Human beings are the most intelligent creatures God made, and yet it is that very capcity to reason that brings us the most trouble of any other living creature.

For the most part, mankind has reasoned themselves into idiocy. Of the making of books, there is no end. Knowledge without wisdom is useless at best, and very dangerous at worst. Without due deference to God, knowledge can only lead one astray.

When we are young, anytime we experience or witness wrong, we tend to get a burning in the gut because it seems unfair. The older I get, the easier it gets, to sit still, and know God will balance the scales. Anytime I ever attempted to extract justice on my own, it not only did not turn out well, but only compounded my internal yuck. If there is one thing I can’t stand in life, it’s trying to engage someone with whom there’s been conflict, only to have them refuse to engage.

I guess where I’m coming from is, in the coming months, if you’re like me, you will feel anger, maybe resentment. Your frustration level and seeming ability to persevere will likely be significantly challenged. That is the perfect circumstance in which an all-or-nothing kind of person, like myself, can start to really flounder.

Over the years, I have made an effort to be systematic about studying God’s Word. Sometimes my apetite for it was so voracious, I could and often did spend multiple hours any given day, immersed in it. Before anyone thinks of being at all impressed, my memory has been shot as far back as 6th grade (according to my oldest lifelong friend since first grade, anyway).  I concur. It’s as if my brain is partitioned, making the scan to locate a specific fact or memory, ver difficult on better days, and come up empty altogether on worse days.

Something about having witnessed my mom’s trajectory over her mid 60’s-70’s, has me overly alert to my mind’s every snag, and if there is one thing that makes a hit-or-miss brain worse, it is focusing said brain onto said lapses and thereby making oneself slightly “obsessy” about it.

It takes a lot of effort to get focused these days. In any task I take on, I work so hard to get focused, once I lock in, I don’t want to break it until I make a respectable amount of measurable progress. On top of that, if it is a task requiring movement as opposed to sitting to study, for example, I  feel like I am slower than that Mr Tuttle bit on “Night Court”

I used to have a lightning-fast comeback to friendly fire, now I wake up in the middle of the night 40 hours later with…”I should have said….”.

If I’m doing embroidery, I lose the needle. If I stop what I am doing go to the kitchen to throw something away, I might see a task I forgot to finish previously, address it, completely forgetting I was working on the embroidery until hours later.

If I weren’t depending on the Lord to keep me functioning, I would, for sure, be paralyzed in mortification. If you guys knew how long it takes me to write a post, you would be concerned.

I don’t rely on sticky notes and my phone calander to remember important stuff, I ask the Lord to remind me. Oh, I do use the stickies and calander, they just aren’t foolproof. Unless the sticky note is on the tip of my nose, I will probably overlook it. If the calander sends me a reminder, I am apt not to hear the alert.

My point is, don’t wait til you’re 60 to really work on relying on God in everything. There’s been so much talk about “getting prepared” lately, as we witness the downhill slide of our world toward disintegration of law and of order globally. As blood-bought believers, we  have knowledg and we have wisdom because reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Unfortunately, the inmates are running the asylum, and we are still here in the asylum with them!!

In my mind’s eye, I see cartoon characters in a cloud of dust, a fist coming out here, a leg trying to break free there, but at keast we are outside of the dust cloud. Duck and weave, ya’ll. Stay out of the morass. Everthing that gets stuck in your craw, is that frenzied dust cloud trying to envelop you in it’s fog so you’ll fight like one who beats the air.

As a recovering people-pleaser, I am finally getting out of the briar patch of others’ expectations. Getting the rest of the way home may still take longer than we hope, but every day, we are 24 hours closer. I learned as a runner (slow jogger) in my teens, to not allow myself to look up abd see how much further it was to that next mile marker. Keeping myself in the moment, kept me going, one stride at a time. At this point, that is all I can manage. I have to trust that God Himself will give me a heads up about any coming development headed my way. My husband and I pray every day, asking HIM to prepare us. He knows what’s coming, and what each of us will face. I know I have said this many times before, but keep in mind all the times God struck a singular person or town or nation in the midst of many, while leaving others unscathed.

If world events, personal life events, your financial situation, or a whole lot of uncertainty in general has you spinning your wheels or paralyzed with indecision, the first measure to employ is distraction. People frequently say “I can’t help how I feel”. I used to believe that, likely due to the dynamic of my early life. That is actually a lie promoted by our enemy Satan.

If you are thinking about the project you are working on, and suddenly realize you were supposed to pick up the kids, or meet up with a friend at this very moment, you will drop all thoughts of the project and figure out the logistics.

Our minds change about things a dozen times a day. It’s called reasoning. If something seems insurmountable. Change your perspective, or just put it aside. Give yourself a 30 minute window each day, and when a worry pops up, tell yourself I’ll ponder that at 2:00.

If you find it really hard to change your perspective, you absolutely MUST direct your attention to something that is not distressing. You see, I had to learn that forbidding myself from marinating in my anxieties, sorrows, or dread, was imprative. Our flesh is not our ally. It is more like Satan’s undercover accimplice.

When your 30 minute worry time comes, at least talk to God about what’s going on. Read a psalm. I came to think of my Bible just like my Blood Pressure medication. Even small doses can bring relief!

If all that is not enough, just stop consuming news related content, or limit it to just Fridays, or just one or two of the more comprehensive Christian sites like Jan Markell. One or two sources that can give you a general measure of what prophetically significant developments happen. Go watch a Carol Burnett and Tim Conway skit, or Jeannie Robinson. Laughter literally bathes the brain in endorphins. Nature’s pain med and muscle relaxer!

I had to stop staying plugged in so acutely to every development in this crazy time God clearly told us would come.

I recently discovered a Youtube channel, and ya’ll, I mean this in the best way when I say Bubba has practically a savant level memory. I don’t know for sure but I suspect he has a photographic if not autobiographical memory, and thus his ability to connect dots at lightning speed while quoting the scripture that addresses it, including chapter and verse number, is mindboggling, literally!. For such a time as this! Just look for BubbaNews channel on youtube. Not (“the BubbaNews”.) Just put BubbaNews in the youtube search bar.

It’s getting so dark, but this is just the deep darkness that precedes the glorious Sonrise to come!

The Leader of Hamas was executed yesterday. I told my husband at 7 a.m. “it’s about to really kick off for Israel any second now.” But even Stevie Wonder could see that coming. This is yet another game changer, and I trust Bubba will have insight to offer. Bill Salas is  one of the top best living experts on the various predicted battles for Israel and the surrounding Mid-East nations. As each one is fulfilled, it will give new clues as to what is likely next. Heading into Fall of 2024, and all that it may bring, may be the most significant time in world history since the Resurrection. Whatever else God does in eternity, whatever else He may create, if He were to decide to create another crop of human-like beings, they would eventually study these very times, with an awe like we have for the Old Testament events, or New Testament as well, for that matter.

I plan to enjoy the privilege, despite the efforts of my enemy-flesh. And savor good gifts like 70 degree mornings and ciffee on my oorch swing right up til the trumpet. I have lost almost all hearing now in my right ear, which prompted me to wonder, will deaf Christians hear the trumpet?