As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17 NIV
Day 12:Allergies Part 1
Do you suffer from allergies?
I’ve wondered if allergies are getting worse. Mine seem to grow more severe every year. And after talking with several co-workers and family members it seems that many who used to take a pill and receive relief now struggle even with medications. Are allergies getting worse?
I’d like you to respond to this post with your stories about how your allergies are progressing and what has helped you handle them most.
I read an article which pointed out that there are longer pollen seasons every year and that the major factor causing the increase is climate change. You can read about it here.
So please share about you successes in dealing with allergies. We can do better as we share with one another what’s been working for us. In my next post I’ll share about what’s working for me.
Today, I commit to sharing what’s working for me so I can be a blessing for you. I also resolve to learn more from you. Healing can be better when we work together.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Day 11: Jesus Heals
As I share during these 100 days of healing I want to be authentic. I live my life depending on help from on high. My parents taught me about the bible when I was a child. Growing up I learned about a God who loves me. I learned that I could bring my problems to him. As I got older I saw my parents pray. Every morning they had worship. When there were major concerns they would pray about them. It gave them a peace and confidence.
I was so impressed with what I saw I wanted to have that experience for myself. As I went into the teenage years I really began searching for answers. I prayed and studied the bible. I started having experiences like my parents.
I wanted to do my own thing and the ideals of my parents seemed restrictive. This collided with my desire to know more about God and follow Him. And then my choices would leave me needing rescue and time and time again I would pray and see things work out.
I’ve also seen people use Jesus however they want to. I’ve seen popular celebrities claim Jesus and then promote lifestyles that don’t align with what He taught. I’ve seen religious leaders use religion to control others.
So I want to invite you to read the bible for yourself and pray and ask God to reveal himself to you. And if you are comfortable doing so please share stories of how you come to know Jesus in the comments.
Today, I come to Jesus for healing, love, and power.
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“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:10
Day 10: Clean
The body is an amazing machine. It does so many things to take care of itself. But when it’s systems are overwhelmed bad things take place. If the toxic load gets too heavy then we receive side effects. It may manifest in skin break outs or lack of energy. It may be worse.
In Psalm 51 David asks his Creator to create inside of him a clean heart. Right now If you want healing in your mind and body it would be a great idea to ask for a clean heart like David did. But what comes next? What do we do with our heart? Do we feed it with images of evil?
Today, I choose to look at things that are good for me. Phillipians 4:8 says:
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
That’s what I want in my mind…in my heart, and in my body. Lord, give me a clean mind and body so that I may worship you well with my life!
I’m on a 100 day sharing journey about healing. Please subscribe and share whatever you find helpful. Also, I welcome your comments about your journey to healing.
One of the best gifts you can give is to open up your heart to feel deeply someone else’s pain.
I remember well one of the last times I met with my dear friend Kishore. We got together to share some Korean food for lunch in Northern Virginia. As we sat at the table and talked I shared about some of the painful struggles I was going through. One of the best things about sharing with a brother who I have known for 40 years was the fact that he could see everything through a different lense than most. He could tell that I wasn’t the same person I used to be.
He could see that I had lost some confidence. My faith had dimmed. The outgoing and energetic fellow worship leader he once knew had become very introspective and isolated. And he was moved by what he saw.
That day he gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received. He cried because of what I was going through. I don’t remember seeing him cry before or since. Perhaps it was because he saw himself in my pain. Maybe it was because he missed the person I used to be. Or maybe it was that Jesus in his heart that moved him with compassion.
When I am stuck and reluctant to take the steps necessary to improve my life I reflect on his tears. I know that God made me to give Him glory with my life. And I know there’s still work for me to do for Him.
When we’ve been hurt the last thing we want to do is open up our heart again. But to heal and to grow we must.
Today, I choose to open up my heart again and let the healing love come in. I choose to watch for opportunities to empathetically listen to others hurts and in so doing help them and I heal and give God greater glory.
11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
When Jesus offers all who are heavy laden to come to Him for rest he speaks to a universal need. But what does He mean when he says we should take up his yoke and find rest for our souls?
A yoke is a device that allows two animals to work efficiently together. If we are yoked together with Christ we confine our journeys to paths that he would take. We emulate his response to the challenges of life as we are influenced by the aroma of His character.
We receive the gift of His righteousness so we don’t have the stress of seeking to create a rightness with God worthy of salvation. We seek to do what pleases Him and he promises to supply all our needs.
Releasing the burden to measure up to societies trends and instead taking Jesus’ two step method of loving God with all our heart and our neighbor as our self will relieve stress and produce peace instead.
Today, I release the heavy burden and choose a lighter load!
There comes a time when in order for healing to take place YOU have to leave.
Leaving may mean changing your location. I just got of the phone with one of my dearest friends who shared the miraculous story of how his son got into the school of his choice but how God ended up opening the door for his family to move to the school and for his wife to get a great job there. It was great having them in the area while they were here but there was a blessing of provision that allowed them to have the desires of their heart but that required them to leave from their current location.
Sometimes you have to change your associations. Psalm 1:1 says:
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
There is a blessing from removing yourself from environments that don’t honor God. It may mean that you have to change who you are hanging out with.
Today, I choose to leave what does not help or heal my body and soul.
Please listen. Your thoughts affect your feelings. They affect your energy level. If you think you are about to get to your goal you find energy that you will never have to attempt to use if you don’t think the end is in sight.
Right now, please encourage yourself. Start a gratitude journal or practice. Everyday begin your prayer with thanking God for at least 3 things. Try to make it three things that are different than the last time you prayed.
Take time to reflect on blessings that you have experienced. Think about why you treasure your friends. Think about what you enjoy in life.
Thinking about failure will drain you. Thinking over and over again about the way you have been mistreated will depress YOU!!!
When David was in a bad situation where those around him were angry with him he made a decision to encourage himself.
“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”
I Samuel 30:6
If you read the story the people had good reason to be unhappy. Their dear ones had been taken from them. When people are depressed they usually have some good reasons to feel that way. But the circumstance you do have power over is your choice of thought. Please don’t miss this. You may not be able to catch the person who stole your money but you can change your attitude about your situation. You may not convince your wayward child to come home but you can change the language of your thoughts and prayers.
And your choice to do so in large part demonstrates that you trust your Creator. Things might not look good today but tomorrow is coming. Heal by releasing the discouraging and pressing on to what’s possible. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Romans 8:28 states:
“28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Encourage yourself! Healing comes from encouragement.
Today I will speak well of myself to myself. My creator believes in me. I will honor Him by treasuring His gift to the world in me!
Please listen. Your thoughts affect your feelings. They affect your energy level. If you think you are about to get to your goal you find energy that you will never have to attempt to use if you don’t think the end is in sight.
Right now, please encourage yourself. Start a gratitude journal or practice. Everyday begin your prayer with thanking God for at least 3 things. Try to make it three things that are different than the last time you prayed.
Take time to reflect on blessings that you have experienced. Think about why you treasure your friends. Think about what you enjoy in life.
Thinking about failure will drain you. Thinking over and over again about the way you have been mistreated will depress YOU!!!
When David was in a bad situation where those around him were angry with him he made a decision to encourage himself.
“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”
I Samuel 30:6
If you read the story the people had good reason to be unhappy. Their dear ones had been taken from them. When people are depressed they usually have some good reasons to feel that way. But the circumstance you do have power over is your choice of thought. Please don’t miss this. You may not be able to catch the person who stole your money but you can change your attitude about your situation. You may not convince your wayward child to come home but you can change the language of your thoughts and prayers.
And your choice to do so in large part demonstrates that you trust your Creator. Things might not look good today but tomorrow is coming. Heal by releasing the discouraging and pressing on to what’s possible. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Romans 8:28 states:
“28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Encourage yourself! Healing comes from encouragement.
Today I will speak well of myself to myself. My creator believes in me. I will honor Him by treasuring His gift to the world in me!
I have an increased appreciation of a loving community. I have seen it bring healing to myself and others, and I think it is highly underrated.
When my father, Victor Griffiths, died I remember how members of the community swarmed around my mother, brother and I to make sure we had what we needed. Some dealt with legal needs. Others helped with emotional ones. Still others helped with logistics. But everyone from their heart expressed their love for us and support during an extremely difficult time with caring words and with tangible action.
As I reflect on the power of love and community I think of several people I have known over the years who believed so much in what community should be that they made it a priority to serve others and bring others together. People like Phillip Carter and Viola Bradford have brought gospel musicians together here in the Washington DC area. People like Margie Farmer and Dawn Tzahor have time and time again been the person bringing comfort or comfort food as well as ideas of togetherness to those singers, students or boy scouts surrounding them.
Don’t spend your time and energy trying to be around people who don’t make the world a better place by the way they give of themselves. Help them but don’t hang with them to the point of picking up their energy and behaviors. Many focus around being with “the right” people who can open business doors for them. Spending time around people with values that you admire will create healthy business opportunities as well.
In the bible we read many verses that encourage us to be loving. In fact, we are told that we can see who has been born of God and who really knows Him. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” I John 4:7
Today I commit to building a better community where I am. I will love more. I will surround myself with a hedge of loving relationships and focus on nurturing them. And this will help me to continue to heal.
Your beliefs and your audience determine a lot of what you do.
I’ve become a passionate student of digital photography. When I was able to purchase a full-frame camera and a subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom my life changed forever. Many of my spare moments are spent taking and editing pictures. But what if there wasn’t a place to share these photos. If I couldn’t post them and see how many likes or comments they receive. Would I still spend as much time creating these pictures?
As a musician I’ve learned a lot by observing the changes in myself and those around me over the last 20-30 years. When you are young and have a dream you are willing to make great sacrifices to achieve it. You take lessons, attend workshops, work into the wee hours in a recording studio. You travel and stay in less than ideal circumstances because you have a dream…one day if I work hard enough and smart enough I’ll become a great musician. I’ll be able to buy my mom that car she always wanted or perhaps get the dream house for my family.
But then you turn 50. You may have become well known but you aren’t rich. Now what? Do I keep paying for the lessons? Do I keep making the phone calls to attempt to get the bookings? Do I keep writing songs and making recordings or was that only if I could become rich and famous?
Part of healing is learning what is important. Perhaps the best thing you can do today is pause, disconnect and figure out what really serves you well. You may discover you have been putting a lot of energy into things that don’t create a better place for you or the ones you love.
Jesus was angry with the religious leaders of his day who made religion into a yoke that made life burdensome for others. Yet, they were quick to make sure they altered there beliefs when it came to their own benefit. In Matthew 23 he rebukes them saying:
Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.
“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’
“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do.
Matt. 23:1-9 The Message Bible
Today I release the burden. I look upward and inward. I choose to create what satisfies my Father, blesses others, but resonates with me. And I let go of chasing the burdens others have sought to weigh me down with. I am healing so I can fly again.
