Jane Hinrichs
Jane Hinrichs
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Sometimes doing nothing is what you need to be doing

3/26/2019

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Our society is addicted to activity. We seem to think that if we're busy our lives are more important than when we do nothing. That if we can hardly catch our breath we must be moving mountains. Our activity is tied to how we feel about ourselves. When we can't do what we want to do we can get a little down. 

Maybe we ought to study our addiction to activity -- maybe our activity is what is getting in the way of God really working. Sometimes doing nothing is what we need to be doing. Sometimes in the nothing is when big things are accomplished. 

Like healing. If we've been sick and start to feel better we might start doing more things than we should be doing -- this happens to people all the time. A loved one has been sick and she's feeling better. So of course she over did it! And I've been sick. I'm still recovering. I feel guilty for not doing what I feel like I should be doing, but I know my body isn't up to full-strength yet and I need to get better. So, I'm doing a lot of nothing. I've taken a few naps. I've read a lot. I sat outside today for a while in my coveralls when the sun came out. Doing as little as possible is what I was supposed to do today. 

How did our society get to where it's at right now? Where busyness is supposedly a sign of success or importance? This isn't a biblical belief. I'm sure the enemy is a fan of busyness and distractedness. It's hard to see God in those states of mind. God, in fact, tells us to "Cease striving and know that He is God." Psalm 46:10

He leads us "beside quiet waters" to "restore" our souls. Psalm 23:2-3

He will choose restoration over busyness every single time. 
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Neighborly Love

3/15/2019

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When Jesus was asked by the lawyer who his neighbor was (meaning who did he have to actually love like himself), Jesus told the parable of The Good Samaritan. The one who shows neighborly love in the parable is from the race of people the lawyer very likely looked down on.  I think Jesus means we are to love everyone who we come into contact with -- people who live near us; people we talk to in the store; people we work with and go to church with; people who we share a smile with; people who live far; anyone we can do good for; young and old; the beautiful and the ugly; the smart and the foolish; the ones who are nice to us and the ones who aren't. 

This morning we were shown a great deal of neighborly love by a wonderful family who lives not too far away. The husband and kids showed up and dug out our vehicles and our driveway. 
Picture






​This picture on the left shows what our place looked like before the neighbors showed up.

Picture







​And here on the right is how it looks now!

Our neighbors didn't have to help us out. I'm sure they could have found something else to do on this sunny day. Instead, they spent their time, their energy, their fuel and used their equipment to help us. 

One of the books I am reading these days with Hawken is a book about psychology. Recently we read about an experiment that was conducted. It was called "The Good Samaritan Experiment." The ones conducting the experiment wanted to see if certain factors would cause people to stop and help someone who was hurt. There were two groups of students. The first group was told they had just a few minutes to get to their next destination. On the way there they passed a man who was hurt (he was an actor). Most of the people in this group didn't stop (though some felt really guilty later). The second group wasn't given the time constraints. Many more stopped to help the man in this group. What the researchers found was that "being in a hurry" was the one big thing that stopped people from helping others (or at least that's what I got from it). 

Think about our society -- how hurried it is. How fast and rushed most people seem to be. I wonder if sometimes the enemy is behind our hurrying, our fast--paced lives. Maybe he gets us in such a rush we neglect doing God's work because we don't notice what needs doing; or, we feel what we're doing is just too important to be late for. 

I know there have been some really important people who have said the main thing is not to rush or hurry in life, but I can't seem to remember who these important people are. I looked up "hurry" quotes and found some good ones. I'll share them here:

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." ~Lao Tzu

"Once you stop rushing through life, you will be amazed how much more life you have time for." ~Author Unknown

"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset." ~St Francis de Sales







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Staring out my window and seeing lots of snow

3/10/2019

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So I stare out my dining room window and I see lots of snow on this sunny Sunday morning. This is the 4th Sunday in a row we've had to cancel church due to the weather. I tell myself and everyone I talk to daily that "we are one day closer to spring," but yesterday in the middle of the day I announced to my family, "I'm so done with winter." 

I, by nature, am not a winter person. I revel in warm, sunny weather. I love to sit outside and let the sun warm my face. I like my skin getting brown. I love to hear the birds talk and a light breeze straight from heaven rustle my hair. 

And we've all heard our whole lives that we should "look on the bright side" of everything, but that kind of cultural pop psychology jargon doesn't do much for me. There's some truth in it, but to really do its job it has got to be something deeper than that.

It's got to be rooted in truth. The one truth that comes to mind today is that God is good. He is very good. He is perfect Good. Jesus said to someone who called Him "Good Teacher" that "No one is good except God alone." Luke 18:19b

God knows a lot of us are tired of winter, but He doesn't base his actions and creative energies on His children's emotions or likes or dislikes (just imagine if we who are parents based our life choices on what our children wanted and told us to do!). But that doesn't change that God is good and God doesn't want to make His children miserable. Even if we are very bad He doesn't want to make us miserable. 

So, how do we look at something in our lives we don't naturally like? We can look at everything in our lives as gifts from God and then search out why they are gifts to us!

Okay, yes, that is kind of like "looking at the bright side of things," but it's different. It's rooted in eternal truth, in God's love for us and in His goodness.

So, Jane, why is this winter a gift to you?

Well, Jane, this winter is a gift to me because:
1. I've been able to wake up several extra mornings withoutt an alarm.
2. I've been able to cuddle with my husband mornings when typically I wouldn't have had.
3. Life has a slower pace. I love slow-paced living!
4. Shannon and I have found out we love recording podcasts.

I'm still waiting eagerly for spring, but to see these benefits I have gleaned from this very snowy winter helps me accept it a little bit more. 

I think we can do this gift thing with anything that comes into our lives -- even death of a loved one. I think back on my daughter Maggie dying in 2013 and I think, yes, good things, blessings came from her death (they don't compare to having her with me, but it is a gentler way to see death). What came from her death? Her funeral was glorious -- so many people there and so many people were able to hear the gospel. My church family really supported us and people outside our church family got to see what a wonderful thing it is to be part of a church family. 

Those are just two things. There were more. Back to winter -- I still don't like winter, but I can see how it is a gift to me. And I will always, always, always wish Maggie hadn't died in 2013, but death is a reality for all of us, and we all will have to deal with a loved one dying. It is God's will we continue to live full lives even when we have these gaping holes from loved ones' deaths.

Hey, one announcement! Listen to Jane and Shannon's podcast later today. It will be on the Dupree Baptist Church website pastor's page. Click here to listen. There's one from last week on the site now and I will post today's when we get it done (sometime later this morning). Last week's was really good. It is about 20 minutes long.
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After love it comes down to this (maybe)

3/1/2019

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Jesus tells us the most important commandment is to "Love The Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind (which includes our imagination) and strength" and the second most important commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself." So, loving God and loving people. 

After love we could say (maybe) it comes down to 1 John 2:15-17. In Peterson's The Message it says, "Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world -- wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important -- has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out -- but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity." 

Sure, there's a whole lot more we could talk about. There's a whole lot more about life, but what we want and what we're trying to get reveals what's really inside us. 

Matthew 23:28 says, "Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to man, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

That is a picture of ugliness. May it not be true of me or you. We can't hide from God. Depending where you're at spiritually that is a comforting statement or a frightening one. If it isn't comforting, seek Him. He'll get you where you need to be. He knows what will make your heart sing in this life. He wrote the song. 

(A note about the Maybe: There are some things I know to be true like: Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus died so we could receive eternal life; Jesus loves you and me. Father God is a good father. The Holy Spirit will reside in you if you want Him too. After that there are a whole lot of things up for debate and really just don't matter when it comes down to what life's about.)


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     Who is Jane Hinrichs?

    Jane is a wife, a mom, a writer, an artist, a lover of the Word of God. She has been studying the Bible since 1987 and has been writing about it almost since then. She loves to hear from her readers. Email her at:
    JaneHinrichs@mail.com

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