I've gone gray, and I don't mean hair color.
I heard a discussion about time management and cell phones, and how we have a tendency to waste time on our many devices. One suggestion was twofold: 1) Turn off all phone notifications except for phone calls and texts; 2) Go gray, removing color from your screen.
Last week, I had my son switch my phone to the black/white mode. The idea is that all the colors on my phone and other devices entice and stimulate me to spend more time on them, often wasting my time. And, as an added bonus, gray screens supposedly save battery power.
The result - I noticed the screen wasn't in color, but it wasn't a problem. So I decided to switch both my iPad and computer screens to gray.
I mostly use my iPad to read books, and gray is a little strange because my books (the book cover icons) appear as black and white, and not in color.
But, since I do a lot of writing and work on the computer, my computer screen is a different issue. My desk top, a picture of my sons, is now black and white. And I've had to adjust my navigation habits; I've started thinking in "black and white."
Also words that often appear as blue to signify a link to another site, well, they're not blue anymore.
And I have to switch off the gray screen when I'm editing pictures, to check the picture colors.
But overall, I'd say this isn't a big deal, and time will tell if I now waste less time on the computer.
Curiously, in my house, when the lighting is dim, I now sometimes have the impression that my rooms are in black and white, that the color is "turned off" in the house.
Also, in general, I'm more mindful that the world around me is in color.
This experience in going gray has given me a picture of how my perception isn't correct. I'm realizing that, I'm physically
seeing things differently, sometimes wrongly.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12
In this world, with all of our accomplishments and knowledge, we think we know so much; we think we "see" it all.
But we don't see things fully. Our sin blinds us to reality. It's like we're looking at a colored world, but seeing it in black and white.
In thinking about the world "in gray" I've realized that how I perceive my self, how I perceive others, how I think about situations, etc - well, that perception isn't colored correctly either. It's a mixture of some right and some wrong.
God's wisdom, knowledge, and thinking, it's just different, more abundant, and flawless. Mine is not.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
I'm waiting for that Day to come...
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2
Amen, come Lord Jesus.
So what's the deal with our government leaders? And with news reporters and commentators? It seems like their main job is now to "fight with the other side."
Just what are they doing and what are they accomplishing anyway? Don't they have any "real" work to do?
I think of all the time, energy, and money that's being put into this "fighting." Suppose all those resources are spent on solving some problem or issue that the country, the world, needs help with. Progress would be made if these "fighting" resources were directed elsewhere.
Instead, we get this arguing and digging up of dirt. I'm reminded of the verse:
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Galatians 5:1
That's exactly what's going on.
Again I ask, "Don't they have any real work to do?"
And if an issue is so important to someone or to a group, then that person or group should do something, like sacrifice personally, to make an impact. When I see people advocating action for climate control, I think, "Will that person give up their comfortable lifestyle to help the environment? Then why don't they do it now? Lead the way in a positive manner, make a sacrifice."
But all I see is biting, devouring, and consuming one another.
Sadly, the same type of bickering often happens among Christians, and even right inside the church.
Guilty.
The world is a mess and has been.
And in the midst of this mess, Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, came to live among us, to live among us and to set things right.
He healed people; He fed people; He forgave sins. He also wept and suffered. He became that ultimate, perfect sacrifice that died for the sins of the world.
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2
Instead of biting and devouring, we are commanded to love one another.
Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:10–11
This is a big commandment and a hard saying. I look at the world and think, "What do I do? What will make an impact?"
I personally can't "take on" all the problems of the world and give attention to all the "causes" that need solving. And I don't want to get caught up in all this arguing.
But I can impact my family, my neighborhood, people in my sphere of influence. My efforts and my resources can go into loving and serving those people.
And I can pray for our government leaders and all leaders to lead fairly, wisely, to get stuff done, to not "bite and devour one another."
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. Proverbs 10:12
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8
[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:6-7
