“Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
Some of the most insensitive sayings, passed on via social media memes, are posted by people who call themselves Christians. There is a lamentable desire to encapsulate and solve problems in one-sentence increments, and rather than post Scripture — which generally needs elucidation to be properly misinterpreted — good people who should be thinking pass on pithy sayings from seminar gurus, Christian celebrities, and the never-ending supply of Pro Positive Pop Christian “ministers.”
A recent banality scolds people for complaining about their boss.
“Be grateful you’ve got a job,” is its advice. Well, that really helps to get through another stomach churning, gut wrenching day under the thumb of an insecure, incompetent overseer who threatens the very existence of our employment in order to maintain the security, and advancement, of his or hers.
In effect, we are to quit whining, quit complaining, and be grateful for what we have.
Admittedly, there is a tiny nugget of truth in this — a pessimistic outlook in which we’re constantly picking life apart and finding it faulty, isn’t the best way path to peace, contentment, humility and wisdom.
However — and this is a big however — denying that problems exist, and settling into a mentally narcotized Happy State in which we forego thinking, and most importantly expressing, anything negative because being negative is so very, very naughty, isn’t the path to wisdom either — although it does lead one to an attitude of self-righteousness and judgment upon others.
Insensitivity to Others
“People shouldn’t complain about the price of food — they should just be grateful that they’ve got food on the table! (and perhaps if they worked a little harder, and smarter, like I do, and trusted God more — like I do — they WOULD have all their needs met!”
God’s message to us is one of welcome, joy, and love as He invites us to join our lives with Him. Arizona Memories, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold.
Despite the plethora of smooth, cultured voices who purport to speak for Him, God does not post social media memes, and His message — it’s a deep one — focuses on His love for us, His desire that we be more like Him, and His willingness to patiently and compassionately work with us in this process. Nowhere do we find Jesus saying,
“Suck up and shut up, guys! Quit your whining and bellyaching and give thanks to Dad, for His sake! We need to see an Attitude of Gratitude here!”
And yet, this is a popular message that people eat up, swallow, and regurgitate onto social media memes. If things are going wrong, we’re told, it’s because
- We don’t work hard enough,
- We don’t have enough faith,
- We speak negatively,
- We haven’t sufficiently thanked God.
We Never Measure Up
Always, always, the onus is upon us to perform — to “get things right with God” first before He will bother listening to us, and the end result of this in our prayer life logically looks like this:
“Dear God: Thank you for everything, and for all the problems in my life. I am grateful for them because they all work together for good.
“As I am unable to admit that things worry me or bother me or make me angry without coming across as negative, I will not talk to You about what hurts me, and I will work very hard through the week to get past my emotions.
“I’ll get back to you when I’ve got everything solved.”
So much better is the message of truth, in which we are urged to cast — hurl, throw, pitch, chuck, and dump — our very real concerns, fears, doubts, pain, anger, exasperation, and frustration upon the only Person in the Universe who can actually do something about them.
He already knows the deep, hidden resources of our hearts and soul — it is we who frequently do not realize what is burbling about in there. And as long as we insistently deny that there are issues, we remain blind, and deaf,
and dumb.
Thank You
Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes, where I encourage those who love and seek God to do so with the knowledge that He loves us, and seeks a relationship with us that does not include fear, condemnation, or disdain.
Posts complementing this one are
Why You Don’t — and Won’t — Fit In
Three “Christian” Teachings That Jesus Didn’t Teach
This Woman Writes by Carolyn Henderson 
Hi Carolyn,
Thank for yet another enlightening-& even entertaining-thought provoking article! Your writing has the capacity to break through all of the meaningless hype & get right to the core of things! There is never a doubt the message you are proposing to get across to your audience. I love it! It is quite refreshing to read your words which most often mirror my thoughts.
Thank you once more for reminding believers of God’s love & heart toward us all. His grace is wonderful & gives us great hope!
Thank you, Donna, for your kind, kind words. It is sad that the prevailing message in the religious arena is one of judgment, harshness, and expectations upon people to conform and behave like lost sheep. It is my prayer that more and more believers — the ones who learn of God’s true love and are awed by it — join the group of small voices to combat and counteract the message of wrong-ness that is propounded in Christ’s name.
For this reason, I am grateful for the many blogging women, especially, who take time from their busy days to write about good food, the beauty of family, the innocence of children, the joy of good and simple relationships, and what they are learning about the love of Christ, which they are discovering, on their own, as they read and meditate and pray away from the prevailing, well-funded voices of industrial Christianity.
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