WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND UNTIL WE BREAK THE SPIN
Life can make me as busy as a bee but Lord, give me eyes to see…
Have you ever gotten dizzy? I know I have both literally and figuratively many times. Let’s talk figuratively for a minute…
Life sure can make us dizzy.
In the dizziness of the cycles of negativity, fear, anger and stress, we can get tripped up. It happens to the best of us. But what happens when we push the cycles the opposite way?
It makes me think of making a whirlpool and how easy it is to stay within its spin. Yet, what happens when we push it the opposite way? At first, it is challenging but soon strength grows, and it becomes easier and easier until … Boom!
It breaks!
I truly believe this concept can be applied to everything in life: big and small.
Here is a little story that made me remember just that. It involves two moms, two kids, a park, a cop and a bee…
One day we were at the park. My kids were young, just 2 and 5 at the time. As I was putting my daughter on the swing, my back was turned and I heard my son shriek a squeal I had never heard before. Running to him, I discovered he had been stung by a bee. (At the time, he still had over ten food allergies and quite honestly, I was relieved that he didn’t have an allergic reaction. Praise God!)
As he calmed down, a lady stopped me. She stated, “He is the second kid I watched that happened today. Just look at the hive on that.”
Sure enough, there it was! As she nonchalantly pointed to the swarming bees in the ground below the squirrel ride he had been sitting on, a fiery Mama in me was raging...
You watched him sit on something you knew was dangerous?
You watched another kid get stung and did nothing to stop it?
Then, you watched my son do the same, still not stopping it?!?!
Oh I needed to be held back. Lord, tame my tongue, but fuel my heart.
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3 ESV)
I decided to go to the police station on the way home to inform the parks and recreation department of the hive. Therefore, they could ensure it didn’t happen to others which to me was the obvious thing to do. It was not the easiest thing to do, but it was necessary to ensure safety. Lugging two young kids around and throwing off our schedule was never easy though. But it was only right. Still, it got even more complicated when a police officer pulled me over while on the way. Without thinking past my son’s frantic cries, I had taken my phone out to call my husband when at the traffic light. Since my son was still screaming that the park “bit him,” the officer was very supportive and helped to inform someone to go right away to that hive. (I am grateful for forgiveness when life gets me frazzled. I was quite nerved in that moment, but tried to keep it calm and together for my kids.)
Afterwards, the whole experience made me think of all the other more subtle times that I fail to do what I can right where I am. The times I may wait for someone to do what I’m very capable of doing myself. However, we cannot assume someone else will do it because that is not always the case.
In the Bible, James unpacks how it is not enough to simply know what is right. Instead, we must act. We must not assume someone else will do it. That’s often the reason why so many people stay bystanders because they assume someone else will do it or they feel uncomfortable being the first person to do something or speak up. Yet, when we do in fact speak up as the first upstander, studies showed that others follow.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
(James 1:22 NIV)
“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
(James 1:23-24 NIV)
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
(James 2:14, 17 NIV)
Maybe I think it’s bigger than me or it involves something outside my comfort. Or maybe like I stated above, it simply is not in our plans for the day. I mean we do have busy schedules.
Chances are the busy schedules will not go away, nor will the chances for us to serve, love and do what is right.
Listen, I don’t always get it right. I’m a work in progress, real not perfect. However, I pray about it. I pray I don’t miss the moments that stand before me waiting for someone else to step up.
Let’s step up in all areas.
Those injustices that spin round... speak against the spin!
Those family cycles that spin generation to generation… declare them broken! Do the work! It can happen because… Jesus already defeated it ALL at the cross (This is a whole other future topic.)
After that day at the park, there was another cycling fear that needed to be broken, the anxiety of that park. While my son was no longer screaming the next day, he was telling everyone that he had been stung and didn’t really like that park anymore. Therefore, on the way to a friend’s house, we went back to that very scene and faced it. I didn’t make a huge deal about it but tried to make it an adventure to see if they had truly gotten rid of the swarming hive. We prayed as we drove over, “Lord, thank you for protecting us and keeping us safe.” Sure enough, it was gone and my son even wanted to stay a bit to play. In my own life, avoidance has often made situations and anxieties grow deeper with the anticipation of what will be. Anticipation has always been the worst part for me so the sooner I face the fear, fighting back with faith, the sooner that same anticipation and nervousness subsides, buzzing away.
Cycles spin all around. But they can be broken. Still, they only break if we step into God’s presence and promises, obediently taking the steps to stop their spin. Sometimes, that means we need to act or speak up right where we are, no matter how we feel.
So the The Art of a Messy House Right Here and Right Now Challenge is that…
Speak up for another.
Speak up even when it may not involve you directly.
We are in this life together.
Be kind whenever possible because it is always possible, and with God, all things are possible. These are two areas I truly believe in.
Stand in Truth. Speak Truth in love.
Face it! Face the very thing that is spinning. Pray about it. Fight back with faith.
Together, they can stop the confusion and dizziness which is not of God, and bring the life-giving love because ...
What goes around
will always go around
until we break the spin.
Right here and right now,
using what God places within…
Dear God,
You reign above it all. I come to You. I ask forgiveness for whatever I have been avoiding and running from. I ask forgiveness for feeding the negative cycles. Instead, today I ask that You fill me with Your truth and with Your wisdom so that I can know when to speak and when to walk away. Lead me Holy Spirit to not grow weary of doing good even when it is not the popular way. I ask You today to help me break cycles, the ones I see and the ones I do not yet see. I pray for my family and friends and that they too do the same. I pray that we walk in the freedom and peace that only You can provide. I pray to seek Your will for my life and that it pours such love and Truth into generations to come. I pray today for our world. I pray that evil cycles and crippling chains crumble. And through it all, I pray to always give You all the glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
