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.