Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #11, Part One

Act by Responding Versus Reacting
I hope that as you considered this past week’s SW, you became more aware of those areas in your life that could be indicative of how you may have a tendency to live with extreme thinking, feelings, and behaviors.  Extreme living can really put one’s body into a state of disequilibrium, and ultimately, it can play havoc with your health - mentally, materially, emotionally, situationally, spiritually, physically, or relationally.  By engaging in some self examination, I hope you were led to seek the Lord’s help because He will always show you how to make  changes that will be less destructive to you while blessing you with a healthier lifestyle.

CHG #11 says: Act by Responding verses Reacting

As a nurse and a believer in the healing relationship of Jesus Christ, CHG #11 has continuously been the driving force that has inspired me to develop a healing model that is representative of The Clutter Class Curriculum. Over the past 14 years, I have devoted much of my life to developing this healing model and curriculum.  My motivation has stemmed from a very personal and heartfelt longing to be healed and freed from the extreme living that I have experienced in my own life since childhood.  Many of the issues that I have faced have been a revolving door of anger, anxiety, multiple addictions, sexual identity, ADD, and ultimately, what is just downright sin.  The Clutter Class Curriculum is a healing model that does not negate the traditional medical and nursing models, but it is an adjunctive health model that is spiritually rooted and inspired by The God of the Bible and His Word.

Drugs are too often seen as the first line of defense, especially when it comes to the emotional, psychological, and behavioral issues that are so common in our culture today.  “The Twelve Clutter Healing Guidelines” are the alternative first choice to drug therapy.  These guidelines are the answers and approach to anything that builds up or piles up in our lives, be it called ADD, addictions, stress, sin, or dis-ease.  IT’S ALL CLUTTER!

CHG #11 is about taking responsibility.  It’s about each of us learning how to respond rather than react to the stimuli that tends to set us off.  When “The Twelve Clutter Healing Guidelines” are implemented, God’s healing and freedom will be experienced.

Let’s examine CHG #11, and see what this CHG implies as being the basic cause of clutter when this guideline is not applied. 

♥ My clutter builds up when I do not act by responding.  In other words, I need to slow myself down to think before I speak or act. (CHG #1)

♥ My clutter builds up when I react.  When I am impulsive or reactive it is because I do not slow down to think before I speak or do. (CHG #1)

Therefore, when I act by responding versus reacting, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.

The Scripture to support CHG #11 is from Micah1:1-3, “Attention!...Listen!...Look!  The Lord is coming!”

What does Micah 1:1-3 imply as being the root cause of my clutter?

♥ My clutter builds up when I am inattentive.  Inattentiveness is often due to being distracted.  There is a need to establish focus, and this goes back to applying CHG #9.  Inattentiveness can also be due to trying to do more than one thing at a time.  Multitasking has no biblical backing at all and goes back to applying CHG #1.

♥ My clutter builds up when I do not listen.  Not listening was addressed in CHG #8.  Both  CHG #8 and CHG #11 are based on Scriptures that emphasize our need to listen with an exclamation mark! God’s Word reinforces just how much our not listening creates our clutter.

♥ My clutter builds up when I am not looking.  Not looking implies that I am not looking at what I need to be looking at.  It can be the need to have direct eye contact with another or to honestly evaluate what I am being blind to seeing.

♥ My clutter builds up when I ignore the Lord’s warnings.  Unfortunately, we can deceive ourselves into believing that we are the gods of our lives instead of God.

Therefore, when I am attentive, listen, and look, while also applying these actions to the Lord’s coming, my clutter will be lessened and this will bring healing to me.

This week, your SW is to go to Micah 1:1-3 and read these 2 verses in their entirety.  Begin to put CHG #11 into practice by paying attention, listening and looking at what Micah 1:1-3 is telling you in light of the Lord’s coming.

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #10, Part Five

Become Rooted and Balanced in God's STEM
Space
Time
Energy
Money

As I reflected back to the posts from April 25, 2013 and May 30, 2013, I was flooded with example after example of the deep rooted healing that has blossomed and brought balance into my life as a result of planting that desirable seed of healing.  Because Jeremiah 29:11 was the Scripture that represented that healing seed, I have also consistently witnessed the reinforcement that comes from believing that God does know the plans He has for me, and far better than I do.  Those plans have repeatedly provided me with the promise of a hope and a future.  This past year has been a real testimony to the healing that has come to me on so many levels.  In the June 20, 2012 post, I identified my clutter category as “situational.”  It was related to all the outside chores of owning my home and caring for the pool and major landscaping and yard work that came with it.  Here are some examples of the healing that resulted in my being rooted in God’s STEM: 

SPACE:  Healing has come as a result of my living space being greatly reduced.  I went from a 4 bedroom home to a 2 bedroom condo.  There is minimal indoor up keep, and even though I still have a pool, in addition to tennis courts and a golf course at my disposal, there are no outdoor chores involving me. I get to enjoy the amenities without the burden of being care taker.  There was a time when this space was needed, but no longer, and I have truly appreciated the simplicity of having less.

TIME:  With less space to care for, it has enabled me to enjoy so much more time in loving my family and friends.  We have all been blessed with longer periods of time to be together as we have been more available to nurture and care for one another.   In this mix I have also given myself permission to take more time to relax, watch a movie, take golf lessons, or even nap. 

ENERGY:  I have more energy because I am no longer overwhelmed by all the work that my living space required of me, especially after working my Home Touched Business all day.  I also have more energy because I recognized the boundaries that I needed to implement so that my time was spent in relationships that filled me with love rather than robbed me of love. 

MONEY:   First of all, there is no price tag that can be put on one’s health. Having said that, I am so grateful for the Home Touched Business that God has actually grown in this past year and has richly blessed, even in the midst of my “Get a ways” to Valpo.   Though I have had some very high medical expenses, I can tell you that God has provided me with every penny that I have ever needed.  My health has greatly improved over this past year, and I devote most of it to prayer and to the changes that God has brought to me as they relate to how I have used His STEM.  I am the best that I have been since being diagnosed 2 years ago with 2 rare cancers.  And get this.  In order to make my travels more comfortable, I was presented with the opportunity to buy a “like new” used SUV through one of my friends.  What a great buy and investment it has been. 

I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the picture of how less clutter does bring greater healing when the clutter healing guidelines are applied.

“I am the Lord and I do not change.  That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.” Malachi 3:6.  When I reflect on these words that are the Scriptures for CHG #10, I am so thankful for what God has done for me.  In truth, left to our own ways, without God, we will destroy ourselves.  It is not God who destroys us.  He came to us in human form out of a desire to show His love for us, not to destroy us, but to save us from ourselves. Open the Life Recovery Bible to Malachi 3:6 and you see that this verse comes under the chapter heading:  A Call to Repentance.  Read on and you learn that God is pleading with people just like you and me who are in denial about how they are living.  They scorn God’s laws and they fail to obey Him.  God’s plea is simple, “Return to me and I will return to you.” 

I have said it so many times and in so many different ways, and I will continue to say it:

                                               Your Greatest Clutter is Spiritual

Without God you are doomed for destruction in this life and for eternity.  It is not my message.  It is God’s message.  He loves you and He wants a relationship with you in this life and for all of eternity. There is no more important message than this one.

 

God and His Word is the fulcrum for leveraging balance in our lives. Think about the shape of a fulcrum.  It’s like a triangle, and in the spiritual realm, that triangle is represented by the Trinity being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Here are some SW questions to ponder upon: 

What weight or load are you continuing to carry? 

What pressure or effort are you feeling or experiencing?

How is the life style of extreme living exhausting you of all of your resources and putting you out of balance. 

Who or what has been your fulcrum outside of God and His Word, and how has it been working for you?

Keep in mind:  The fulcrum does not stay in one place, it moves to where it is needed to give balance.  My life depends on God to be my fulcrum with all the highs and lows.  He is the Only One that can balance the weight and pressure of what I face.  He is the everyday example in my life that I constantly go to for support!  My balance is dependent upon me to ask God for His support in all I do.   I need to daily seek His face in every moment of every day. Since everything is His: His Space, His Time, His Energy, and His Money, I need to learn from Him on how to use it and balance it.

Let’s get rooted in believing the following: God owns it all!

We are not on this earth to be the focus.  We are on this earth because God is to be our focus.  He is the focal point, the fulcrum. We have confused all that God has given us as being the “why” for why we are here.  Consequently, we erroneously focus on wanting to accumulate more.  God has given to us what we have so that we can ultimately glorify Him.  He has told us to go out in the world and make disciples of all nations. How can we do that if the focus is us and not on Him?  Over thousands of years we have lost our focus on why we were even born. Make the decision that God and His Word are your fulcrum, your support, and your focal point, and then marvel at how your life gets balanced out.
 

This week I specifically pray for any of us who deal with the addictive patterns of extreme living.  I ask the Lord to please free us from our extreme thinking, feeling, and living that causes us to get so out of balance that we are like a rubber band that is being pulled at from both ends and is about to break.

We will be talking more about this need for balance when I introduce you to the next CHG.  It’s CHG #11 and it  says: Act by Responding verses Reacting.