Dieseling Over Devotions

Being in charge of devotions at the sewing several days ago has prompted further reflection on something I alluded to in my last post.  Responses from people in the audience helped nudge me toward further reflection.  I see clearly now that what I want most to convey is not a societal critique of what the workplace and family life have become, but a plea for hearing the unspoken heart cries of those who live lives of quiet desperation.  Especially I want to assure the women around me that the stresses they feel do not all need to be personally absorbed--with the full load of self-blame and sense of failure that often accompanies them.  Typical nurturing and relational instincts of women predispose them to this response, I believe.  The ever-present challenge is to reconcile the ideal with the present reality in some purposeful and redemptive form, without completely losing hope in the process.  How is that possible?

Let's deal first with what is probably the biggest hurdle (and probably the most easily misunderstood):  acknowledgement of the fact that some of our stresses are caused by forces outside of our control or responsibility.  To hear some people tell it, the world is full of blame-shifting, passing the buck, and refusal to acknowledge one's own problems.  In the world of women around me, however, it's full of people at least occasionally wondering what they're doing wrong, struggling to find solutions, resolving to try harder,  and re-committing themselves to cast their burdens on the Lord.  While all of these are appropriate to some degree and in some situations, they can also be part of a painful and difficult journey to an even unhappier and more stressed-out place.  Discerning and setting aside the parts of life's problems that are not OUR problem can  be enormously freeing, shifting our focus toward that which IS within our power to change.  Otherwise the important part (the part we can actually do something about) stays hopelessly obscured in the tangle of challenges we see.

Are you ready for another hurdle yet?  Name that part that's not your problem.  If you need to put a possessive proper adjective in front of the noun name-of-your-problem, do so (e. g.  Society's unfair expectations, ___________ [an employer's] unfair treatment, Government's illogical regulations, ____________ dogma (maxims without validity or mercy], etc.).  God knows it anyway and won't be shocked by it.  Work on not feeling shocked by it yourself.  Cast that part of the burden on the Lord (that's the part of Christian women's typical? response that is always in order).  And then, as your sight becomes clearer, do the next right thing.  Read about it and pray.  Listen when others share, and pray.  Turn it over in your mind, and pray.  Talk about it and pray.  And pray and pray.  These prayers will often be prayers of intercession for others, especially for our leaders.  They will be prayers for God to act in the world in relation to the burdens on our own heart and on behalf of His eternal purposes.   They will be prayers for ourselves--to be able to act kindly and wisely and not lose hope.  They will not be an abdication of responsibility.  They will be embracing responsibility rightly instead of wrongly.

As I used the term, dieseling means to recycle some of the leftover fuel directed toward an earlier task (although I couldn't find evidence online that this is a common usage).  When it happens in the engine of a motor vehicle after the key is turned off and burping eruptions continue sporadically, dieseling is not productive.  I hope this dieseling is different.  More of it may follow in later posts.