The Rational Rabbit Hole no. 3

“Complaining is the American pastime.”

Embrace the Within.

There are many things about which we can complain. And some folks are trying and succeeding at making this their whole identity. And I am not going to foster that negativity in my life. I have no time for complaining without action.

If something is bothering me, then I have two choices. I can fix the problem or can I give it to God. The problem, at times, is trying to figure out whether I can fix the problem or not. After the storm last week, the outdoor electrical outlets were not working. So, I created a work around by plugging the chords into another circuit. After tripping that circuit several times, I figured it would be better to solve the problem with the original outlets. So, yesterday afternoon, I spent about half of an hour wandering around my house searching for the GFCI outlet that governed those three external outlets since the breaker for those outlets was not tripped. I wandered the basement, the first floor, and the second floor until I took a moment to think. And behold, there was the outlet right under the fuse box that I was initially looking at for answers.

And sometimes the answers are just like that. Right there for us to see if we know where to look. I have lived in this house for eighteen years and never once had to find that GFCI outlet. I never knew it was even there until I needed it. And there it was right where it was planned to be.

Complaining about the GFCI outlet wouldn’t have made it easier to find. It probably would have made that half of an hour much longer. Complaining never solves anything. Complaining is activity disguised as accomplishment. And we can choose to complain about all manners of things.

Human stupidity seems to be an often complaint around my house. There is a low tolerance for suffering fools around the plantation. Some of that stems from being a bit self righteous about our own intelligence around here and some of that stems from working in systems and some of that stems from human behavior. There is a potpourri of reasons for not suffering fools. BUT we have to because sometimes we are the foolish. I have no count of the number of foolish things I have done in my life BUT I am certain that number is in the hundreds at the least. And I am sure I am the focus of many complaints by other folks. So, that is something I now consider when seeing the folly of another. I need a little more love for the foolish and a lot less complaining about their behavior because I have been there and may return yet again.

I have very little control over my own foolishness and even less control over the foolishness of others. So, I get to choose whether or not I am going to let foolishness lead me down a path of complaining and resentment and hatred and anger OR am I going to leave the foolishness of myself and others to God. I have chosen the first path more times than not. And that path is no longer where I am choosing to journey. So, my only other choice is just to acknowledge that I have no control over the foolishness and leave it to God. Whatever your source of complaint, whether it be a system, a person, a community, a rule, a law, a place, a weather, a situation, or me, I hope you choose peace over complaint.

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin

The Rational Rabbit Hole no. 2

“Is it well with you?”

Embrace the Within

Growing up in church, I always enjoyed a few hymns that would get the regular rotation in the Pentecostal church I attended. I always enjoyed Rock of Ages, Old Rugged Cross, Amazing Grace, and Blessed Assurance to name just a few that come to mind quickly. BUT the one that was on my mind this morning during my scripture reading was It Is Well in My Soul. The first verse sings:

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

Now I have been out on the Patuxent River crabbing when the water was billowing and rolling on a tiny boat and there is not a lot of peace at that moment. There is a lot of apprehension and fear. BUT in spite of that apprehension and fear, whatever my lot as the song sings, it is well in my soul. And I am really feeling that lesson today. Because for a long time I was out here preaching what I thought was the good word and things were not well in my soul. I made a lot of folks angry on purpose. And I was rather certain that they needed to be angry because they were in trouble. They were unhealthy and duped and programmed and ignorant and lost and any other pejorative adjective you would like to add on the heap.

I was rather shitty to folks and, in my self righteousness, I didn’t feel the least bit bad about that because it was their fault. They should know better, they should do better, they should be better. BUT, I understand that the pride I felt in what I was doing was one of the problems a lot of us have in our lives. We believe everyone is just like us. They look like us. They are in the same place as us. They have similar public lives as us. They must be like us. And we also look at people that are dissimilar externally in the same ways and think they are much different from us. So we get kind of hung up and confused when folks don’t think like we do. We get confused when folks don’t believe what we do. We get confused when folks have differing perspectives than we do. Well, then, they must be part of that different category all along. And we feel like we need to get them back into our herd, back into our flock, back into being our clone. And I think a lot of that is our own pride, our own control, our own self righteousness.

And I see it all around me now. I see it in parenting, in education, in friendships, in media, in politics, in families, in communities, in organizations, in religions, and all over God’s earth. We are not well in our souls. So we try to make others as unwell as we feel. And no amount of suffering will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of pride and self righteousness will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of activity and business will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of money or power will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of fame or glory will be enough to fill our hole. Because it’s a God-shaped hole. And that’s all that is ever going to be able to fill that hole. That is all that is ever going to make it well in our soul.

I hope all is well within your soul today. And if it isn’t, then take some time to make it well? Getting well, being healthy, is both the easiest and most difficult choice to make.

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin