Speaking the Truth in Love

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Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ.—Ephesians 4:151

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We must strike a balance between conviction of the truth and graciousness or civility in manner. Some people, having strong convictions about their beliefs, can often lack civility in their demeanor. Yet others are so “nice” that they have no boldness and no conviction regarding standards of truth and morality. They are too cowardly to stand up for anything. The proper approach lies in the middle: both heartlessness and spinelessnessmust be replaced by speaking the truth in love.2—Paul Copan

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People who looked to Jesus as their political savior were constantly befuddled by his choice of companions. He became known as a friend of tax collectors, a group clearly identified with the foreign exploiters, not the exploited. Though he denounced the religious system of his day, he treated a leader like Nicodemus with respect, and though he spoke against the dangers of money and of violence, he showed love and compassion toward a rich young ruler and a Roman centurion. In short, Jesus honored the dignity of people, whether he agreed with them or not. He would not found his kingdom on the basis of race or class or other such divisions. Anyone, even a half-breed with five husbands or a thief dying on a cross, was welcome to join his kingdom. The person was more important than any category or label.

I feel convicted by this quality of Jesus every time I get involved in a cause I strongly believe in. How easy it is to join the politics of polarization, to find myself shouting across the picket lines at the “enemy” on the other side. How hard it is to remember that the kingdom of God calls me to love the woman who has just emerged from the abortion clinic (and, yes, even her doctor), the promiscuous person who is dying of AIDS, the wealthy landowner who is exploiting God's creation. If I cannot show love to such people, then I must question whether I have truly understood Jesus' gospel.

A political movement by nature draws lines, makes distinctions, pronounces judgment; in contrast, Jesus' love cuts across lines, transcends distinctions, and dispenses grace. Regardless of the merits of a given issue … political movements risk pulling onto themselves the mantle of power that smothers love. From Jesus I learn that, whatever activism I get involved in, it must not drive out love and humility, or otherwise I betray the kingdom of heaven.—Philip Yancey

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Without the work of the Spirit, no argument—no matter how persuasive—will be effective. But neither will any act of love nor any simple presentation of the gospel. Add the Spirit, though, and the equation changes dramatically. Here’s the key principle:Without God’s work, nothing else works; but with God’s work, many things work. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, love persuades. By the power of God, the gospel transforms. And with Jesus at work, arguments convince. God is happy to use each of these methods.—Greg Koukl

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One of the most effective ways to present the gospel to someone is to tell them what Christ has done for you. They may argue or ask all kinds of questions you may not know how to answer—but they can’t deny what Christ has done in your life. Take time to think through your own testimony, and then ask God to help you tell it briefly and clearly whenever He gives you the opportunity. The Bible says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”3

In addition, pray for those around you who do not know Christ. You cannot pray consistently for someone to come to Christ but remain indifferent to them. Nor can you pray for their salvation without realizing that God may want to use you to touch their lives. Before prayer changes others, it first changes us.

But prayer is crucial in evangelism for another reason: Only God can change the heart of someone who is in rebellion against Him. No matter how logical our arguments or how fervent our appeals, our words will accomplish nothing unless God’s Spirit prepares the way.—Billy Graham4

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If you have the love of Jesus, you cannot hide it. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, and if men have a candlestick, they don’t put it under the table; they put it on the table that it may give light to the whole house.5 If you have this light, you cannot hide it—it’s impossible! We have to tell others about Jesus. If you believe it, if you have Him in your heart, if you have His love, you’ll show it; you’ll tell others and you’ll share it with them. This is what faith is all about—standing up and witnessing for Jesus and the truth. The Bible says, “He that winneth souls is wise.”6 It takes a lot of wisdom and a lot of love.

Your own personal testimony can be the most effective thing you have. The apostle Paul was a great witness, and he often started his witness before kings and judges, or whoever it was, with his own personal testimony: “This is what happened to me.” If you say it with sincerity in the power of the Holy Spirit in real earnestness and honesty, they will believe that you’re telling the truth. They will believe your testimony.

Once they believe that it’s possible for it to happen to you, then it’s possible for it to happen to others. If it’s happened once, it’s most likely to happen again, and it can happen to them. Once they admit the possibility, there’s a spark of faith, a mustard seed of faith that has been planted.

The cowboys in the U.S. have an old saying: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” That’s true of people too. You can lead them to the truth, in love, but you can’t make them drink it. If they don’t want it, you can’t drink it for them. So to make the decision to receive the truth is their job, not ours. You can speak to their heart, but only the Spirit of God can really win their soul, their spirit.

Our job is to witness and to show them the Word. When you show them Revelation 3:20 and they see that He’s promised to come in if you ask Him to come in, God by His Spirit can quicken their faith to believe it so that He will come in, because the Word is the foundation of faith. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”7—David Brandt Berg

Published on Anchor January 2016. Read by Jason Lawrence.



1 NLT.


2 Ephesians 4:15.


3 1 Peter 3:15.


4 The Journey (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).


5 Matthew 5:14–15.


6 Proverbs 11:30.


7 Romans 10:17 NIV.

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U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels

By Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo, NY Times, Jan. 23, 2016

WASHINGTON–When President Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the C.I.A. has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Since then, the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore. Under the deal, current and former administration officials said, the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of money, and the C.I.A takes the lead in training the rebels on AK-47 assault rifles and tank-destroying missiles.

The support for the Syrian rebels is only the latest chapter in the decadeslong relationship between the spy services of Saudi Arabia and the United States, an alliance that has endured through the Iran-contra scandal, support for the mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan and proxy fights in Africa. Sometimes, as in Syria, the two countries have worked in concert. In others, Saudi Arabia has simply written checks underwriting American covert activities.

The joint arming and training program, which other Middle East nations contribute money to, continues as America’s relations with Saudi Arabia–and the kingdom’s place in the region–are in flux. The old ties of cheap oil and geopolitics that have long bound the countries together have loosened as America’s dependence on foreign oil declines and the Obama administration tiptoes toward a diplomatic rapprochement with Iran.

And yet the alliance persists, kept afloat on a sea of Saudi money and a recognition of mutual self-interest. In addition to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves and role as the spiritual anchor of the Sunni Muslim world, the long intelligence relationship helps explain why the United States has been reluctant to openly criticize Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses, its treatment of women and its support for the extreme strain of Islam, Wahhabism, that has inspired many of the very terrorist groups the United States is fighting. The Obama administration did not publicly condemn Saudi Arabia’s public beheading this month of a dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who had challenged the royal family.

Although the Saudis have been public about their help arming rebel groups in Syria, the extent of their partnership with the C.I.A.’s covert action campaign and their direct financial support had not been disclosed. Details were pieced together in interviews with a half-dozen current and former American officials and sources from several Persian Gulf countries. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program.

From the moment the C.I.A. operation was started, Saudi money supported it.

“They understand that they have to have us, and we understand that we have to have them,” said Mike Rogers, the former Republican congressman from Michigan who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when the C.I.A. operation began. Mr. Rogers declined to discuss details of the classified program.

The White House has embraced the covert financing from Saudi Arabia–and from Qatar, Jordan and Turkey–at a time when Mr. Obama has pushed gulf nations to take a greater security role in the region.

Spokesmen for both the C.I.A. and the Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

When Mr. Obama signed off on arming the rebels in the spring of 2013, it was partly to try to gain control of the apparent free-for-all in the region. The Qataris and the Saudis had been funneling weapons into Syria for more than a year. The Qataris had even smuggled in shipments of Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-fired missiles over the border from Turkey.

The Saudi efforts were led by the flamboyant Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at the time the intelligence chief, who directed Saudi spies to buy thousands of AK-47s and millions of rounds of ammunition in Eastern Europe for the Syrian rebels. The C.I.A. helped arrange some of the arms purchases for the Saudis, including a large deal in Croatia in 2012.

By the summer of 2012, a freewheeling feel had taken hold along Turkey’s border with Syria as the gulf nations funneled cash and weapons to rebel groups–even some that American officials were concerned had ties to radical groups like Al Qaeda.

The C.I.A. was mostly on the sidelines during this period, authorized by the White House under the Timber Sycamore training program to deliver nonlethal aid to the rebels but not weapons. In late 2012, according to two former senior American officials, David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director, delivered a stern lecture to intelligence officials of several gulf nations at a meeting near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He chastised them for sending arms into Syria without coordinating with one another or with C.I.A. officers in Jordan and Turkey.

Months later, Mr. Obama gave his approval for the C.I.A. to begin directly arming and training the rebels from a base in Jordan, amending the Timber Sycamore program to allow lethal assistance. Under the new arrangement, the C.I.A. took the lead in training, while Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, provided money and weapons, including TOW anti-tank missiles.

The Qataris have also helped finance the training and allowed a Qatari base to be used as an additional training location. But American officials said Saudi Arabia was by far the largest contributor to the operation.

While the Obama administration saw this coalition as a selling point in Congress, some, including Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, raised questions about why the C.I.A. needed Saudi money for the operation, according to one former American official. Mr. Wyden declined to be interviewed, but his office released a statement calling for more transparency. “Senior officials have said publicly that the U.S. is trying to build up the battlefield capabilities of the anti-Assad opposition, but they haven’t provided the public with details about how this is being done, which U.S. agencies are involved, or which foreign partners those agencies are working with,” the statement said.

When relations among the countries involved in the training program are strained, it often falls to the United States to broker solutions. As the host, Jordan expects regular payments from the Saudis and the Americans. When the Saudis pay late, according to a former senior intelligence official, the Jordanians complain to C.I.A. officials.

While the Saudis have financed previous C.I.A. missions with no strings attached, the money for Syria comes with expectations, current and former officials said. “They want a seat at the table, and a say in what the agenda of the table is going to be,” said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. analyst and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The C.I.A. training program is separate from another program to arm Syrian rebels, one the Pentagon ran that has since ended. That program was designed to train rebels to combat Islamic State fighters in Syria, unlike the C.I.A.’s program, which focuses on rebel groups fighting the Syrian military.

While the intelligence alliance is central to the Syria fight and has been important in the war against Al Qaeda, a constant irritant in American-Saudi relations is just how much Saudi citizens continue to support terrorist groups, analysts said.

“The more that the argument becomes, ‘We need them as a counterterrorism partner,’ the less persuasive it is,” said William McCants, a former State Department counterterrorism adviser and the author of a book on the Islamic State. “If this is purely a conversation about counterterrorism cooperation, and if the Saudis are a big part of the problem in creating terrorism in the first place, then how persuasive of an argument is it?”

In the near term, the alliance remains solid, strengthened by a bond between spy masters. Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi interior minister who took over the effort to arm the Syrian rebels from Prince Bandar, has known the C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan, from the time Mr. Brennan was the agency’s Riyadh station chief in the 1990s. Former colleagues say the two men remain close, and Prince Mohammed has won friends in Washington with his aggressive moves to dismantle terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The job Mr. Brennan once held in Riyadh is, more than the ambassador’s, the true locus of American power in the kingdom. Former diplomats recall that the most important discussions always flowed through the C.I.A. station chief.

Current and former intelligence officials say there is a benefit to this communication channel: The Saudis are far more responsive to American criticism when it is done in private, and this secret channel has done more to steer Saudi behavior toward America’s interests than any public chastising could have.

The roots of the relationship run deep. In the late 1970s, the Saudis organized what was known as the “Safari Club”–a coalition of nations including Morocco, Egypt and France–that ran covert operations around Africa at a time when Congress had clipped the C.I.A.’s wings over years of abuses.

“And so the kingdom, with these countries, helped in some way, I believe, to keep the world safe at a time when the United States was not able to do that,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former head of Saudi intelligence, recalled in a speech at Georgetown University in 2002.

In the 1980s, the Saudis helped finance C.I.A. operations in Angola, where the United States backed rebels against the Soviet-allied government. While the Saudis were staunchly anticommunist, Riyadh’s primary incentive seemed to be to solidify its C.I.A. ties. “They were buying good will,” recalled one former senior intelligence officer who was involved in the operation.

In perhaps the most consequential episode, the Saudis helped arm the mujahedeen rebels to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan. The United States committed hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the mission, and the Saudis matched it, dollar for dollar.

The money flowed through a C.I.A.-run Swiss bank account. In the book “Charlie Wilson’s War,” the journalist George Crile III describes how the C.I.A. arranged for the account to earn no interest, in keeping with the Islamic ban on usury.

In 1984, when the Reagan administration sought help with its secret plan to sell arms to Iran to finance the contra rebels in Nicaragua, Robert C. McFarlane, the national security adviser, met with Prince Bandar, who was the Saudi ambassador to Washington at the time. The White House made it clear that the Saudis would “gain a considerable amount of favor” by cooperating, Mr. McFarlane later recalled.

Prince Bandar pledged $1 million per month to help fund the contras, in recognition of the administration’s past support to the Saudis. The contributions continued after Congress cut off funding to the contras. By the end, the Saudis had contributed $32 million, paid through a Cayman Islands bank account.

When the Iran-contra scandal broke, and questions arose about the Saudi role, the kingdom kept its secrets. Prince Bandar refused to cooperate with the investigation led by Lawrence E. Walsh, the independent counsel.

In a letter, the prince declined to testify, explaining that his country’s “confidences and commitments, like our friendship, are given not just for the moment but the long run.”

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Israel Says Will Seize West Bank Land; Demolishes EU Structures

Reuters, Jan. 21, 2016 --

JERUSALEM–Israel confirmed on Thursday it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation.

In an email sent to Reuters, COGAT, a unit of Israel’s Defence Ministry, said the political decision to seize the territory had been taken and “the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands”.

The appropriation, covers 154 hectares (380 acres) in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state. It is the largest land seizure since August 2014.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the move and Palestinian officials said they would push for a resolution at the United Nations against Israel’s settlement policies.

“Settlement activities are a violation of international law and run counter to the public pronouncements of the government of Israel supporting a two-state solution to the conflict,” Ban said in a statement.

The land, in an area fully under Israeli civilian and military control and already used by Jewish settlers to farm dates, is situated near the northern tip of the Dead Sea.

Palestinian officials denounced the seizure.

“Israel is stealing land specially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it,” Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters. “This should be a reason for a real and effective intervention by the international community to end such a flagrant and grave aggression which kills all chances of peace.”

The United States, whose ambassador angered Israel this week with criticism of its West Bank policy, said it was strongly opposed to any moves that accelerate settlement expansion.

“We believe they’re fundamentally incompatible with a two-state solution and call into question, frankly, the Israeli government’s commitment to a two-state solution,” Deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday.

In a development likely to further upset Europe, Israeli forces demolished six structures in the West Bank funded by the EU’s humanitarian arm. The structures were dwellings and latrines for Bedouins living in an area known as E1–a particularly sensitive zone between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.

“This is the third time they demolished my house and every time I rebuilt it, this time also I will rebuild it and I am not leaving here. If we leave they will turn the place into a closed military zone,” said Saleem Jahaleen, whose home was razed.

Israeli officals did not respond to requests for comment on the demolitions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week the EU was building illegally in the area.

There are now about 550,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem combined, according to Israeli government and think-tank statistics. About 350,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7 million in West Bank.

Israel is hoping that in any final agreement with the Palestinians it will be able to keep large settlement blocs including in the Jordan Valley, both for security and agricultural purposes. The Palestinians are adamantly opposed.

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Russia to Strengthen Military in Response to NATO Expanding Drills

(Reuters) --  Russia will form four new military divisions this year to strengthen its western and central regions in response to the increase in NATO drills, Russian news agencies cited a senior defense ministry officials as saying.

(Dennis) -- Could this be preparation for the future invasion of the Middle East at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, when a combined military force invades Israel?

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The Russian ruble has hit a new low against the dollar as oil prices continue to slide

By James Ellingworth,   Associated Press, Jan. 21, 2016

MOSCOW (AP)–The Russian ruble has hit another historic low against the dollar as currencies slid across the former Soviet Union against the backdrop of low oil prices.

The ruble traded above 85 to the dollar for the first time in Moscow early Thursday afternoon, a fall of more than three percent, which beat the previous low of 82.4 to the dollar set in trading Wednesday evening. It later recovered slightly to trade around 84.2.

Thursday’s slip means the ruble is at its lowest level since the currency was redenominated in 1998, during Russia’s worst post-Soviet economic crisis. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said the situation was not critical.

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘collapse.’ The rate is really changing, the rate is volatile, but it’s far from a collapse,” he said Thursday in comments reported by Russian news agencies. Putin has no plans for any emergency meetings, he added.

The steep decline in oil prices–now at a 12-year low below $28 a barrel–has been a severe blow to Russia’s oil-dependent economy. The ruble’s new lows this week follow the lifting of international sanctions against Iran, which increases the supply of oil on global markets.

The IMF predicted Tuesday that Russia’s economy will contract 1 percent in 2016 following a fall of 3.7 percent last year, before returning to 1 percent growth next year. The ruble has lost more than half its value against the dollar in the last two years.

Thursday’s fall in the ruble was accompanied by slides in other post-Soviet currencies. The Belarusian ruble slid 5.1 percent to the dollar, trading at 21.564 Thursday afternoon. It has lost around 14 percent of its value against the dollar since January 1.

In the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, another major ex-Soviet oil producer, the tenge currency fell to a record 383.91 against the dollar Thursday as the economy feels the pressure of low energy prices. Central bank head Daniyar Akishev ruled out introducing capital controls and said he did not expect major shocks for the country’s balance of payments since “most of the negative scenarios … have already happened.”

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By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans, study says

By Sarah Kaplan,  Washington Post, January 20, 2016 -

There is a lot of plastic in the world’s oceans.

It coagulates into great floating “garbage patches” that cover large swaths of the Pacific. It washes up on urban beaches and remote islands, tossed about in the waves and transported across incredible distances before arriving, unwanted, back on land. It has wound up in the stomachs of more than half the world’s sea turtles and nearly all of its marine birds, studies say. And if it was bagged up and arranged across all of the world’s shorelines, we could build a veritable plastic barricade between ourselves and the sea.

But that quantity pales in comparison with the amount that the World Economic Forum expects will be floating into the oceans by the middle of the century.

If we keep producing (and failing to properly dispose of) plastics at predicted rates, plastics in the ocean will outweigh fish pound for pound in 2050, the nonprofit foundation said in a report Tuesday.

According to the report, worldwide use of plastic has increased 20-fold in the past 50 years, and it is expected to double again in the next 20 years. By 2050, we’ll be making more than three times as much plastic stuff as we did in 2014.

Meanwhile, humans do a terrible job of making sure those products are reused or otherwise disposed of: About a third of all plastics produced escape collection systems, only to wind up floating in the sea or the stomach of some unsuspecting bird. That amounts to about 8 million metric tons a year–or, as Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia put it to The Washington Post in February, “Five bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.”

The report came a day before the start of the glitzy annual meeting arranged by the World Economic Forum to discuss the global economy. This year’s meeting in Davos, Switzerland, is centered on what the WEF terms “the fourth industrial revolution”–the boom in high-tech areas like robotics and biotechnology–and its effect on the widening gulf between the wealthy and the world’s poor.

But the plastic situation–fairly low-tech and more than a century old at this point–is a reminder that we still haven’t quite gotten the better of some of the problems left over from the first few “industrial revolutions.”

According to the report, more than 70 percent of the plastic we produce is either put in a landfill or lost to the world’s waterways and other infrastructure. Plastic production accounts for 6 percent of global oil consumption (a number that will hit 20 percent in 2050) and 1 percent of the global carbon budget (the maximum amount of emissions the world can produce to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius). In 2050, the report says, we’ll be spending 15 percent of our carbon budget on soda bottles, plastic grocery bags and the like.

Once it gets washed into waterways, the damage caused by plastics’ presence costs about $13 billion annually in losses for the tourism, shipping and fishing industries. It disrupts marine ecosystems and threatens food security for people who depend on subsistence fishing.

Besides which, all that plastic in the water isn’t too great for the animals trying to live there.

The data in the report comes from interviews with more than 180 experts and analysis of some 200 studies on “the plastic economy.”

The report was published on the same day that a study came out in the journal Nature Communications asserting that the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization is drastically underestimating the overfishing of the oceans. The study, from researchers Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller of the University of British Columbia’s Sea Around Us project, found that global catches between 1950 and 2010 were probably 50 percent higher than previously thought–meaning that damage to the world’s fish stocks was also much worse.

Overall, it was not a good news day for anyone with fins.

But both reports gave some signs for optimism. Pauly and Zeller told The Washington Post that the underestimation of how much humans were fishing means the U.N. also underestimated how much fish the oceans can provide.

“If we rebuild stocks, we can rebuild to more than we thought before,” Pauly said. “Basically, the oceans are more productive than we thought before.”

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7 Signs You’ve Become Too Busy for Your Own Good

An excerpt from the new book Breaking Busy. --

Alli Worthington, Christianity Today, Jan. 20, 2016

My granddaddy used to say, “If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” That’s some good Southern preacher wisdom right there.

Before I broke busy in my own life, I proudly wore my busy badge of honor. I was the queen of busy. I even had the tiara and sash to go with it. Busyness made me feel productive and needed, and I overlooked the havoc it was wreaking in my life. Oh, there were warning signs, but I just kept straightening my tiara and assuring myself I was a strong, confident woman, who could handle the stress and chaos.

But contrary to what many of us have been told, we can’t handle it all, nor should we. So how do we know when we are reaching our limits? We aren’t like our phones with flashing numbers that tell us we’ve reached our capacity. But there are signs our body gives us if we’re paying attention, signs that may look different for each of us. For some the warning signs may be emotional. For others they might be physical, relational, or spiritual. But rest assured, if you are over capacity, you will soon find out–the hard way.

Sign #1: An Inability to Control Your Emotions. I was talking about reaching our limits with a leader at a large church recently. She shared that she can always tell when she’s over capacity because she can no longer control her emotions. She told me this story:

I was scheduled to meet a group of friends for coffee. I love these women. They are my ‘people.’ But as I thought through the other things I should be doing that day, I realized I was beginning to dread it all. I went from looking forward to a relaxing morning with my girlfriends to feeling anxious about the whole thing.

By the time I got to my car, I found myself feeling irritated with my friend who had set it all up. Didn’t she realize how busy I was, how much I had on my plate? A real friend would have realized that the last thing I needed was one more thing to do.

About halfway there, I had worked myself into an anxious, angry mess. I texted my friend and told her I wasn’t going to be able to make it. I turned my car around and cried all the way home. I pulled into my garage and sat in the darkness, completely depressed. I convinced myself that if I could just get past this season of busyness, I’d be able to pull myself together. I’d be okay.

I have thought that same thing so many times. An inability to control our emotions and constantly feeling anxious, irritable, depressed, and overwhelmed are all signs that something isn’t right. Out-of-control emotions often reflect the out-of-control demands we put on ourselves.

Sign #2: Lack of Self-Care. People who operate at overcapacity rarely have time for self-care. I’ve often justified skipping a shower and working in my jammies because I had too much to do. Or making Snickers and coffee my go-to meal because it was convenient, despite the fact that it made me a caffeine-crazed maniac.

I find it easier to escape online than to take action for my own health and happiness. I’ve spent years goofing off on Pinterest and admiring other people’s lives on Facebook instead of investing in my own life. If we already have a full plate of obligations and crazy commitments, the last thing most of us want to do is spend time planning healthy meals, working out, or taking care of our physical health or appearance. That just sounds like more work.

The American Psychological Association released a study stating, “In general, Americans … seem to understand the importance of healthy behaviors like managing their stress levels, eating right, getting enough sleep and exercise, but they report experiencing challenges practicing these healthy behaviors. They report being too busy.” When you start hearing yourself say things like “I’ll rest when I’m dead,” it might be time to take a look in the mirror and recognize this warning sign.

Taking care of yourself may seem selfish, but self-care is one of the most other-centered choices you can make in your life. That’s because you can’t live the life God created you for, with space to be aware of his leading, if you don’t take care of yourself.

Sign #3: Illness. There was a season when I simply could not get well. I lived with a cold, a sinus infection, a stomach bug, or the flu almost all the time. I remember telling a doctor, “You have to help me. I am sick of being sick!” He said, “Alli, is it possible you’re stressed?” I wanted to yell, “DUH!” but I restrained myself.

As I told him all the things in my life I was responsible for, he said, “Alli, you’re overloaded. Reduce your to-do list or stay sick.” Constant illness can be a sign of many things, and of course, you should see your doctor if you’re struggling in this area. But illness can also be your body’s warning to you that you need to make changes in your life.

Sign #4: Chronic Lateness. I believe chronic lateness is caused by the tendency to say yes to too many activities and to too many people. It’s a crazy cycle of trying to be all things to all people. In the end, we can’t get anywhere on time or accomplish everything we say we will, and we end up disappointing everyone because the weight of it is all too much.

A few years ago, I was at a conference, waiting for my turn to speak. I was told someone named Robin would be assisting me with a computer set up with my presentation. About 40 minutes after I arrived, the woman I assumed must be Robin walked into the green room. She had a baby on her back and was carrying three large bags. She gave me a list a mile long of why she was late. When Robin unpacked her computer bag, she realized she’d left my PowerPoint on her counter at home. She burst into tears and said, “I don’t know why I even volunteered to work at this conference. I knew I didn’t have time.” I gave Robin a hug and told her that I thought she was superhuman for doing everything she was doing with a baby on her back, and I told her that if I had learned anything from years of giving presentations, it was to always have a backup on a flashdrive. I pulled that little USB drive out of my purse, and we both started laughing out of relief.

How many times have we known we didn’t have the time, energy, or emotional fortitude to put one more thing on our plates? How many times have we said yes out of obligation or guilt instead of out of genuine desire? If you’re noticing it is harder and harder to get anywhere on time and to accomplish things when you say you will accomplish them, it’s probably a sign that you are over capacity.

Sign #5: Self-Medicating and Excess. When the demands of life become too much, self-medicating is a very common response. For five years I ran a large women’s conference, and it seemed everyone and everything needed my attention. Once, a couple of close friends joked that they could always tell how stressed I was by how many times I touched up my makeup and how many Reese’s cups I ate. Overeating sweets is a problem for me. Anytime my life is out of balance, you can bet I’m probably curled up somewhere with a jar of Nutella and a spoon.

Self-medicating might also take the form of obsessive exercise, too many hours on social media, or watching a lot of television instead of getting much-needed sleep. Sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking self-medicating is actually self-care–”I deserve that chocolate bar!” But if we find that our habits are directly related to stressful situations in our lives, and that they are not renewing or restoring us, then we need to recognize those choices as a warning sign of busyness. We need to ask ourselves if escaping reality just seems like an easier choice than reducing our to-do list. Whether it is overindulging or a serious addiction, self- medicating is a serious warning sign.

Sign #6: Neglecting Important Relationships. Do any of these sound familiar?

“You’re always busy. You never have time for us anymore.”

“Do you have to check your email now? We’re out to dinner.”

“This is the third time you’ve canceled our date.”

“Mom, can you please pick me up on time today? It’s kind of embarrassing always being the last kid here.”

Do you feel as if you are habitually letting down the people closest to you: your husband, children, close friends, family, and colleagues? It’s easy to feel guilty about these things. And once we start feeling just a twinge of guilt, it’s all over. The onslaught of pressure and guilt we heap on ourselves outweighs any positive feedback anyone else gives us. When I begin neglecting my important relationships, I know I’m over capacity, and it’s time to cut back to save my relationships and to save my peace of mind.

Sign #7: Neglecting God. In the Bible, we often see that Jesus is busy doing the work his Father sent him to do, living out his calling every day. But despite his busy schedule, Jesus is undeterred from daily reconnecting with God. He leaves cities with people unhealed, prayers unprayed, and work undone all so he can spend time with God. A huge sign that I am over capacity is when I start skipping church and prayer. Staying connected to God is what keeps me operating within my capacity and what helps me understand that God made me with limitations on purpose. Having a limited capacity is not a flaw in my character. It is by glorious design and for an incredible purpose: to realize my need for him.

Neglecting God out of our own busyness, combined with any of the other signs–lack of self-care, chronic lateness, illness, self-medicating, and neglecting our important relationships–are all symptoms that we are off balance. These are not things to beat ourselves up over, but they are signs we should heed.

Taken from Breaking Busy by Alli Worthington. Copyright © 2016 by Alli Worthington.

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Phil Collins Another Day in Paradise sub español-ingles

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All 5 Bright Planets To Be Visible From Earth At The Same Time

Lee Moran, Huffington Post, Jan. 17, 2016

The solar system is all set to give a rare celestial show.

Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will all be visible from Earth when they appear in a diagonal row before dawn on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

It’s the first time the five bright planets, so called as they can usually be seen easily with the naked eye, have aligned in such a way in more than 10 years, reports EarthSky.org.

The phenomenon will continue every early morning until Feb. 20.

“Essentially a quirk of the universe,” Dr. Alan Duffy, a research fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, told Australian Geographic about the formation. And with the five planets on different yearly cycles, he added their alignment was “something well worth seeing.”

Jupiter will rise first, followed by the red-tinted Mars, golden-looking Saturn, brightest planet Venus and lastly Mercury. Exact timings will vary each day and depend on where you are located.

But don’t panic, there are a host of stargazing apps to help you figure out exactly where to look and which planet is which. Just hope it’s not cloudy.

The waning moon will also sweep past the planets from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6, according to the Coachella Valley Independent.

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Continue em Frente

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Maria Fontaine

Você está passando por um período difícil no momento, com muitas batalhas, sentindo-se sem desafio, insatisfeito, sobrecarregado, achando que não lhe dão valor ou que está queimado? Está começando a achar que não vai aguentar a pressão e a tensão das batalhas? O que você pode fazer quando simplesmente sente vontade de desistir, ou está desencorajado e com muitas dificuldades? Acho que se eu puder resumir em uma frase seria “Aguente firme!” Sei que soa simplista, mas é a verdade.

Vejam o apóstolo Paulo, por exemplo, ele realmente teve que aguentar muita coisa. Altos e baixos, o querido Paulo que o diga, pois realmente passou uns maus bocados!—Foi desde menosprezado pelos próprios irmãos a expulso de cidades onde tentou testemunhar. Foi perseguido, chicoteado, preso, atacado fisicamente e quase morto a pedradas!

Você talvez não ache que isso tem muito a ver com você, já que aconteceu há 2 mil anos. Mas como acontece com cada um, houve ocasiões quando Paulo, por melhor que fosse como homem de Deus, ficou bem desencorajado e sentiu vontade de desistir. Em uma determinada ocasião ele escreveu: “Porque não queremos, irmãos, que ignoreis a natureza da tribulação que nos sobreveio na Ásia, porquanto foi acima das nossas forças, a ponto de desesperarmos até da própria vida.”[1] Pelo jeito ele estava bem desanimado, né?

Você talvez tenha passado por ocasiões em que “desesperou até da própria vida”, como Paulo. Tenho certeza que todos nós passamos por alguma ocasião em que ficamos profundamente desencorajados, ou ainda iremos em algum ponto nesta vida. Você talvez esteja passando por algo semelhante no momento, e já há bastante tempo. Às vezes ajuda lembrar que Paulo e muitos outros homens e mulheres de Deus também passaram por isso.

O importante, porém, é que apesar das provações e dificuldades de Paulo — tanto em termos de perseguição de fora como em desespero interior, desencorajamento e dúvidas—ele aguentou, declarando que “Nada disso me abala*, e em nada tenho a minha vida por preciosa, contanto que cumpra com alegria a minha carreira, e o ministério que recebi do Senhor Jesus, para dar testemunho do Evangelho da graça de Deus.”[2] (* em tradução livre).

Essa é uma boa frase para gravarmos: “Nada disso me abala!” Em outras palavras, “vou aguentar firme não importa o que aconteça.” Esse é o tipo de determinação que fez Paulo perseverar, de modo que apesar dele estar “perplexo”, não estava “em desespero.”[3]

E não se preocupe se você não for forte o bastante para aguentar, porque você não tem que ser. A sua força virá do Senhor.[4] Você só tem que ficar do lado do Senhor e querer aguentar, e então Ele lhe dará a força para perseverar mesmo quando você acha que não aguenta mais.

Você talvez ache que Paulo, na Bíblia, não tinha realmente condições de entender pelo que você passa, e as batalhas que tem, já que ele não passou pelas mesmas coisas, e a situação naquela época era totalmente diferente de hoje. Bem, todo o conselho que se encontra na Bíblia ainda se aplica a você exatamente como quando foi escrito originalmente. Não só podemos aguentar e superar essas batalhas e provações, mas podemos virá-las ao contrário e usá-las para nosso benefício—ou, na verdade, deixar o Senhor usá-las para Seu benefício.

Nem sempre podemos evitar as batalhas e os períodos difíceis pelos quais passamos; às vezes a vida é assim, e o Senhor até permite essas coisas por diferentes razões. Pode ser para colocar a nossa fé à prova; pode ser para nos fortalecer e ensinar a nos agarrarmos a Ele; pode ser para nos deixar desesperados junto ao Senhor e assim dependermos mais dEle e menos de nós mesmos; pode ser para nos ajudar a orar pelos outros; ou para nos ajudar a entender melhor os outros para podermos então consolá-los quando passarem pela mesma coisa

Existem mil e uma razões por que o Senhor permite que haja batalhas. Às vezes Ele permite deliberadamente que tenhamos batalhas porque quer nos ensinar algo; outras vezes é um ataque do Diabo que o Senhor permite para nos fazer exercitar a nossa capacidade de luta espiritual; e outras vezes são causadas pelas incursões do Inimigo na nossa vida, incursões essas que nós permitimos através da desobediência ou por não seguirmos o Senhor tão de perto como deveríamos.

Existem situações difíceis que podemos evitar obedecendo mais ao Senhor e estando mais repletos da Sua Palavra, passando tempo com Ele e ouvindo a Sua voz. Outras, porém, não podemos evitar, pois simplesmente acontecem. São simplesmente parte da vida e o Senhor permite que passemos por essas coisas. Mas podemos usar até mesmo essas situações para o bem, e é uma dádiva preciosa.

Geralmente, quando estamos tendo uma batalha prolongada em que parece que estamos passando pelo vale da sombra da morte, não nos parece ser uma dádiva preciosa, não é? Bem, não parece no começo, mas se você ficar desesperado, clamar ao Senhor e agarrar-se a Ele, será abençoado com uma ligação mais forte com Jesus e uma relação mais profunda com Ele. Terá aprendido a confiar, porque terá “habitado nas profundezas do mar” e “descido ao inferno”, e visto que o Espírito do Senhor estava sempre junto de você.[5]

Ninguém que fez algo que conte neste mundo até hoje conseguiu realizar algo desistindo. Então, se você quer chegar a algum lugar na sua vida e para o Senhor, não desista. Se sentir vontade de pendurar as chuteiras, lembre-se que o Senhor talvez esteja apenas colocando-o à prova e permitindo-lhe ser atribulado para transformá-lo num ouro de melhor qualidade. Você provavelmente já ouviu muitas vezes a citação: “Deus só usa homens e mulheres quebrantados—mais nenhum serve”. Você realmente quer que o Senhor o use, mas quando chegam os quebrantamentos é difícil admitir que fazem parte do plano de Deus para transformá-lo no que você precisa ser para o Senhor poder usá-lo. Então, quando chegarem as provas, aceite-as como parte do processo de lapidação do Senhor

Você talvez não sinta que tem a força para continuar em frente, mas as boas novas é que você não tem que ter a força para tal. Porque se invocar o Senhor, Ele vai segurá-lo. Tudo o que tem que fazer é colocar sua vontade no lado de Deus. Basta dizer, “Não, não vou abrir mão e afundar na lama”—e o Senhor fará o resto. Ele vai ajudá-lo! Você ganhará a vitória se não desistir!

Publicado originalmente em dezembro de 1997. Adaptado e republicado em outubro de 2015.


[1] 2 Coríntios 1:8.

[2] Atos 20:24.

[3] 2 Coríntios 4:8.

[4] Ver Salmo 46:1, 18:1–2, 121:1, etc.

[5] Salmo 139:7–11.

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