Jeanne H Barnett's Blog

I understand and heartily applaud the motive and the heart of the individual who wrote the “slogan” on the board Sunday morning. However, I feel it necessary to point out the inherent danger reflected by its wording.

“I will do more in ‘94”

This sounds so good and it seems to be an admirable goal – but, I cannot but feel uncomfortable with anything which seems to indicate that an individual, by gathering will and mustering determination, can accomplish anything of the slightest import – nor do I think it unscriptural to point out a caution to speak in such a manner:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord will, we shall live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16)

Would it not be far better to adopt as a slogan a statement that includes God as the source of our ability or the object of our focus.

Anytime someone says, “It is not my intention . . .”, it normally prefaces a statement which does exactly what they state is not their intention; but, it is not my intention to be nit-picking. I have been strongly convicted as of late of the emphasis within people who claim to belong to God to “cut God out” of not only the glory which is rightfully His, but also the place He occupies and the empowerment that He alone can give. Until we can begin to have some slight understanding of the flesh without God, we will not be able to begin to grasp the consistent need for us as stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart to bow before the awesomeness of God and stop claiming the ability to function independently of our Maker.

If our words reflect our hearts, then I think it would well behoove us to begin giving God His place in our words and hope the process would infect our hearts as well.

There is a fine line between the practice of humanism and Christianity and sometimes, I think, we unconsciously vacillate between the two – I know I cross that line frequently without being aware of it.

I pray that God may so sensitize our hearts that
we will feel the “grieving of the Holy Spirit”
when we proclaim ˆour successes and
fail to give credit where credit is due –
when we forget the Source of power –
when we are puffed up
with our own intelligence and accomplishments
and cannot find the heart to humble before the Lord.

January 4, 1994

as the years add up—

transitions of life . . .
challenging steps . . .
what I can’t control and
what I can control . . .
choices . . .

To begin a new chapter on our journey can be overwhelming. All those emotions, all those deep feelings of loss and the confusion of not knowing what lies ahead can drag us into a dark pit BUT . . .
if we can choose to look at the next chapter as the next step in an exciting adventure, it will make it possible for us to go forward with anticipation!

This chapter means learning to let go of “things” and reviewing what is really important to me, prioritizing what I have accumulated over all the previous years so the “stuff” doesn’t push my important, heartfelt memories out of the way.

As the years add up, the stuff adds up until all I can see are piles of stuff and I am afraid I will lose something important – that is what I am dealing with now . . . fear that a part of me, an important memory will be discarded and I don’t even know exactly what that means or what to do about it.

SO, I am going to start at the top and work down in my thoughts:

#1 transitions of life
I KNOW! There are always changes that have to take place in life, some internal and some external—that’s just a statement of fact, so I have to accept that: there have been and always will be changes in life and I have made it through some pretty rough ones in the past so I will make it through these!

#2 challenging steps
YES! leaving a place I am familiar with and going to a new place is SCARY! It is NOT comfortable to think about being in a new place or being around others I don’t know and don’t have a relationship with in a new place—making a transition when nothing is in the place it used to be in and those around me aren’t going through it with me because they are already used to the place BUT I have had to walk through some dark, unfamiliar places before and LOOK AT ME, I made it and gained a part of me each time I came back to the light so watch out world, I am exploring more of me in this new place!

#3 what I can’t control
OKAY! There are some things I cannot have any control over – some health issues just seem to pop up without warning and I have to depend on qualified health care personnel to help me through them (praise God for some of those caring people that have helped me). So, this is one place where I refuse to let fear overcome me. I am standing up (or sitting down, ha! ha!) and saying, whatever heath issues I have will be treated as needed just like they have been in the past and I will choose to enjoy each day and each breath I take!

#4 what I can control
YEAH! I can choose to look at things that draw me to the light, things that encourage my soul and fill me with hope. I can look for ways to let my creative side out and that always lifts my spirit. A pen or pencil, a pad of paper, a picture, a song, a kitty cat, or just looking at a tree going through the seasons . . . I can choose to look at LIGHT and let it stir me to express my inner being, to spend time exploring what Life reveals me to me and maybe just snuggle into the fuzzy sweater or wrap up in that scarf that makes me feel pretty—I can control where I stand each moment in my heart and in my mind!

#5 choices
NO! “No” is not always the right choice and I do have choices to make. Like the two-year-old, I most often want to say “no” to others I feel are trying to make me go or do certain things BUT it is always true that life needs me to say “yes” so I can move ahead on the path of life and explore the next chapter. Fear, sure I feel some fear but that can help me be cautious as I take the next steps. Anxiety, you betcha, because there is much I cannot see from here and it feels like there is so much I cannot control but that can mean I need to learn to trust my ultimate Guide to provide those along the way to help me move forward. Overwhelmed, the word that comes to mind when I look around and try to figure out HOW to move forward but that can help me see the need to take “baby steps” in each part of the process and to let others help me.

Perhaps the main choice I need to see is that the Universal Love has been leading me on a path that would ultimately show me the choice to release myself to Love that trusts others are part of the plan in place from the beginning, a Love that flows to and from others so that what has been placed within me unites with the One, a Love that never fails, never dies, and always binds us all together on a journey that never ends!

Transitions of Life mean relaxing into the Flow of Love . . .

IN THE 1960s, many of us saw the materialistic lifestyle being lived by our parents and knew it was bad – there was a common theme of “keeping the outside of the cup clean” so that everyone thought you and your family were perfect . . . and we knew that was not possible, it was fake, it was hypocrisy!

We wanted to change that world – we wanted to tear down that fake image and live as “real” people and we knew that the only way to do that was with love, unconditional love for everybody.

We MADE A MISTAKE . . . we thought we had to destroy everything so we could build our world as it should be, you know, throw the baby out with the dirty water.

Without getting into the deeper problems with human nature, the government introduced LSD into protestor groups to see if it would work as a truth drug, and the walk toward a “better world” was derailed and many were pulled away from their original mission by drugs and the lifestyle choices that naturally follow.

SO INSTEAD OF BUILDING, we destroyed much of the undergirding of society, the rules governing behavior, and traded unconditional love for “free” love which meant physical expression with no commitment, lust without relationship, and without investment, we cheapened the foundation of family and set ourselves up for self-centered indulgence “justified” because we were being “real” and not fake like our parents.

In my opinion, our destroying of standards is evidenced in movies like “Grease” where a female comes to a high school as a “goody-two shoes” and is deemed successful when she accepts and becomes like the rebellious teens around her. The message is pretty clear . . . but mixed in reality. Accepting those around her that were different from her was good, but adopting their disregard for rules and their irresponsible lifestyle choices as her own just so she could be accepted as a part of the group was not good—peer pressure made “bad” good.

Our CORE VALUES are no longer clear, they are mixed and our human nature is used against us to destroy our world as we are “sold” a world that will cater to us (or so we are told) and all the “unfairness” in our lives will be “made right”! WE will get everything WE want . . . “victims unite” and throw out everything that supports the past we see as treating us wrong and redefines anything that makes a profit as “good business,” even if it is unethical or harms others!

WE MUST HEED THE CALL
• to higher standards, shared values
• to do unto others as we would have them do unto us,
• to hold to the strength that comes from working together,
• to a focus on building, fixing flaws, and not on tearing down or destroying,
• to valuing all human life,
• to protecting our world, not just our money,
• to helping each other when a storm hits and threatens any of us,
• to sharing what we have so we can all survive
                    SELF vs COMMON GOOD
               choose:  every man for himself OR . . .

I BELIEVE I should be governed by
the golden rule:
“do unto others as you would
have them do unto you”

HOW CAN I interact with friends and family who:
blindly follow leaders who are NOT governed by the golden rule and
who chastise me when I point out flaws in reasoning
or lack of valid information and
basically make me out to be the “bad guy”

HOW DID we get to the point:
that supermarket tabloids who have lost lawsuits because they were guilty of manipulating either photos and/or making up headlines are now touted as valid news sources

WHY AM I considered so gullible:
that I am supposed to repeat what I am told without really
examining the obvious marketing slogans motivated by
“loyalty” to a man only – no need to use the brain?

WHY IS BLINDNESS a requirement:
for membership in “what’s acceptable” in our world today and loyalty
is described as blindly following and
strongly coming against any who do not agree

WHEN DID HARSH WORDS become:
the right way to deal with dissent with anyone who
disagrees including friends, family, and strangers

January 15, 2015 at 1:38pm ·
NO OFFENSE INTENDED—JUST SHARING MY OPINION
With all that has happened lately, my heart has been heavy . . . why is violence the answer to frustration . . . how can anything make it right to take someone else’s life . . . why can’t we instead join together in the areas of beliefs we share:
• we believe in ONE God,
• we trace our history to Abraham,
• we consider it important to observe God’s commands to the best
of our understanding & ability
• we want to preserve & protect our families & our way of life
We have common concerns:
• what is going on with our children
• what lifestyle is growing in our society
• how can I protect my family
• can I live according to what I believe
With such strong areas of common belief in groups, even though all may have violence in their history, they do not teach violence as the answer to life’s issues—why can we not work together to find the answer to give to those who are being drawn into groups that offer violence as the answer.
If the answer is wrong, maybe we are not asking the right questions . . .

The Physical Therapist is the motivator for those who have lost the full use of their motor skills — for those who do not have the strength in their muscles to
perform some function(s) and have often lost their belief in their ability to cope or perform. The Physical Therapist,
by encouraging exercise, often through excruciating pain, builds strength in those weak parts and enables an
individual to perform tasks more fully and to become a more functional human being.

This morning, the thought came to me that God is our “Spiritual Therapist” building strength in areas of weakness – exercising and motivating, through the continual pushing beyond what we think we can bear, sometimes through excruciating pain, God develops in us an awareness of the strength that is there for us to draw upon to “run the race” we are called to run and to bear up under the trials we must face.

The analogy starts to break down here. While the Physical Therapist motivates an individual to develop and become aware of his own strength, God motivates and pushes us to develop our faith and awareness of HIS strength that is reflected through His people. So that Paul could express what we all should understand, “. . . My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (II Corinthians 12:9). And the writer of Hebrews gives us examples, “. . . For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: with faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” (Hebrews 11:32-34). [emphasis mine]

It is interesting to me that we will normally recognize and appreciate what the Physical Therapist does for the person needing to re-establish physical strength, but will rail against our Spiritual Therapist and the “exercises” He allows us to go through. We will applaud the first tiny response of a person going through physical therapy,
but belittle those first sometimes unsteady and awkward spiritual responses both of ourselves and others. Instead of viewing ourselves and our inherent weakness, we need to be focusing on the strength God is displaying through us. We must become so assured of His faithfulness and so confident that His desires for us are for our good that we drop the blinders of pain that make us see ourselves as “victims” and see the awesome hand of God at work in our lives and on our behalf in every situation.

If we put ourselves in Joseph’s situation, can we not see ourselves focusing on our innocence, on the injustice being inflicted upon us, on the sinfulness of his brothers and their lack of punishment, and on the questioning of a God who would allow this to happen to a “good” person? Yet, because we can read the account in its entirety without having to suffer through the actual “stretching” time, we can see God’s hand and we can see God’s bigger purpose to provide for His people in a time of famine while also developing a faith (an awareness) of God’s plan and confidence in His provision for the
individual as a reality in Joseph’s heart. This is so clearly reflected in Joseph’s response to his offenders, “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me’. And they came near. And he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. . . . And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; . . .” (Genesis 45:4-5, 7-8).

Joseph did not allow the pain of the experiences nor bitterness toward the tools God used to bring him to Egypt and eventually to the role of leadership to blind him to God’s true purpose. He saw and acknowledged that it was God whose purposes had been served, not the evil intentions of his brothers. And, because he saw God’s hand in it, he did not hold bitterness nor demand punishment of his brothers, even though they obviously were guilty of abusing their brother.

And so I believe it is in my own life. If I can but allow myself to see the higher purpose which can only be viewed through a trust in God’s great faithfulness, then nothing can come upon me to deplete my strength . . . because it isn’t my strength that has been developed, but an awareness of God’s strength working through me. And, it isn’t my strength that is being drawn upon, but God’s unlimited power flowing through the door of faith into my heart, my mind, and my body, and flowing out of me as confidence in the outworking of God’s plans in my life, even if I don’t understand. Therefore, not in my ability to cope, not in my strong will, not in my intelligent response to anything, but in my availability to God will I find reason to boast.

(April 28, 1992 – 5 a.m.) Jeanne Hicks Barnett

There are some interesting connections that I feel with the “Feast of Booths,” sukkot observed by Jews, Hebrews, Israelites, Messianic Jews, Samaritans.

Sukkot has a double significance. In the Book of Exodus agriculture is mentioned – “Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end” (Exodus 34:22) – it marks the end of the harvest time and so of the agricultural year in the Land of Israel. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the People of Israel on the will of God (Leviticus 23:42-43).

So, the twofold significance:
1) ingathering at year’s end marking the end of harvest time
and
2) exiting “Egypt” and entering dependence on the will of God
are both obviously present at a particular period in my history.

—September 1980: the end of harvest time (you reap what you sow) seen in my planned suicide, an unexpected call from my mother, and a forced move (that’s exiting “Egypt”) . . . I came to live in the birth state of my father and the place of my parents’ residence (that’s the “ingathering”)
which
began a pilgrimage (September 1980-June 1986) I did not know I was taking that guided me to the understanding that I needed to depend on God and to see that following His Will, even unknowingly, was what had preserved my life and brought me to a place where healing would take place

To celebrate the beginning: moving from my 34-year fragile, impermanent place as a part of an “ingathering” by my mother—from the slavery of the world, my “Egypt,” to relationship with God, my Father, freedom of Life in the Spirit . . . the Feast of Booths

for me,
a time every September when I purposefully experience and celebrate the meanings of my personal “Feast of Booths,” the big endings, the pain, the defeat, the darkness, the small beginnings of light and healing, the overwhelming faithfulness and Love of God

Now it is time to convert the roller coaster into a locomotive, making sure that the inspiration of the holiday season propels me to greater growth, learning and devotion in the year ahead. (read Psalm 113 – 118)

for more information about this holiday http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/4784/jewish/What-Is-Sukkot.htm

MISSING—SERIOUSLY:
benchmark—”a point of reference from which measurements may be made” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

For a time, I have felt that I am living in a world where it is hard to find “a benchmark,” to see a standard held up as a way to measure myself and others, to find any consistency to indicate adherence to any standard . . .
I feel insecure
with no guidelines applied to every scene.

When I look at the world around me, I seem to see only “exceptions” and “rationalizations” for people and behavior that would have been loudly condemned in years past . . .
I feel very concerned
with a standard that obviously changes to fit an individual’s agenda.

I have lived more than seven decades and, therefore, have seen many transitions in all areas of life—some I would call progress, but other trends I would call questionable in the terms of human development . . .
I feel confused,
like a kite in an ever-changing wind.

That is what has brought me to this place—a feeling of distress on the verge of hopelessness at times, a journey from knowing everything and being firmly convinced of my positions to the unrecognizable here and now . . . a place where I intend to pull from the experiences of myself and others to see if I can discover, or re-discover, a BENCHMARK, a point of reference from which measurements may be made—a foundation to lend stability to a heart tossed to and fro.

Are there concepts I can set up as guides to the path I walk that will allow me, no, compel me to accept or reject behaviors or philosophies?
Can I go forward without putting on “concrete boots” and always allow review with as little bias as possible while staying true to the spirit of my BENCHMARK?

It’s time to explore new territory or rather to look at territory with new eyes . . .
• to review where I have been,
• to assess the “potholes” in the path without judgement,
• to breathe in the adjustments of the journey, and
• to allow All to infuse and to excite each moment as Life reveals itself to me, through me, and in me—the joys, the sorrows, the smiles, the tears, the depths and the shallows.
May the eyes and ears of my heart be open . . .

“In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim.”
― John Owen