Relaxing Acoustic Freestyle Guitar Music – Blue Skies and Green Pastures with Paula Adams
We all know that it’s been ONE YEAR since lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID rocked our world. The world shut down in the beginning of March 2020 for us and even earlier for other countries. We stocked up on groceries and toilet paper (a blog I wrote when it was still funny) for what we thought would be TWO WEEKS, maybe a month. Some of us suspected it was fake or no biggie. We were more concerned about running out of food due to hoarding. Others were much more afraid from day one. I wrote about that and later I felt guilty for joking about it when I realized that people were actually losing loved ones. I am sorry. Honestly, it never really felt real to me unless I was in a store and forced to wear a mask. I knew people who got Covid, but most did okay. When a friend lost both of her parents the same day, it finally hit home. I started writing more empathetic posts.
You probably have a list of ways that you suffered or were deprived or people you lost during those long months. But, 2020 wasn’t just a year of lockdowns, masks, and fear of an invisible threat, it also included extreme political division, violence and deaths in the streets, never-before-seen-levels of censorship of the news, as well as other disturbances of the peace. But I ask you, have you taken a few minutes to reflect on how the past year helped you learn or grow ?
Today I listened to two of my favorite podcasters and both of them hit on the general subject of how we react to things in our lives that come along without our invitation. One was a very specific sermon by Pastor Tony Evans on the Apostle Paul’s thorn that God gave him and what he learned from it. The other was from a very different guy, but one that I find to be very smart, and funny, J.P. Sears. He was talking about 5 things he had changed his mind about. They weren’t exactly about “what did you learn in the past year”, but they triggered this blog post so I am giving them due credit!
Pastor Evans taught that after Paul prayed three times for God to remove this annoying problem in his life, God told him, “My grace is sufficient.” In other words, stop asking because I get more glory when you keep that thorn and I am teaching you something by it. It was actually quite comforting and I learned some things I didn’t know about Paul.
J.P. Sears said that he changed his mind about 1) Parenting (It’s not so hard), 2) Purpose, 3) Lockdowns (bad), 4)Whether America is at risk of being taken over by Socialism/Communism (yes), and 5) The BLM organization(Marxists). If you haven’t hear of him, he’s a comedian. He makes funny videos on Youtube with a message. His podcast is just commentary. I liked what he said about not wearing the same pair of pants your whole life. What fit you when you were a child probably needs to change. We should always be evaluating and considering if things are still applicable or even true.
As for me, I learned so much and I did so much reading and God worked in my life a LOT. Most importantly, I gained a lot of truth about my own country. The truth will set you free and I am now set free from the myth that America is a golden land of freedom. Now I see that we need God more than ever to heal this country, but that we have been sick for at least one hundred years. Sick with inequality, political corruption, racism, and fake Churchianity. And that’s IN the CHURCH, too. I learned that we have been pretending to be fair when the laws are actually very unevenly applied. I learned that even though I believe free market capitalism is the best economic model, that America doesn’t really have that anymore, we have corporatism supported by laws. I learned a lot about globalization, small groups of rich, smart, powerful people making world impacting decisions, and that money truly is the root of all kinds of evil in the wrong hands. I also learned that most people are too busy or uninterested to do all this reading and are just worrying about their own lives. And that way too many are very easily sucked into fear, drama, propaganda and political games. I also discovered that politics can divide family and friends unless at least one of you is willing to agree to stop talking about it and even concede that they have some good arguments even though you disagree. Whew, what a year! That doesn’t even include the stuff in my personal family drama!
But, let’s get back to YOU, my blog-reading friend! My assignment for you is to think back on the past year and see if you made any discoveries about yourself or changed your mind about anything. Did you have any problems that made you seek God more? It’s okay if you struggled with all the changes and chaos, we all did. ❤ But if you will trust God, he will strengthen your faith during the struggles of life, and you will be able to endure and help others and it will not have been for nothing.
Blue Skies and Green Pastures 
Great job! I will work on my what did I learn post!!
Looking forward to it! And thanks! I can’t believe how well the podcast thing worked. So easy.
So enjoyed listening to the podcast! You did a great job! Fun to hear your voice!
Thank you! I hope you will make one, too. It’s really easy and fun.
I don’t know about making one…I was on one a few weeks ago and I learned a lot about them.
Love Dr Evans ❤️ I learnt quite a bit about me, in 2020, most was not very pretty
I did leave out that part, didn’t I ? God definitely revealed some wrong thinking in my heart. Thanks for the reminder! ❤ Have a blessed day!