Monday, July 1, 2019

Just-ing When we Pray



Recently, when my husband was praying, I noticed that he used the word "just" an awful lot during his prayer. I know. I know. I should have been paying more attention to his actual prayer than how many times he was using one word. *sigh* Don't tell me you haven't focused on one thing or looked around during prayers, too. You know you have. ;) It doesn't mean we're not Christians or that we're bad Christians, I don't think. It just means that our minds wander sometimes. The important thing is that we re-focus as soon as we can.
Anyway. So I noticed that he said the word "just" a lot while he was praying. Then later during that same church service when someone else prayed, I noticed that she used the word "just" a lot. When I prayed during Sunday School, I used the word "just" a lot! When someone else closed our Sunday School class out in prayer, she used the word "just" a lot! And when my husband prayed during the actual service itself, he did it again!

Now, I didn't count how many times any of the people who prayed that day used the word "just" in his/her prayers; I simply noticed that it kept popping up. It's like when you buy a new car and all of a sudden it seems like everyone else on the road is driving the same car you are. Know what I mean? Once I noticed it, I couldn't stop noticing it!

And once I started noticing it, I began to wonder why do we do that? Why do we use the word "just" so much when we pray? Why are we "just-ing" so often?

Do we do it because we're just trying to be humble as we pray? It's one theory. It's plausible. It makes sense. It's possible. "Lord, I come to You this morning, just praying that You will hear me as I just lay my burdens before You . . . ." You know, humble. Humility. Many of us are trying to demonstrate to the Lord that we're wanting to be humble before Him because the Bible tells us to be humble before Him: "So humble yourselves before God" (James 4:7, NLT).

We want to do what the Bible says, right? We're just being obedient to His Word when we pray so humbly, "just-ing" throughout our prayers with humility. It's honorable. It's good. God will hear our prayers and answer, with the answer we desire, because we're so humble. We're doing it--we're praying--correctly.

Right?

Well . . . it is true that we are supposed to humble ourselves before the Lord, but it's also true that we are to come boldly before Him: "Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence" (Ephesians 3:12, NLT). So if we take just one verse of the Bible that tells us to be humble before the Lord, we completely miss this second verse that tells us to come boldly and confidently into His presence.

Hmmmmm . . .

So maybe all our "just-ing" in our praying, if we're doing it as an act of humility, is problematic because God wants us to be humble, yes, but He also wants us to come into His presence confidently and boldly. Praying and worshiping are two ways we enter into His presence. Humility, then, needs to be saved for another time during our service to the Lord. A different type of worship to Him. When we are praying to the Lord for the salvation of our loved ones, especially our prodigals, instead of saying, "Lord, I just come to You and ask that You just help my son see His need for You. He just doesn't understand how much He needs You anymore. I just don't know what to do. I just ask You to intervene in His life and woo Him back to You," I should be bold and confident in my prayer and leave out my "just-ing": "Lord, I come to You and ask that You help my son see His need for You. He doesn't understand how much He needs You anymore. I don't know what to do. I ask You to intervene in His life and woo Him back to You." Do you see and hear the difference?! Do you hear the boldness? The confidence?!'Wait a minute,' some of you might be saying, 'I don't say "just" in my prayers because I'm doing it as an act of humility. That's not it at all. You're way off base, Polly Anna. So there.'

I hear ya. And I may be way off base with my second theory. If I am, I'd love to hear other theories for why we say "just" so often in our prayers--if you do it, that is!

Maybe you say the word "just" a lot when you pray because you grew up hearing it a lot in the prayers of the people around you. Monkey hear, monkey do. You learned it. Including the word "just" in your prayers doesn't mean anything at all; you just do it because you've always heard other people say it in their prayers, so you've always said it, too. It was as natural to you to include in your prayers as breathing. It just is what it is. No meaning. No big grand something to break down and look into. You just say the word "just" a lot when you pray. It's nothing to make a big deal about. No one is "just-ing" anything. It just is.

And that's ok. I'm not judging. It's like people who have other tics in their language and say the same word over and over and over like the word "like" that a friend of mine says a lot. Or like the phrase "and that" that my dad says a lot, especially when he's telling a story or gets nervous or is talking in front of a group. I know I have them, too. I over-use the word "so" when I write. In revisions, it's one of the first things I have to go through and delete.

When it comes to "just-ing" in our prayers, I'm simply making an observation that a lot of Christians tend to say the word "just" a lot while praying. I find it fascinating and interesting. If I, personally, am doing it as an act of humility, I plan on changing that and going boldly and confidently to the throne of grace and quit "just-ing." If I'm doing it because it was learned, automatic, I actually want to be more conscious of it. For me, it means that I'm not aware of what I'm praying, from my perspective, as I want, or choose, to be.

I just want to be more aware and focused on what I am saying when I pray and to whom I am praying.

What do you think about "just-ing" in your prayers?

All I did was remove the word "just" from the prayer!!!!

Monday, February 11, 2019

Helping even 1.60th

When I read this quote in #MargaretFeinberg's book #tasteandsee, Chapter 5: "A Dash of Sea Salt" (p. 114), I found myself having to stop and re-read it and then underline it and then share it on Facebook and then talk about it with my Sunday School ladies and now write about it here. My brain just won't let it go.

Thinking about how I can help take someone else's pain even just 1/60th can make a difference and how that is "the call to help from God" Himself is no small thing, my friends. We are all inspired by stories of kindness, aren't we? I hope we are. I get frustrated because there are so many other stories that aren't getting recognized, but that's not why we help one another, right? We do it because we feel that tug in our spirit--that "call to help from God."

When I think about all the trials and struggles I have been through and the things that others have done for me to help ease my pain, I know they felt the "call to help from God" because they sure eased my 1/60th and then some.

Once, after one of my miscarriages, a friend and her daughter brought a whole meal for my husband and me from Bojangles because she knew how much I liked their food.

A friend went with me to a couple of my appointments to listen to my son's heartbeat--non-stress tests--during my only viable pregnancy because my husband was unable to go with me. She chose to go with me rather than sleep during her hours of sleep time; she worked 3rd shift.

When I was in the hospital at death's door, I almost constantly had

someone sitting with me: friends, family, loved ones. Some drove from four hours away. Some came from across town. I was passed out and barely knew they were in the room, but they came and sat with me and prayed over me anyway. And when I finally came home, they were there to provide meals and to help me with my recovery in a thousand different ways. Back at work, my co-workers took over my classes without question and never bothered me or made me feel guilty for having to be out for two months sick. In fact, I'm sure there are things that people did for me during that time that I'll never know about simply because I was so sick. But God knows and each and every one helped that 1/60th ease my suffering.

Over the past year, after leaving my beloved, cherished, treasured job, I have had many people hug me, hold me, sit with me, hold my hand, listen to me, let me vent, let me cry, walk with me and talk with me. People have helped financially.

All of these could add up 60/60ths to ease my pain.

I wish, but at least each has helped ease 1/60th.

And the list goes on and on.

I wish I could list every single person who has hugged me and helped that 1/60th with his/her arms of love.

Or the students I have met as I have been out and about town who have provided words of encouragement that have given me another 1/60th of easement.

You know, we read books and we read books and we move on and may never think about the books we read again. If I get nothing else from this book (and believe me, I've already enjoyed the rest of it immensely), Taste and See is well worth reading.

Every single book I have ever read by Margaret Feinberg has had a powerful impact on me and on my life in some way, shape, form, or fashion. I am not praising her, necessarily; I am praising her obedience to our Lord and Savior for writing and sharing what is on her heart. In this chapter in which she is writing about how even helping ease someone's burden 1/60th is a call from God, Margaret is talking about how we are the "salt of the earth": we are to go help preserve, flourish, and flavor the earth--those around us as Believers of Jesus Christ. How do we do that? By sharing one another's burdens even if in doing so, we are only able to do so a tiny bit: 1/60th.

My easement, call of God, of others' burdens, I believe, is to share my JOY in whatever way I possibly can: my words, hugs, laughter, etc.

What is your 1/60th?


Tuesday, January 22, 2019

PollyAnna's Definition of JOY: Dancing

If you haven’t read my previous post where I discuss and define JOY from my own perspective, I highly recommend that you read that post before you proceed with reading this post. Just a suggestion. :)


Dancing.  

1 Samuel 18:6
“When the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals.”


The young women will dance for joy, and the men—old and young—will join in the celebration. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.


Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. (KJV)


My hap-hazard definition: “When it comes to JOY, it has to do with excitement, enthusiasm in Jesus that creates such a high that the person is unable to physically contain it, so he/she must do something physical for release. It's better than the high of any drug or human emotion/feeling. It can only come from God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit. And when it comes, you wanna dance, jump, sing, shout, leap, clap, play, eat, feast, cry, celebrate, praise the Lord, laugh, run, and even forgive!


There is no way to contain JOY in your physical body! It must come out in some way, shape, form or fashion!! If I'm happy, I might smile or simply just BE. But if I'm JOYFUL, I have to DO!! BEING simply isn't enough!!!”


I can’t dance. It’s true. I have no rhythm. This white girl seriously cannot dance. I watch ballet dancers or hip hop dancers or whatever other kinds of dancers and I am in awe at their moves. They are simply a-mazing! The only kind of dancing I have ever succeeded at doing is the kind done to a Richard Simmons exercise VHS/DVD. And that was after working out to the same DVD over and over and over again!


But I love Dance. I love to move my body. Sometimes I just can’t help but move in some form. It doesn’t matter that I have no rhythm. I just gotta move! I just gotta “Shake” (by MercyMe)! The JOY of the Lord gets ahold of me and I have to move my body in whatever way I can. (MercyMe also has a song called "Happy Dance" that fits appropriately! I just couldn't get it to fit in as part of my paragraph! LOL!)


I have to Dance before the Lord and let my JOY out! Yes, just like Happy Feet: "You must resist! Stand your ground" But the more the penguins watch Happy dance with JOY, the more they can't help but join him in dance!!! (Honestly, before that movie came out, did you ever in your wildest dreams ever think that you would enjoy a movie about penguins DANCING?! LOLOLOL!!! But we LOVED it!!!)

Do you remember in the 1980s the television show Perfect Strangers? My favorite part of that show was when Balky and Cousin Larry would do the "Dance of JOY"! It was a dance that Balky taught Larry that was from his country. Larry pretended to hate it, but the camera would always catch his smile of JOY as he couldn't help dancing with his beloved cousin. My sister and I actually wanted to attempt to learn the "Dance of JOY," but, as I said, I can't dance.


A week or so ago, I watched a video of a young man, Andrew, who went on The Greatest Dancer, a reality contest show. Andrew is special needs (autistic), but when he gets on the dance floor, everything disappears; he’s in another world and his JOY shows. As I watched the video, the evidence of his JOY in dance is clear and everyone watching him saw it, too. The applause for Andrew and his dance was thunderous. I have no idea what happened with Andrew as far as the contest is concerned, but I sure did get an awful lot of JOY out of watching that boy dance, as have millions of other viewers!


Another video that has gone viral as we have all watched is of an amazing young woman, Katelyn Ohashi, who does her dancing acrobatics with pure and utter JOY. One newsman said that she got her perfect 10 for her JOY! Just watch the video. Her JOY is in every move she makes, as well as in her teammates in the background, performing right along with her. I myself have watched the video a number of times because I love the smiles on her face! I revel in her JOY as she dances.



Have you ever danced and not felt wonderful afterward? Seriously. Maybe you’ve felt winded, of course, but dancing is a physical activity that brings great JOY and pleasure to a lot of people. If that isn’t true, then why are there so many bars that offer dancing? Why are there so many [young] people going out dancing [all night]? Why is the pull to go dancing so strong among our young? Why does the enemy use dancing as a siren call to our young people?


Dancing brings great JOY because JOY involves action; dancing is simply one physical expression of JOY. As I say in my definition, it’s better than any high or drug and the enemy knows that, so it’s easy for him to use dancing to get to our young people and use it to entice them to sex and all other means of turning away from a life with God. God created dancing for JOY and praise. But the enemy uses for his own glory instead.


Remember the movie Footloose? That’s what that movie is all about. Dancing is an expression of JOY. That’s what it should be. But the enemy uses it to disgrace the physical body and to make what is beautiful a very ugly act. We can’t stop dancing just because the enemy attempts to use something beautiful for evil. Kevin Bacon fights to prove that dancing is an expression of JOY, not a way to get in each others' panties. Granted, he is having sex with the preacher's daughter in a quite ironic twist to the story, but that is not because they're dancing.


God created dancing. It’s a JOYFUL act. It’s beautiful. It’s wonderful! It’s a physical expression of our JOY. The enemy wins if we stop dancing or if we dance suggestively. We have to dance with JOY and in the JOY of the Lord. We have to dance as David danced before the Lord! When we dance with JOY, we invite the presence of the Holy Spirit and we draw ever closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.


Just because we don’t have any evidence in the Bible that Jesus danced while He was a physical man on earth, that doesn’t mean He didn’t dance or that He didn’t want to dance. Jesus had a specific job, ministry, to do in the three years of ministry He had. We know He attended at least one wedding where He performed a miracle: He turned water into wine. We can assume that He danced at that wedding, but beyond that, it is difficult to imagine that He partied, let alone danced for a lot of people.

When you consider the fact that Jesus grew up in a village and would have known everyone and would have been very social, He had to have been to a lot of social gatherings. It is very plausible to imagine that Jesus would have danced at many social gatherings as He grew up and prepared for His ministry. It simply doesn't make sense to me that Jesus would have sat and watched everyone else enjoying the party or that He would have stayed home. Or that He would have gone to the Temple instead of the party.

Jesus knew the people. He interacted with them during His years prior to His ministry. He lived among them, doing the same things that they did, and that included weddings, birthday parties, celebrations, and especially all of the Jewish celebrations which would have included dancing because the Bible very clearly tells the Israelites to celebrate with dancing and tambourines!

I think that we’ve put Jesus and His disciples in a box and haven’t allowed for anything beyond what is written in the scriptures. The Bible tells us that if they had tried to write down everything that happened while Jesus was alive and in ministry, there simply wouldn’t be enough time or paper:

John 21:25 New Living Translation (NLT)
Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be writte
n.


Writing about Jesus celebrating simply wasn’t what was important enough to be written about because, for heaven’s sake, everyone goes to weddings and birthday parties and laughs and dances and celebrates. We wouldn’t need to have that part of Jesus’ life written about!


But yet, because it’s not written about, some theologians and other
believers want to claim that there wasn’t any room or time for Jesus to live a normal life--to live, to laugh, to love, to celebrate, to dance. No, I don’t believe that Jesus was ever married. That’s just plain heresy. But I do believe that Jesus celebrated life--that He LIVED, LAUGHED, LOVED, DANCED. I believe that Jesus felt JOY and that maybe, just maybe, Jesus even danced.


And that He danced with great JOY. . . .

Monday, January 14, 2019

PollyAnna's Definition of JOY

This post has been a long time coming. LOL! 

First of all, as I begin my definition of JOY, I know that most people who define JOY begin by comparing it to happiness. As that has been done repeatedly and you can find it in more sources about JOY and happiness than not, I am going to forego that comparison here. If you disagree with my decision, please feel free to add your comparison in the comments section for me. I will not complain. :) 

Secondly, I hope that you understand that the definition of JOY that follows is my own, PollyAnna's, but it is based on my own study on JOY that I have been doing for the past 10 years. For the sake of this very first post being a quick, simple definition of JOY, I am not going to post/share my references/sources and other background information from my extensive study on JOY. I am simply going to share my brainstorming of my definition here. Future posts will delve deeper into each individual aspect and will include specific sources and so on. My purpose here is just to share my definition of JOY with you so that I can begin the conversation, which I truly hope will happen.

Thirdly, JOY truly is my jam. The Lord has anointed me with His anointing oil of JOY. No matter how bad things get in my life, God continues to remind me of His anointing. He continues to give me strength through JOY. He continues to sing over me with JOY. He continues to call me His JOY Song. I can't run from it, no matter how hard I might try. ;) Even in my deepest, darkest days, God has found me and has turned my mourning into JOY as only the Creator of the Universe can.

So when I talk about JOY, I hope that you understand that it comes from a place inside of my very soul that is seeking to honor this anointing God has placed on me as well as the gifts He has given me. I can only be obedient to what He has called me to do. 

A number of years ago as I was copying down all the verses on JOY in the Bible (something I wanted to do as part of my study on JOY), it struck me how often I was writing down words of ACTION for JOY. (For those of you who might be new, I am an English major, so noticing something like that comes naturally to me. 😀) I went back to the verses I had already copied and read them again. One after another: action verb, action verb, etc. I continued with the rest and it was the same: action verb, action verb, action verb, etc.

If you don't believe me, look:
  1. Dancing.  1 Samuel 18:6 
  2. Shouting.  2 Samuel 6:15 
  3. Playing an instrument. Psalm 27:6 
  4. Bowing in worship.  2 Chronicles 29:30 
  5. Singing.  Psalm 100:2 
  6. Praising the Lord so that the very ground shakes.  1 Kings 1:40 
  7. Celebrating.  1 Chronicles 12:40
  8. Eating.  Ecclesiastes 9:7 
  9. Feasting and drinking.  1 Chronicles 29:22 
  10. Gift giving.  1 Chronicles 29:17 
  11. Even weeping.  Yes, weeping. Ezra 3:13 
  12. Sacrificing.  Nehemiah 12:43 
  13. Laughing. And even skipping!  1 Chronicles 15:29 
  14. Hand clapping.  Nahum 3:19 
  15. Leaping.  Malachi 4:2
  16. Restoring.  Job 33:26 
  17. Forgiving.  Psalm 32:1 
  18. Salvation.  Psalm 51:12 (I know this is written as a noun, but you have to ask for salvation and then receive it, so there is quite a bit of action involved in salvation!)
  19. Crying (tears).  Jeremiah 31:9 
  20. Enthusiasm!  Deuteronomy 28:47 (Ok, this one's not actually an action verb, but you have to HAVE enthusiasm and that involves an action, right?)
  21. Giving birth.  John 16:21 
  22. Putting our faith into practice and standing firm.  2 Corinthians 1:24 
  23. Growing spiritually.  Philippians 1:25 
  24. Acceptance.  Hebrews 10:34 (Again, another noun, but acceptance involves action, so in spite of it being written as a noun, you can't have the noun without the action, so. . . .)
  25. Sharing.  1 John 1:4 
Isn't that beautiful??? So, if there are 25 different verses (that I've listed here based on the New Living Translation of the Bible) in the Bible with ACTION VERBS on JOY, doesn't that stand to reason that when it comes to defining JOY, especially in regard to our Jesus, that there is some sort of action involved? It's enough for me even if it's not enough for you. 😁😁

Bear with me, now. I haven't fully created a specific definition as yet. But when it comes to JOY, it has to do with excitement, enthusiasm in Jesus that creates such a high that the person is unable to physically contain it, so he/she must do something physical for release. It's better than the high of any drug or human emotion/feeling. It can only come from God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit. And when it comes, you wanna dance, jump, sing, shout, leap, clap, play, eat, feast, cry, celebrate, praise the Lord, laugh, run, and even forgive! 

There is no way to contain JOY in your physical body! It must come out in some way, shape, form or fashion!! If I'm happy, I might smile or simply just BE. But if I'm JOYFUL, I have to DO!! BEING simply isn't enough!!! 


I know that I have trouble sitting still. I love to laugh, shout, sing, smile, clap, play, eat, feast, celebrate, praise the Lord, dance, jump, play, celebrate, and especially cry and weep. I cry and weep especially well when I'm both JOYFULL (my spelling) and sorrowful. Some of my friends even move away from me sometimes, but that's ok. The Lord anointed me with His anointing oil of JOY more than anyone else (Psalm 45:7 & Hebrews 1:9), so that's to be expected sometimes. They don't all understand. It does hurt my feelings because I'm human, but I remind myself that God is working and I put it in His hands. I cry a little more, pray, and move on.

JOY is is more than happiness because it's an action. Over the next several weeks/posts (possibly 25, lol), I hope to talk more about how JOY is an action. I hope you'll stay with me.