I haven't found much time to blog here lately, but there have been several notes that I've put up on Facebook this past month so I'm reposting them here...

Thinking about Philippians 4:4-9

Philippians 4:4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This has always been one of my favorite passages in Philippians...or maybe even the whole bible. It tells me that no matter what is happening around me, I need to be rejoicing in the Lord and focusing on the things that are good. Sometimes that is SOOOOO very hard to do. Especially for me - one who enjoys a good VENTING! But, sometimes the very thing that I need most when I'm in a difficult situation or seeing people around me hurting and in despair - PEACE - doesn't come from the venting, but from - REJOICING - the thinking and focusing on the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy things...and giving all that I am anxious about to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. It's at that point that the peace of God comes and guards (protects) my heart and mind.

And I think about the phrase in vs. 9 "put it into practice". To practice something means to keep doing something over and over again until it becomes easy...like second nature to you. So if thinking on the things that are good seems hard to me, then I guess I need to practice it more. Sometimes I feel like "venting" is necessary for me to get all the garbage out of the way. I have a hard time trying to decided if it's really a step I need to take sometimes or if my actions are in fact going in the opposite direction of Philippians 2:14 -15...

14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

Is there a point where I just legitimately "need to get things off my chest" so that I can move on to bigger and better things. Or am I really just giving in to complaining and arguing? I'm not sure I know the answer to that. But a lot of times, the venting does clear my thoughts of the yucky things and allows me to refocus and see the things that are good so that I can rejoice. Does it always happen immediately after the venting? No, for me it can take time...there may be a lot of pent up garbage that has settled in for whatever reason, and it might take me days, weeks or months of shoveling it out (my vent outlet of choice as those who know me well is of course writing) so that I can begin to truely rejoice again.

I think that I may be at that point in my life now. There have been some hard times in the recent months and I have vented a lot - not necessarily publically - and now I am feeling like most of the gunk has been removed and I am ready to rejoice again. Yeah I know it said to Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS...and in the midst of some difficult stuff it was REALLY hard to do that...and I'm sure that I failed miserably at it. But I did have moments when God would come shining thru the darkness and I would praise him in those glimpses of light. Again my thoughts come back to the practice aspect of rejoicing and thinking on the good stuff...and I wonder if the more I practice this in the light, when darkness threatens again, it just might be that much easier to rejoice in the Lord when that darkness looms overhead. And you know what they say about practice right? Practice makes perfect!

So...practice, practice, practice!!! That will be my motto for a while I think :-)