final days forum

The undertow of disappointment

Nieves, originally uploaded by Steven Fernandez.

During the holidays, disappointment often is painfully conspicious. Tough economic times also prompt disappointment to surface.  Guard against disappointment, the dull knife that severs hope.

We may not consciously acknowledge that life saddens us because the way we live is not the life we imagined as teens. We may never utter a word when our employers, lawmakers, spouses, family members or spiritual leaders disappoint us.  We may grieve because our best friends and hang-out buddies are not who we long for them to be.  We resist acknowledging the inner pain of disappointment, but our emotions seep through in every way conceivable. Our voices rise and fall with frustration. We eat to silence screams. We party heartily to drown out the noise of loneliness.

High, unrealistic, and just plain ol' unfulfilled expectations fuel our inner turmoil. The huge letdown ushers in regret, restlessness and silence, a perilous state that hinders positive steps toward fresh, and maybe unexpected, success. Believe  it; disappointment is real, but don't befriend it. Exorcise disappointment from the wells of  your heart.

One word of encouragement if disappointment tries to seduce you during this holiday season: Keep expectations in the right place. Don't carry expectations in your pockets like loose change or trade them with your friends like baseball cards.  Let expectations remain in the bosom of God, the only person who can do something about all of our hopes.

 

Judy Howard Ellis

P.S. Chuck Pierce writes about a similiar theme today on The Elijah List. He says this about God's view of our lives now: "Declare a season ended. Declare old thoughts to be pulled out. Declare changes in alliances. Let go of losses. Let go of bruised expectations. I have new assignments. Flow to a new shore!" 

 

Rage: the new normal

Web (HDR), originally uploaded by iChaz.

Everyone is angry. It's not that anger cannot be an emotion that can move us in the right direction or right a terrible wrong. Unchecked anger is what I'm talking about.  Anger without boundaries coats our politics, flavors our school board meetings, and poses as the uninvited guest at family dinner. We are ticked. We mercilessly spew our rage at the driver who cut us off on the highway, the callers who disagree with us on our talk radio programs, and the spouse who just won't do right.

Anger throbs in the hearts of Christians who pummel with the ferocity of hell those who have abortions or choose same-sex unions. The intent may be to bring people into alignment with Scripture, but they use the fist of Satan to inspire the obedience of Jesus. Our anger curdles like sour milk and reeks of rottenness. I have wondered at my own anger and the wrath seething on television programs and throughout the blogosphere. It's like we have supped with the devil and brought home poisoned leftovers.

I don't expect those who do not know Christ to curb their rage. They need God's intervention to see truth. To expect the world to do differently than it does is like expecting Tony Soprano to actually renounce killing forever. You need a revelation from God to follow kindness, peacefulness, and love.

But I do call on the church to check the level of its rage. Not all of our anger is righteous indignation, as Christians like to declare. Much of our anger is the refuse of inner issues left untended in our lives. The Bible tells us to be angry but sin not, and we have not obeyed that instruction. The sun has gone down many times on our anger. We accommodate anger, as if it were an admirable quality, a selling point, or a competitive sport.

In the church of Jesus Christ the Lord, this should not be. Unchecked anger blinds us. Anger obscures the view of heaven and lessens its power in our lives.

Judy Howard Ellis

Obama, Clinton and infrastructure

no para beber (it's no fun to be in charge of the infrastructure), originally uploaded by woodleywonderworks.

Let me address one word from last night's Democratic debate in Austin, Texas that first Sen. Barack Obama, then Sen. Hillary Clinton, brought up. They've both discussed this word throughout the campaign:

Infrastructure.

It's not a sexy topic and the political pundits can comb the rest of last night's debate, but the notion of infrastructure has simmered within me since I read a New York Times story several years ago about America's crumbling infrastructure. The bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a tragic example of a failing infrastructure.

Infrastructure -- the bones of living and working in a country -- is one of America's benefits we take for granted. For example, we may make a fuss about pot holes on our street, but not enough of us have demanded that America should boast the splendid trains of Europe and Japan to ease our dependence on foreign oil and preserve our air. Not enough of us have demanded that lawmakers find a way to create new life in our aging urban areas.

I thought about infrastructure again today when a slew of water mains burst here in Denver and when a sinkhole stopped traffic on a local Interstate route earlier this month. I also thought about infrastructure this past weekend visiting metropolitan Atlanta, which is sprawling with growth. The traffic load on the streets and highways, the strip-shopping area that needed a four-way stop through one strip shopping area, the decaying homes surrounding historic Atlanta University, and the incredibly long security line at Hartsfeld International Airport all pointed to infrastructure issues.

We also face infrastructure issues in our own lives. Physical health can be weakened by poor nutrition or no exercise. Emotions can be soured by negative thinking that spreads from our troubled hearts to others. One day we can look up and realize life is not working and wonder why.

Infrastructure -- external and internal -- is my word for the year.

Let Hillary Clinton get emotional; we all need a good cry

I have not decided whether Final Days Forum will participate in the mass of punditry online, so this is not a politically driven post. But the so-called emotional moment by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday, and her defense of it today on CNN, made me reflect.

Clinton says she was moved Monday by an apparent supporter who asked her how she was doing. Of course, tearing up publicly is not new. President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton and late President Ronald Reagan did it. Public expressions of emotion can be healing, when those expressions are honest and not manipulative.

More heartfelt moments like those displayed in rich films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington would be a welcome elixir right about now. Although the film's director, Frank Kapra, had his cheesy moments (as the trailer from The Internet Movie Database shows), a bit of Kapra might do America good. 

A more passionately civil and less calculatedly partisan discourse would be a balm for the republic.

The church could check its emotion-meter, too. The world has seen much of our tough-love politics, fierce denunciation of sexual sins and righteous grip on the literal message of the Bible. But when was the last time we made mega-headlines for publicly weeping over the poor, the homeless, the jobless, the uninsured, the chronically ill, the illiterate and the crime-ridden?

Tears may cleanse us of our cynicism.