God's Will: Be Joyful, Prayerful and Thankful

November 19, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:16-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It was a life-changing, perspective-shifting moment. I was in college, overwhelmed by an emotional situation that wasn’t going the way I wanted it to go and I was miserable. I was a member of the Geneseo Chamber Singers and we were heading back to town after a trip to Boston. As I sat in the back seat of the bus feeling extremely sorry for myself (a very familiar feeling at that time, by the way) I had a sudden revelation. It was one of the first times that I became aware that the Holy Spirit was revealing something to me. I was immediately conscious that being miserable was my choice, had been my choice, and didn’t have to be my choice. It was the beginning of Lent, and I made a decision to give up being miserable for Lent. Truly, I did! My life has never been the same because after that Easter, the end of those forty days of Lent, I have never gone back to being miserable.

I’ll be honest that for a while I overdid the positive perspective and ignored anything negative without dealing with it. But over the years I think that I have found my balance. Balance comes as I acknowledge what is and choose to trust God’s goodness in the midst of it.

There is actually a simple formula for this kind of life in the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians. It goes like this: “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” ‭‭(1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:16-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

Grateful IN Everything

November 12, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18

You want to be someone who says YES to God. It's the motivating factor of your life, isn't it? Yet, there may be an aspect of saying YES to God that you hadn't quite contemplated yet.

Don't stop reading now! I promise you, this will be worth it! Part of being a person who says YES is to cultivate grateful. I know! That's tough, right? It's easy to look at our circumstances sometimes and excuse ourselves from gratefulness. I mean, look at how tough everything is! Maybe it's your finances or your relationships. Maybe it's your own health or the health of someone you love. Maybe your job is wearing you out. Maybe you feel like you have been giving your all for God and getting nothing back. "If God is supposed to work out all things for good in my life (Romans 8:28), then why do so many things seem to be bad?" you may be saying.

I don't want to minimize anything that you are going through. It's tough, and that's the truth. However, I want to park on a verse from the Bible that may help you get some perspective on what you are going through and help you get to a new level of YES. Are your ready? Are you willing?

Cultivate Grateful: Getting God-Centered

November 5, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.' 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 MSG

Have you ever thought about what a grateful heart does for you? What's the benefit to cultivating grateful? How does gratefulness affect us and our relationships? Most especially, how does cultivating grateful affect our relationship with God.

In his book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God Pastor Tim Keller contemplates the most familiar prayer of all time as a model for building our communication with God. He considers what we call "The Lord's Prayer" as a structure for approaching our Heavenly Father. As I read Pastor Keller's thoughts it seemed to me that cultivating grateful is a key to opening the door to experiencing God's presence.

Keller says, "Adoration and thanksgiving - God-centeredness- comes first. Because it heals the heart of self-centeredness, which curves us in on ourselves and distorts all our vision."(p.114)

When I cultivate a grateful heart I am more able to recognize God's majesty and goodness. A grateful heart can glimpse God's great love and longs to honor and obey Him in response. A grateful heart opens the door to closeness with God.

How to Make a Better World

October 29, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Have you ever let loose some toothpaste words? You know the kind I mean. You say something that you wish you could take back as soon as it”s out of your mouth, but, like the proverbial toothpaste, you can’t put it back in. I am old enough that I could probably fill millions of toothpaste tubes with the words I wish I could take back. Words that hurt someone else. Words that revealed my own pride and insecurity. Foolish words. Harsh words. Words I had no business speaking. I have been in conversations where I was literally biting my tongue to prevent myself from letting out words I would regret. Words are important. They have a short duration, but a long impact. One reason I like writing is that it gives me a chance to refine my words before I send them out. Proofreading what I write keeps me from toothpaste words. What if we took the effort to “proofread” our thoughts before we let them become spoken words?

Why Not Say YES to Questions?

October 22, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word, I put my hope. Psalm 130:5

Saying YES to God doesn’t mean that you will never have a question. What do you do with your questions? Do you view your questions as a lack of faith? Maybe you stuff them down like that last sweater in a too-full suitcase and then hold them down while you zip them shut. Part of saying YES to God is saying yes to questions. So…what do you do with them?

Why not ask God your questions? If we believe that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, doesn’t it stand to reason that He already knows your questions? If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, doesn’t it mean that sometimes He will know things that you and I don’t? If God knows my questions and He knows things that I don’t then why don’t I ask Him?

How to Win the War Within

October 15, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ' Colossians 3:1-2

You’ve left the room, but the argument is not over. Your thoughts are stuck in a loop. The same hurtful exchange of words flashes across your mind over and over and over. You can’t seem to reset your inner replay. All the emotions that should have stayed in that room follow you everywhere you go. Hurt and anger continue to shout in your ears. Your heart rate is through the roof. Hot anger rises in your flushed face. The war is far from over.

Your inner screening room then begins playing out possible outcomes for a future exchange. You don’t really know what will happen, but your mind is already strategizing your next offensive in the war of words. Your emotions rise and fall with every imagined interaction. When you hurl an imagined barb at your intended target proud and triumphant vindictiveness rises to the surface. You feel all the emotions of a situation that hasn’t really happened and then you carry that resentment into the next conversation which turns into another altercation. Your emotions have become attached to an unreality. Nothing actually happened before you walked into the room. Do you truly want to spend your emotional energy on something that isn’t even real?

Say YES to Perseverance

October 8, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. ' 1 John 4:16

So many tragedies. Watch the news for two minutes. Look around at the lives of your friends and acquaintances. Look back over your own life. No matter how hard we try we can't avoid the pain of life in a broken world. We hurt for others. We hurt for ourselves. How do we handle it? How do YOU handle it?

Most of us are not self-aware enough to recognize our own self-protective strategies. We can look at someone else and see how they are turning to work, or addiction, or TV, or shopping, or food, or anything else to avoid their pain. Yet, we don't recognize what we do to avoid dealing with the biggest of questions: Why does God allow pain, in my life and the lives of those around me, and why doesn't He stop it when He can?

I can't answer that question. Oh, I can give you answers. I've done it many times in the past. That is part of my self-protective strategy. If I can explain my pain, or someone else's, to some extent, if I can convince myself that in some way it makes sense, then it becomes easier for me to deal with. But it doesn't really answer the question of why God allows it. It just avoids truthfully bringing the question to God. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to make sense of tragedy, it just doesn't make any sense at all.

So then, how do we handle this huge question of pain and tragedy? How do we acknowledge the question we can't truly answer and still maintain our faith? How do we keep saying YES to a God who sometimes allows hurt to come to us and those around us and doesn't give us satisfactory explanations?

Connected or Exhausted? What's Your Plan for Replenishment?

October 1, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. ' Colossians 2:19

On Sunday you take a look at your calendar for the week in order to mentally prepare for what is ahead. As you look at the week you see a lot of writing and hardly any white space. You sigh and shrug your shoulders. Here we go again!

On Monday you get up, get yourself ready, get the kids to school, go to work, pick up the kids, get dinner, then off you fly to a church activity. You get home and fall into bed. Then you get up and do the same thing all over again. If you get a shower in the morning, you are lucky!

How’s that going for you? How do you feel? I have been there and done that and I can sum up how you feel in one word: EXHAUSTED!

To be exhausted is to be “completely or almost completely depleted of resources.” It is to be drained of physical and mental energy. It means that you have got almost nothing left to give anyone. You haven’t cared for yourself properly, so you haven’t protected your resources or refilled your reservoir. The pool is just about empty.

You know it isn’t supposed to be this way. You know that Jesus has more to fill you with, but when do you even have time to connect with Him? If you did have white space in your calendar, what would you do with it?

I’ll bet you have one word in mind. SLEEP! Sleep is a holy thing. No joke! God has made us to need rest, so don’t deny yourself sleep. But rest and sleep are not exactly the same thing. Rest is a time of replenishment. In rest, you refill that reservoir. In rest, you re-establish your connections with yourself, with the people you are close to, and with Christ. How are you replenishing your reservoir? Are you staying connected to Christ?

A - C = P: Anxiety - Control = Peace

September 24, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. ‘Philippians 4:6-7 MSG

I was listening to a podcast when I heard a quote that brought so much clarity, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Here it is: “Anxiety results from wanting to control something God has not given us to control.” I didn’t remember the name of the person or why she was on the podcast, but what she said made so much practical sense. (I looked it up later. So, if you are interested, it was Joanna Weaver’s podcast, The Living Room, and the guest was Sharon Hodde Miller, author of The Cost of Control: Why We Crave It, the Anxiety It Gives Us, and the Real Power God Promises Us.) As I pondered her statement, a formula took shape in my brain, “A – C = P,” Anxiety – Control = Peace. Easy to remember and a goal worth aiming for.

Anxiety is something we all experience. Anxiety steals peace and commands focus. Whether it’s something personal about your family, or a job, or something broader like politics and the world situation, anxiety creeps up behind us, leaps upon us and gets us in a stranglehold. Ever feel that way?

Your brain goes in circles, trying to resolve something you are powerless to resolve. You can’t sleep and every waking moment is consumed with mental and practical fruitless attempts to solve the problem. Suddenly, it seems like nothing else is happening in your life. What started as a thought becomes a huge shadow. What do you do?

Do You Know What's Going on in There?

September 17, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. ' Psalms 139:1

There’s a lot going on in my life right now. What about you? We all have stuff happening, right? How are you feeling about all that you are experiencing? Do you really know?

The truth is that most of us don’t slow down enough to be in touch with our emotions. We serve others. We take care of our families. We work. We pursue personal goals. We keep so busy that we don’t have time to really feel anything. But all the emotions we don’t process still exist below the surface of our lives. Without realizing it, what we don’t know about our own emotions spills over and affects our relationships. Like a jar of salad dressing that is continually shaken, everything is all mixed together. You can’t notice the individual ingredients, but each ingredient flavors all the others. What happens when you stop shaking the jar? Some ingredients rise to the top and others sink to the bottom, right? As life slows down, those feelings that have been mixed in with everything else start to rise to the surface.

Maybe you are having trouble naming what you feel. Maybe you are unsure of how to process it. Maybe you are among the many who, as social media proves, are just continually busy. Part of the unconscious motivation for that is to keep the jar shaken up and push all those feelings back down.

What about you? How are you handling what is rising to the surface?