy blessed growth in this painful, exhausting, oft' shameful issue of weight gain and weight loss and peace with food? Do they know you love them because you pray for them and encourage them and yes, as appropriate, redemptively confront and advise them? Are they more than just "fat" to you? Do you remember their gifts and beauty and seek out their counsel? Or do you write them off entirely because they have this particular public struggle? Are you reinforcing the worldly messages that only rejoice in external "beauty"? Even if that beauty is enslaving them to a number on the scale and a size in their closet? Or are you a voice for truth and light and loveliness and real beauty?
Sometimes, as I talk withh my children about this particular (obvious) struggle I have, I encourage them to think about all of the sins that people struggle with, but that do not have a clear, obvious, external "announcing" of them: pride. Greed. Gossip. A judgmental and critical spirit that keeps a list of wrongs. A divisive spirit that separates brothers. Haughtiness. Lust. What if every single one of those sins announced themselves by layering extra skin and fat cells around peoples' arms and thighs and gave them double chins? How "beautiful" would those (by worldly standards) "beautiful" people be then?
I'm not happy that I have this struggle. I wish I didn't. I would appreciate your prayers, but probably not a list of things I should "do" to "fix this." (People give a LOT of unsolicited advice when they find out you are struggling with disordered eating/unhealthy weight gain. Oh oh oh. If only knowledge could fix the problem! But lasting behavioral change requires lasting heart change—and that, my friends, requires the Savior … and a lot of good old fashioned hard work and self-discipline too.)
If you or someone you love struggles with this topic, I hope you will check out my other blogs about disordered affections. In them, I link to a number of articles and sermons that have really helped me and continue to help me.
God bless you!
Remember! You are not alone—
Lots of us struggle to recover from a lifetime of disordered eating.
Sending my love and care,
Tara B.
I think it is particularly telling that people, even confessing Christians, can be so ugly and harsh about this topic. The tweets I have seen from (thin / "beautiful") twenty-something Christians who spew venom about "fat people" as though those people were not people at all—but just objects to be ridiculed? The harsh judgment over what people eat and how people eat—with no patience, no instruction, no compassion towards those of us who grew up in homes where the only vegetable we ever saw was frozen corn. At Thanksgiving. (True story.) Where potatoes came as flakes in a box and white bread and bologna was amazingly "healthy" and "wonderful" because at least we had some sort of food in the kitchen (rather than the terror of a small child facing an empty fridge and absent parents).
For some of us? Just learning that something called "whole grains" existed in the world is a GIANT growth in wisdom; more or less learning that there are stores called "Health Food Stores." (I didn't know that until I was in college.) And then to actually BUY something in one of those fancy-shmancy-bins of LENTILS-everywhere stores? That is HUGE! More or less to learn how to cook it and serve it to our families. To many of you, this is no big deal. But to some of us, it's like climbing Mt. Everest. We don't know how. We are not equipped. The lingo scares us. It all feels so overwhelming. So be patient with us, please! Remember that you have weaknesses too. Think about how you would feel if your hidden, enslaving sins were worn on YOUR outsides like ours are. Be a friend. Be a part of the solution, not another face of ugliness and condemnation in our lives. And we will try to be good friends to you too.
I did not plan to blog on this topic today, but I was spurred on to do so by this a article that Challies linked to. I commend it to you:
One Indispensable Rule for Everything and Anything Online
Kevin DeYoung is right yet again:
The One Indispensable Rule for Using Social Media
("Oh, be careful little fingers what you type …")
Remnants of Shame Still Cling to Us—But They are Losing Their Grip
The number one question I am asked about at my women's events has to do with shame–that pervasive sense of non-good-enough-ness that keeps us always feeling on the "out"—not safe, not accepted, not wanted, not … loved.
Rich, poor; urban, rural; formal education, no formal education—many Christian women struggle with feeling not-good-enough–at work, in the home, with their extended families, in the quietness of their own hearts. They feel like they don't fit in. There is no safe place for them. If they were ever vulnerable enough to let someone see their "real selves," women who struggle with shame feel that they would be evaluated and judged with a resounding: Not. Good. Enough.
It is because this struggle is so pervasive among Christian women that we have a chapter on Shame in the "Conflicts Within" section of our book, Peacemaking Women. It is also why I was so happy to pray for (and financially support) CCEF for years as Dr. Ed Welch worked on his manuscript on this very topic: Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection.
This is a wonderful book.
"Shame Interrupted" captures the heart of a shame-based person so fluently that it is easy to forget that its author is a professional counselor and theologian. He writes more like a friend and fellow sufferer. I think that is why I have always been so profoundly helped by his books—I never feel like he is talking down to me. ("Here is this great wisdom that I know that you don't. Receive it. Learn it. Be like me.") No. Whether the topic is depression, addiction, brain disorders, or fear, Dr. Welch writes with humility, humanness, and a stalwart confidence in the reality of God's saving, adopting, sanctifying, and one day glorifying, grace.
If you or someone you know struggles with often feeling "not-good-enough", I hope you will order a copy today. To tempt you to do so, I will leave you with a few of my (random!) notes from my first reading of this book back in 2012 when I endorsed it.
(These are just rough notes—please attribute any strange or confusing language to me and any pearls of wisdom to Dr. Welch.)
Remember! You are not alone.
And you are most definitely, definitely loved—
Your friend,
Tara B.
I am apparently unworthy of love. Real love.
Even the people who claim to love me kick me out. Call me a nuisance.
Can't stand to be around me because there is something so fundamentally flawed about me—
That I am unacceptable. Bad.
Not because of what I do or say.
(Sin? Guilt? For that I know I can be forgiven! But what about this ill-defined gray blob of …
just me being me and my "just me" being worthy only of rejection?)
Forgiveness speaks to guilt. Great!
But shame is unmoved by forgiveness.
Like some sort of B-movie horror-show antagonist monster—
People turn away from me and keep me at arms-length.
I am hideous. Scary. Annoying. Overwhelming.
Too Much Tara = Too Much Badness
Interestingly, a lot of the people who judge me most harshly have never even gotten to know me
Never spent one minute with my children and me
Yet they point a finger and say, "Bad Mom!"
(And I can only chuckle and replay The Cross and Criticism in my mind and think,
"If only you knew half the truth! I'm far, far worse than even your graceless evaluation.")
Still. When line after line of my weaknesses and failures is listed out …
Page after page …
Not metaphorically, but actually written down, by hand or typed up, on paper …
- As a child ("See, dear, that's why you can't live with me any more—you're too difficult. Get out!")
- A pre-conversion teenager living with friends for a few weeks ("We thought we could help/fix you but you're too much of a mess. (Read list of Tara Badness). You're bringing down our whole family. GET OUT!")
- A short-term missions team member ("See, Tara, here is this actual list—two pages, double-sided—of all of your badness and things you need to FIX. Oh. And here is Matthew 18 too so you can see that this is exactly how JESUS says we are to treat one another." And the well-meaning baby Christian teenager says, "Huh?! This is how Jesus says we are to treat one another?")
- A group of friends in high school explaining why I wasn't invited to the "cool kids" party ("We love you, Tara, but you're just too annoying. If you could stop doing THIS and start doing THAT, then we could maybe bear to be around you.")
- The dorm room buddy who WANTED to live with me right up until the minute she DIDN'T want to live with me (because I was too, well, ME). One day, she read me an actual list of Tara's annoyances and the next day she moved out. Yup. That's friendship for ya!
- OK. One list was verbal—flung out of a car door window when my best friend in college, without warning, said, "You are just TOO HARD TO BE AROUND, Tara. I love you. But I never want to have any contact from you ever again." My. Best. Friend. (Or so I thought.) No warning. No Spidey-Sense-Tingling-I've-Upset-Someone foreboding of conflict brewing. Just a list. A pronouncement. Tara = Bad. Then complete radio silence. (Well, for 25 years—and then, YAY! YAY! YAY! We were reconciled! One of my most blessed moments in all of life.)
(As an aside, I cannot tell you how tired this makes me to this of all of this. But thankfully, at least, my husband has never made such a list. Not yet and I know not ever, because that's the kind of man he is. I bet a lot of people wish they could say that about their spouse.)
Still. Shame and rejection sure make it hard to risk, to be vulnerable, and to love. Every time I'm suckerpunched, my instinct is to stay permanently in a defensive crouch, better prepared for the next blow. But that's not living! And that's not loving! So I grieve and wail and mourn and try again.
But when my rejection begins to bleed out onto people I love and suddenly THEY are rejected too? Oh man. A truly terrifying death knell that has slowly rung deep in my soul for my entire sentient life starts to grow louder and stronger … this the one dark thought tries to claw itself to the surface of my consciousness and rule my life:
Tara? The lives of the people around you would be better off without you.
Because that's how bad you really are.
OK. So now we're in it. In the battle. A lie, clearly from the pit of Hell, fed by the confusions and delusions of my Old Man, nursed by the world and by Christians acting like the world …
To that horrible, deceiving lie that the people I love would be better off without me?
I whisper back with enough strength to win the day: There is a way to be cleansed from shame.
God identifies shame. God experienced shame.
I am not alone.
Through Jesus, there is a way out of shame.
The unclean become clean.
The clean become holy.
The naked are clothed in royal garments.
The outcasts are accepted as children of the honored King.
Contempt says: 'Stay away from me. I will not even deign to look you in the eye more or less speak directly to you. You are too far gone. Too bad. Too scary. Too annoying. Too unworthy.'
Jesus says: 'Come to me all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
I pray: "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." (He is! He does!) And then he goes even further! He not only saves us and cleanses us, he adopts us as his beloved: 'See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.' (1 John 3:1)
The remnants of shame still cling to us, but they are losing their grip.
Adoption is the answer for shame.
People ignore, attack, and discard us. We are the targets of anger, which is almost always demeaning. We are discouraged when people don't care about us or remember us—but we survive. Why? How? Because we know …
We are chosen. Wanted. Loved.
We are growing.
And one day, there will be no more shame.
Maranatha! Come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen.


text:
The Cleveland Browns should use the fourth pick in this years NFL draft to solidify the defense Heckert has already improved on. The Browns can grab Morris Claiborne if things go right and another team doesn't get in the way of what the Browns should be intending to do. You win a lot of football games in the NFL with solid defensive play. Heckert knows this and the Cleveland Browns know this. Once Heckert picks at number four the Browns should use the rest of their first round picks in the draft to build some offense.
The Cleveland Browns plan as far as we know at this time to use Colt McCoy as their starting quarterback. I think it is a fair plan, seeing how McCoy really only has one year under his belt as the Browns starting Q.B. and the team not only had a new head coach last year, they Changed their offense too. The Browns would do good to grab a receiver to improve their offense. The problem is the receiver people would like to see the Browns pick, might be gone when they get to the 22nd pick.
The Browns can get a good receiver even if Justin Blackmon is already taken, there is Hill and a few other good ones in this years draft. It is going to be interesting with about 27 hours left until the 2012 NFL draft to see what the Cleveland Browns do. Regardless of what happens, lets hope the Browns can get some guys that will be able to immediately make a difference in this up-coming NFL season.
Filed under: Cleveland Browns
Tagged with: football, Justin Blackmon, Morris Claiborne, Steven Hill, The Browns, Tom Heckert
Are you serious…Claiborne at 4? you can;t pass on Richardson at 4, guy is a once a decade talent.
a shut down cb next to hadden would be a great foundation to the defence and the right choice……………at pick 37. pick best availble regardless of position or need. but at pick 37 you can draft the best player and best cb in the draft in cb janoris jenkins. some people say well his height he might be to short at cb. well joe hadden and darrelle revis are 5'11….deangelo hall and asante samuels ,sheldon brown among others are 5'10"…janoris jenkins 5'10 193 lbs. he is a blanket cb who is physical on the line of scrimmage playing press better then any cb in the draft,challenges recievers from the snap until the whisle blows having great ball skills,a great run stopper with pro bowl talents and a top talent not just at cb but in the draft,also great at taking the number one reciever out of the game and outstanding in causing misdierection and turn overs. he is battled tested more then any cb in the draft period. when playing with cb joe hadden he was barely a notch below him in talent if at all and he was younger then and but now he is older and better. some people say he got into some trouble. well everyone deserves a fresh start and everyone makes mistakes when there young and playing with his mentor cb joe hadden will give him the best oppurtunity to change…..he is by far a better cb then claiborne and kirkpatrick and wouldn't be disappointed if we didn't push our luck and take him at 22. but you can get best cb at 37..play poker then 22 the best or second best wr in kendall wright and at pick four take the best or second best player in the whole draft in ot matt kalil…and from lt to rt on your o-line is just as important as the other…..you also can take og brandon brooks in third round,fourth round wr ryan broyles and wr mcnutt,fifth round dt marcus forston and dt derek wolfe. sixth round wr patrick edwards and cb cliff harris. seventh round-olb sammy brown,de cam johnson,de/olb adrian hamilton………….then trade 2014,2015,and 2016 first and second rounders for the vikings first,second,and third rounder in 2012 draft. then use those picks on rb trent richardson,wr alshon jefferry and de/olb bruce irving or og kelechi osemele or og brandon washington………..then use 2013 first round pick in suplimental draft on qb matt barkley when he see's all the young talent we got and his best chance to succeed with ot matt kalil talking in his ear and us paying him more money then qb luck gets….thats best avilble pick them as they are infront of you…..
cb claiborne is good too just think cb janoris jenkins is better…would like them both but so many needs…they can't go wrong unless they take a qb other then griffin 111 or luck the need to wait another year..unless weeden can be had in a trade up in mid second round
Hi folks, I just talked with Mike and he and I are 100% positive that we are not going to throw the fourth pick in the draft away on a guy that wasn't even the best corner on his team. Thanks for the stupid article guys.
When Mike Holmgren claims that Colt McCoy is his guy, I believe
him as much as people believed John Elway when he stated, matter of
factly, that Tim Tebow was his guy and he was going to stick with
him…lol. Colt McCoy is what the Cleveland Browns are stuck with,
until the Browns management is able to get an NFL caliber quarterback
for their team. What do you get when you put the best NFL line and the
best receiving corps together with Colt McCoy, that's easy…a losing
NFL football team. It's not rocket science, and no matter what spin
Mike Holmgren puts on it, when he tells himself the truth, he knows
that currently the Cleveland Browns don't have a single NFL caliber
quarterback on their team and he knows it. To give you a
perspective here, Tim Tebow is a 5 times better NFL caliber quarterback
than any quarterback currently on the Cleveland Browns roster!!!!
That fact is pretty sad when you sit down and think about it, and it
clearly shows how bad the Cleveland management has done the past
several years!
Yea, the Browns are gonna pass on a sure thing in Richarson. Ahh no, the Browns will tske Richarson (if no one moves up to take him) with the 4 pick Claiborne is going to Tampa at 5.
you guys will do what u do every year..sell it! ur not going 2 get me all worked up again EVER
the actual picks should make the author rethink writing these articles…
Sorry, comments are closed on this post.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
2008 AUDI R8 4.2 V8 COUPE MATTE GREY WRAP EXTERIOR ( IBIS WHITE UNDERNEATH) BLACK LEATHER INTERIOR ONLY... More
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text:
DFS Replication requirements
Updated: August 22, 2005
Applies To: Windows Server 2003 R2
Before you can deploy DFS Replication, you must configure servers as follows:
The Active Directory schema must be updated to include the new DFS Replication objects.
To upgrade the schema, on the schema operations master, run adprep.exe /forestprep. The Adprep.exe command-line tool is available in the Cmpnents\R2\Adprep folder on the second Windows Server 2003 R2 installation CD.
The servers that will participate in DFS Replication must run a Windows Server 2003 R2 operating system. After you install Windows Server 2003 R2, you must install the DFS Replication service on each server that will take part in replication, and you must install the DFS Management snap-in on one server to manage replication. For installation instructions, see Installing the DFS Management Snap-in and DFS Replication Service.
Antivirus software must be compatible with DFS Replication; contact your antivirus software vendor to check for compatibility.
Servers in a replication group must be in the same forest. You cannot enable replication across servers in different forests.
Replicated folders must be stored on NTFS volumes.
On server clusters, replicated folders must be located in the local storage of a node because the DFS Replication service is not designed to work in a coordinated way with cluster components, and the service will not fail over to another node.
See Also
Other ResourcesMicrosoft Web site


text:
Kidz Bop is back on the road and coming to Coral Springs- get the Groupon!
My kids are always asking for the Kidz Bop CD's, so we were especially excited to hear they are coming to South Florida. You've heard The KIDZ BOP Kids - Ashlynn, Bredia,...
Started by Lisa on 10/10/2014 in South Florida Mamas
Last update on 10/10/2014 by Lisa


text:
Jeff Jarrett shoutout!
No Undertaker either...I was hoping for it, but pretty much knew it wouldn't happen.
Big "Utah"? That doesn't start with E. Silly Jericho.
One has to feel sorry for JBL and Cole. They've got Big E standing in front of them with those tights. (;_;)
Is Smackdown on tonight or something? :confused:


text:
Ratings based on 7 Verified Reviews
They paid and stayed. We double-checked.
2.9 Room cleanliness
3.0 Service & staff
2.3 Room comfort
2.0 Hotel condition
They paid and stayed.
We double-checked.
We double-checked.
by Bryan from Douglasville, GA
A fine place to bring a hooker but that's about itPosted Apr 8, 2013
Pros: free garden hose to rinse off my bike
Cons: the room
Location: on a busy intersection. You can hear every vehicle that takes off from the light all night long.
It's an old building that has not been maintained properly. It looks like when something broke they made the cheapest fix possible and it's shows. The drapes are at least 20 years old and the whole room had a very musty smell to it. You can tell the glass shower door broke so they just put up a shower curtain rod and didn't even remove the plastic wrap. The door to our room had no deadbolt or secondary lock of any kind. It could be easily opened with a credit card or putty knife. The Expedia quoted rate was $66 but the front desk charge my card for $81. There was biscuits and gravy in the fridge when I got there. The hot water ran brown for a couple minutes. The shower never got hot. The only outle in the room was behind the nightstand and only one outlet was available. This seems more like a pay by the hour place than a $81 a night room.
by Bob
Never again.Posted Sep 18, 2012
Pros: Nothing
Cons: Size of the room and furnishings.
Location: Area was great for what we wanted.
1. The room was very small. 2. The fausets in the bathroom sink were not secured to the sink. 3. Bed sheets had burn holes in them and bed cover was torn in several places.
by A verified traveler from Atlanta, GA
Not for relaxingPosted May 30, 2012
It is not a comfortable room to relax. The room is small and carpet is old. The bathroom is so old that you do not want to stay any more minutes... I will not choose it in the future....
by Mary from Knoxville, TN
Not impressedPosted Nov 22, 2011
Bathroom not desirable at all. Shower didn't appear to be clean; therefore I did not shower there.
by A verified traveler from Jacksonville, FL
It was like taking a big step back in time!Posted Oct 26, 2011
Hotel was in a great location and was clean. However, it reminded me of motels that my family stayed in when I was a child, 45 years ago. I would think twice about staying here again. For the money, I expected something more modern.
by A verified traveler from New London, NC
old, dated 50 eraPosted Jul 9, 2011
This was avery old motel, owners had freshly painted, tried to give it an uplift, but too many repairs need to be done. They had new toilets and sicks but the shower was beyond repair. there was no hot water
by A verified traveler from North Carolina
not good!!Posted Mar 21, 2011
An old motel that the young owners have tried to fix up but not cheap enough to warrent the constant on-off of the heater all night. Good shower, TV, internet but pretty well roughing it.


text:
VENEZUELA: AmBev keeps a presence despite brewery closure
AmBev has said it will maintain a presence in Venezuela despite the closure of a brewery in the country.
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