Who Knows?

Post 293

I’ll tell you who. Only God Knows.

I have to get a couple things off my chest that have been bothering me the last few months. You may remember back to a post where I felt upset that a Christian substacker stated in his feed that he “didn’t know who needed to hear it”, but the signs you think you see of your loved one aren’t from God. (paraphrased)

It has honestly continued to bother me, not because I have begun to think he is correct, but because he just thinks he knows it all by a Bible verse or two that he is interpreting in a way that fits his worldview. He is stating it like he knows, but he doesn’t know; only God knows what He is sending to whom and why. I was a subscriber to this guy because his posts had been decently interesting and informative and I am always up for learning. But I got that email each and every day, which I was not reading, and he also posted “Notes” that showed up in my feed a lot. I stopped reading the email and found myself more and more irritated every time I saw him pop up. I unsubscribed and unfollowed at this point because I don’t like the negativity it causes my soul.

I am very interested in how Christians are presenting themselves to the world around them. Judgmental? Many are for sure. Is that attractive to people? Certainly not most. Are they being SALT and LIGHT, or are they being Pharisees (the oh so knowledgeable and legalistic religious people) of Jesus’ day. Which attracts more people to the amazing good news of what Jesus did for us? By the way, Jesus was more upset with the Pharisees than the intentional sinners.

There are multiple Christian substackers that post NOTES throughout the day it seems. You know what I’ve begun thinking when I see so many from the same people? They are just getting that dopamine hit when somebody likes their post or note and they can’t get enough of it. No different than the food, drug, or alcohol addict. But they don’t see it, which to me makes them a person who “sees the log in his brother’s eye and wants to get it out, but doesn’t see the speck in his own eye.”

It makes me wonder how much these people are out in the real world helping real people. Are they even helping family members who could use a little extra? And that makes me wonder how they will feel about themselves someday upon their deaths and are shown their life reviews. From the NDE accounts I have seen and read, the receiver does not feel judged in a negative way by seeing these reviews, but they all seem to learn that they weren’t “doing it the right way” while on Earth. They’ll be seen posting, posting, posting, looking at their subscriber numbers day in and day out, while their neighbor down the block sits in a darkened living room lonely as hell. This kind of realization gets me off my rear end almost every day, to make a positive difference in somebody’s real life, even if it is just smiling at them while I’m crossing paths. Maybe that day, that person needed SOMEBODY to just acknowledge their existence. I’m not perfect at it, and I also spent many years not making these kind of differences, except for “what would be expected.”

There is a true story that has stuck with me and my husband for years now. We attended a church we really liked when we moved to Alabama. The Pastor is about our age, married and has a grown family. My husband works in semi-retirement in a service industry job that he loves. He loves engaging with his regular customers, some of who are now friends. A few years ago, the Pastor’s wife came in needing my husband’s company’s services. Basically she was not a friendly person. She treated him like she was better than him. This is not how I would expect any Christian to act. No matter what your personal day may be like, it is imperative to treat others with respect and kindness, especially if they know you claim to be a Christian.

We hadn’t thought about these people for years really since we stopped attending when they shut down that church during the covid scare. On the anniversary date hubby and I had in July, these two were coming out of the restaurant as we were going in. No smiles, no nothing. They obviously didn’t recognize us, but again, I just have a feeling that people you cross paths with should be looked at and acknowledged if you claim to be a Christian. How hard is it to smile at a stranger? Maybe it’s just my thing. What do you think?

The other thing that has started to bother me some is that people who already have a lot of money saved up for their retirements, way more than is likely necessary to sustain them, and continue to add to it like they’re behind. Why? God has blessed their lives by most likely being born into families that “brought them up right,” so they weren’t weighed down by too much baggage. These people were educated, found many great jobs/careers by God’s providence, and live pretty darn cushy lives. Most problems they have are mostly self-inflicted. I was also there, and still am in a sense, but I’m trying really hard to move out of that way of thinking. I do not want to be shown my selfishness. God will say, “look how I blessed you and look what you did with it. Why? And you claimed to love me. I told you everything you needed to know in Matthew 25. It made me sad because I know your life would have been so much more rewarding to you if you’d given more away.” Maybe we get to see what it would have been like, and all of the ripple effects of how the world could have been… if only. Again, apparently this is not communicated in a judgey or angry way, but in a way that the human is shown that sharing God’s love is all that we’re supposed to be about. Do we have faith enough to trust that he’ll meet our needs now and in retirement?

Yesterday I wrote the check out to send to the Animal Friends Humane Society to sponsor a couple of cat cages for a year in Morgan’s memory. (It’s wild it couldn’t be done online!) Today I took some cash with me for today’s walk, hoping to see or stop by the house of a little old lady, slightly bent over, white hair, who feeds and takes care of several “alley cats” (for want of a better word) who live down the street from her in lot with a broken fence under a shade tree. She and I have waved throughout the years, talked once in a while, and the other day I told her I wanted to give some of “Morgan’s cash” (from the never-to-be-scholarship) to help her with her mission. She pointed to where she lives and I said I’d stop by sometime, which was today.

Today I was unable to park at the park because there were a few people with dogs there already. I drove to a church I use for second choice parking, and KK and I went and saw Mo and walked through the historic neighborhoods for 45 minutes. I drove down the “alley” and saw the lady was not there, so I drove to her house, left the air running for KK, and walked up to the door. She came out and was so happy to see me, but was hesitant to take the cash. As we talked, she agreed, and told me she planned to use it to spay one of the littler ones. She took my name and number and we also found out she attends the church I had just parked at and knows well the director of Graces of Gurley, Denise.

I left her house, and within 20 seconds as I’m driving by the park I couldn’t park at, I see a GBH flying overhead (from the Paint Rock River to the Flint River I imagine). I have never once seen a GBH in Gurley, nor did I ever think I would. To me, that was a wonderful SIGN that God and Mo are pleased about where the scholarship money is going and put their stamp of approval on my new friendship. I have plenty left to help fund these cats in Gurley.

Update on my old kitty, Milo. He had not eaten in 4 days, but has eaten just a little Saturday, Sunday, and today. I’ll be calling the vet tomorrow to see what next steps need to be. We are loving on him a lot while we still have him.

Happy Labor Day, y’all. We are headed off to Chattanooga for a nice walk and to eat some Champy’s Fried Chicken.