Lightkeeper's Journal

Looking Back is a Mistake

 Article by:  Curtis Beaird

Photography by:  Norma W. Beaird

 

Looking back is a mistake.

We will not move forward until we stop using the language of "back" as in.........

"get back the American Dream"

Or, if you are a politician, you will promise to..........

"give back the American Dream"

Religiously, "back" is expressed in the very popular Charismatic song...........

"I'm going to take back what the devil stole from me"

 

Nostalgia, even a militant, anger-driven nostalgia, looks, longs for and

leans in the wrong direction......... back......  

Sorry, but life, as scary, risky, and as relentless as it is, is lived forward.  Which movies do you enjoy? The adventure with a heroine who at least attempts to meet the challenge?  Or, do you prefer to offer up the price of a movie to watch some guy mope through a two hour pity party?

I have it on good word that the backward glance turns the person focused on the recovery of yesterday, who spends time grieving its loss, into a pillar of salt.  How do I know we have become  a very large cow lick?   Everyone who wants to lead or influence yells at us.  Bellowing is the new gold standard for a would-be leader.   Wonder why?  Because, we the people, for all our business and whirling and railing, have become an inert lump.

Faith is not a doctrine.  It is a way of life. 

It does not look back, unless its focus is on remembering the acts of God.  Our memories focus upon me, me, me, and my lost illusion.   Faithful people know little of disillusionment because they are not about illusions.  They are about faith. i.e.  "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  "We walk by faith, not by sight."

Security is an illusion.  It is the unacknowledged, but failed lie, that we fashioned into an idol and gleefuly followed into the dark.  Welcome to The Dead Zone.

The Dead Zone ends the day that Faith dawns.  Faith frees the imagination from its bondage to anger.  Faith changes rage into the energy of invention.  Faith enables and encourages us to risk exploration.  It creates.  Faith, the "substance of things hoped for", generates that hope.

The power of faith blooms from, at least to our minds, a most unlikely souce. 

Looking back is a mistake. 

 

Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version)

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

II Corinthians 5: 6 - 7 (King James Version)

⁶ Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight:

 

Copyright 2012, Curtis Beaird.  All rights reserved.

 

In the Shadow of Our Fear

 

 

Article and Photography

By:  Curtis Beaird

 

Fear lies, cheats and steals.  It dismantles our confidence, sullies our imagination and robs us of our energy.   There is no life standing in the shadow of our fear.  It discourages, demoralizes and finally renders us passive. Hunkered down in the semi-dark of a self-created anxiety, we wait and wait and wait.

We wait, not with a productive patience or in eager anticipation, but with the sigh of one haunted with debilitating belief that the other shoe is about to drop.  Fear raises useless and wasteful questions, the “what ifs” and the “why” questions.  What if I lose my job?  What if we have a wreck?  What if Uncle Buck gets cancer?  What if there is not enough money?  And of course, the real killer, why bother? 

Fatigue is the telltale sign we are battling an empty fear.  A hollow fear generates an unexplainable but ever present sense of tired that drags us away from the joy of our next dawn.  Fear converts blessings into doubts.  It whispers that whatever we have or do is not enough and not right.  It always leaves us unsatisfied and wanting more.

Fear invites us to waste our imagination.  An imagination void of possibility collapses on itself and becomes at best, none productive and at worst, destructive.  Fear convinces us that security at all cost is the highest good.  It encourages retreat.  It can see only what can go wrong.  Fear feeds despair.  There is no life in the shadow of our fear.

Fear is subtle and masks itself in false strength.  We think we have met the vague challenge or assumed threat with a firm and almost out loud “Sure, bring it on.”   Really?   Bragging is a thin veil covering a dark dread.  The declaration, "I like a challenge," while it sounds like the announcement of our competitive edge, it more than hints at the shadow way.  Fear drowns initiative in pseudo confidence.  Fear fragments us.  It divides and conquers.  It whispers “Nothing can be done.”  It generates the false conclusion, “It is too late.”

When God shows up, shabby fears are dispelled.  They are replaced with the empowering awe and wonder of a God who calls us out of our self-styled, small dark corners and into his world of possibility and promise. 

At Moses’ death, Joshua was replaced as the leader of the Hebrews.  That calling came with more than directions to gather the people and cross a river. “Be not afraid…...” said God to Joshua.  It is as though God knows we will find a reason to shy away from our best future.  

“Fear not,” says the angel Gabriel to the one who was about to change the world by giving birth to the Christ.  It’s as though God knows we will find a reason to shy away from the good news of His presence. 

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love..…” says the Apostle Paul to Christians (2 Timothy 1:7 KJV).  It’s as though God knows we will find reason to miss the best gifts He gives us.  There is no life in the shadow of our fear.

 

Copyright 2011, Curtis Beaird.  All rights reserved.

 

Ponderings

 

 

Article By:  Curtis Beaird

Photography By:  Norma W. Beaird

 

Ponderings.   Short pieces designed to raise questions rather than generate answers.

Three reflections intended to nudge us past the boundaries of the self.  Who knows, maybe our preoccupation with a  self-centered inward focus could be our fatal flaw. 

 “Know thyself” says Socrates.  Why not “Forget thyself”?  When we turn loose of ourselves, give up trying to please ourselves, do we not find what we are looking for?   Why not “Invest thyself”?  It has been written and long ago forgotten,

John 15:13

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  

 

It is not that the sacrificial life has failed.  It has yet to be tried.

 

Words

Words fall from the mind like rain.

Words guide us, direct us, define us.

One word can stand for them all

.......Hope

 

Faith

Security is an illusion,

if not an idol.

Certainty is a fantasy,

if not a lie.

To live at risk

is to chance the discovery

of faith.

 

I Can't Fix It

I can't fix it.  But, I will listen.

I can't fix it.  But, I will refuse the darkness.

I can't fix it.  But, I will embrace the light.

I can't fix it.  But, I will be a neighbor.

I can't fix it.  But, I will respect the stranger.

I can't fix it.  But, I will be a friend.

I can't fix it.  But, I will do no harm to the earth.

I can't fix it.  But, I will not let fear rule.

I can't fix it.  But, I will not let anger dominate.

I can't fix it.  But, I will speak a word of kindness.

I can't fix it.  But, I will offer a cup of cold water. 

 

".......Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee....." Acts 3:6

 

 

Copyright 2011, Curtis Beaird.  All rights reserved.