Consumption

Real world story, I hope you can handle it! Short little PSA before you begin:

Your pastors aren’t perfect and neither are there kids, so stop it with the unrealistic expectations if you have them! Now, moving on:

A while back, my sweet little boy shouted a 4 letter word while entering a crowded restaurant. 😳 He got scared when he tripped walking through a revolving door and screamed as his life flashed before his eyes in this terrorizing rotating contraption. I was in shock when I turned around and said, “What did you just say”? With a new terror in his eyes he began to sob and of course, repeated himself while a blubbering mess. I wiped his tears, hugged him tight and told him we were going to walk through the restaurant and to our table without making a scene, and we would have a conversation when we sat down, and that’s exactly what we did. You see, I know that’s not my sweet boy that just erupted out of that mouth. He doesn’t hear those words at home, has filters on every electronic device, and certainly doesn’t have a history of that vocabulary. So, why did that word spill out in a moment of fear? It had to be fed from somewhere, after all, we can’t spill from our cup something that hasn’t been poured into it. We had to find the source and figure out how to overcome it. That weekend, and many times since, we’ve had several conversations about filling our cup with good things, taking every thought captive and passing everything we say through our Jesus filter. It’s a super hard lesson for a little guy, shoot, it’s a hard lesson for me, but if we can teach our children this concept now, it will serve them well for the rest of their lives. We are what we consume.

Unfortunately, we can’t always control the messages put in front of us, the conversations overheard or even the ones we’re confronted with at times. But, we can control what we choose to dwell on, where we choose to place our focus and the rabbit trails we choose to follow. I can’t even tell you how many people that have come to me over the past year or two completely overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. When we start breaking down where it’s coming from, sometimes they can name it immediately, other times they’re totally blindsided. Either way, it consistently comes down to what they’re consuming. It’s the unknowns and fear of being two years into a global pandemic, it’s all of the hate and turmoil in the world surrounding us. It’s drowning in the drama between family or friends that’s overtaking and jading them. Or, it’s the hopelessness that breeds apathy and kills the desire to even believe change could be possible, because “what’s the point in trying”. You get the idea, it stems from so many different places, but they all lead back to the same core problem and resolution. They’re filling their cup with a consistent diet of anxiety, fear, hate, confusion, or fill in the blank with anything else along those lines. I spoke to someone a while back that was crippling in fear, but was constantly watching scary conspiracy theories and other things that fed her fear. When I asked her to evaluate her time spent feeding her fear versus growing in her understanding of God’s love, protection and provision, I could almost see the lightbulbs exploding in her mind. We are what we consume.

There’s nothing wrong with being informed, in fact, I hope you are passionate about being so, however, we can’t let what’s happening in the world around us to completely consume us. God has called us to a higher purpose, so let that kingdom purpose consume you instead. When we are consumed with knowing and growing in Him, we can’t be consumed by anything else. We get to be the calm in the middle of the storm, because our focus is on the king of stability, regardless of the chaos around us. It’s a miraculous place to live, but it doesn’t happen by accident. There’s a reason Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “guard your hearts, above all else, for everything you do flows from it”. To guard something requires purposeful action to truly protect it. Intruders are certain to come, we have to be vigilant to protect our hearts and minds. They’re our greatest asset and our most coveted weapon to the enemy, so he’s going to present every opportunity he can to flip our focus. It seems like everywhere you turn these days people are looking to kickstart an argument over some polarizing subject. We’re bombarded with self-proclaimed expert opinions around every corner and drowning in them on social media platforms. It seems like both sides of every argument are spewing more fear tactics than ever and the anxiety level all around us just keeps escalating. There’s plenty to be condoned by, that’s for sure.

It’s time to reevaluate your consumption habits. It’s the first of the year and the classic time to kick start this years fad diet and a new gym membership, right?! All kidding aside, while I’m all about bettering ourselves physically, and I hope you find success and breakthroughs in those areas this year as well, my prayer for you this year is more than physical resolutions. Let’s evaluate what we’re consuming mentally, emotionally, spiritually. If you allow yourself to be consumed by the junk, that’s exactly what your life will produce, and that’s a miserable place to be. You’ve been called to be a world-changer, so don’t let the world consume you. Let’s fill our cups with the goodness and faithfulness of our Father and let the message of His love and grace consume us until it spills out into every inch of this Earth. I’m choosing to keep my focus on Jesus today, and tomorrow I get to choose Him again, and every tomorrow after that. I am strongest when I’m prayed up and full of His word, so that will be my first priority. When fear and anxiety try to creep in, I’ll be standing guard. When the world is too much, I’ll remind myself where my strength comes from and run to my Father for peace and rest.

I am what I consume, so I will look to the Father to fill me to overflowing so that nothing else stands a chance!