Welcome to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you're with us and I was just thinking this morning, Jimmy and I were talking about well I was actually talking about voices and I understand that Jimmy modulates really well. You know what modulate means? It means like you change the tone of your voice periodically and he's a good modulator, but I am not. So if you find yourself while I'm talking wanting to take a snooze, you go right ahead because I don't know how to modulate but I would love for somebody to teach me how to change the tone of my voice. Oh my god,
that makes no sense. I know. That's so weird today.
No, it's fine. I don't know how I modulate either. I just do.
Were you born with modulation?
I don't know, sweetheart. I really don't know.
I don't know either, but it's been on my mind.
Well, I don't know how to take it off your mind. yeah, speaking of on our minds, we live in It feels like it changes daily. an election cycle that has had all kinds of twists and turns and more ups and downs and the end result is I think we can get fixated on the world we live in and on the country that we live in and find ourselves working ourselves up into a frenzy over where it's going to head next and I get it. but at the same time I want to be reminded of some things from the word of God. Peter wrote these Peter lived in a culture and in a society the Roman Empire that was certainly not kind towards Christianity. certainly not favorable towards Christianity. And Peter gives us a great reminder in first Peter where he says this, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." It's a reminder of the citizenship that we have in heaven. And then he goes on, on in verse 11 and says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." It's a great two-part reminder. First of all, who God sees us as, his holy nation, his royal priesthood of people called by him to experience and have experienced the joys and the goodness that comes with being a child of God. But then he also says you're aliens and strangers. You're sojourers and exiles in the land that you live in. And while he was writing to first century Rome, I think the same is true for 21st century America and every other nation. We have to see ourselves with both those things. And what that should produce in me is a sense of calm and peace in the midst of all the upheaval that's going on in the world around me. And
and that's really hard because the media which has bombarded us and this is not a debate about the media good or bad. It's just that we are being bombarded all day long from every avenue that you can imagine with predictions, with advice, with halftruths, with innuendos, with all sorts of stuff. And right now, between now and November, it's going to be a free-for-all. So, as a believer, how am I going to make it and plow through all this rhetoric to be honorable to God, to not look like I've had my head cut off, that I believe that God is still on the throne in control, and that whatever comes he has allowed.
Yeah. It's again the reminder that I think I see from God's word is this is not just a 21st century American thing. This has been true of Christ followers from the very beginning. And so again in Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians says I urge you in the Lord Jesus. So that's the cont that we find ourselves in Christ, how you ought to walk and please God just as you're doing. He wants them to live in such a way that they're reminded of who they are in Christ. And he goes on and he says, "I urge you, brothers, to do this more and more. Aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and work with your hands as we've instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. This is this sense in which how I live in this not there's no definition as to what the Roman Empire what the world was like at that time. We know from history it was not it was not kind towards Christianity. So it's not so much dependent upon the culture as it is dependent upon who we are in Christ and how we're to live in him.
So at the time that Paul was writing there was a lot of upheaval as well. And I would imagine that the Christians of that time when certain edicts would come from Rome or there would be disruption from other political religious persuasions that they would probably feel a lot of anxiety as well.
Yeah. I think I don't I'm not saying anxiety is not a normal thing to feel. I'm not saying that even fear is not from a human perspective the rational reaction to everything going on around us in the world. What I am saying is we have to look not just at the s situation we live in but beyond that to realize that God is in control and yes I am in our case I'm a citizen of the United States but I'm also a citizen of his kingdom and I have my life firmly rooted my identity is firmly rooted in Christ and that then becomes the priority as to how I choose to live. So, let me get personal with you. What's going on inside of you as you read, you know, every day there's something new that comes out and it affects the stock exchange, the stock market, it affects, you know, your retirement, it affects many things. What goes on inside of you? Where do you go?
Well, on my good days, I seek to remind myself of who I am in Christ. you know, we've had a lot of changes in our own personal life starting five, six years ago when I chose to pivot away from being the pastor of a local church. And I think it was a wakeup call for me on many fronts, but one of the things it was a wakeup call for me on where my identity is located.
And my identity was wrapped up in what I did, who I was as a pastor. But I don't want that to be true. I want my identity to be in Christ. And so now in the midst of the upheaval, you talked about that comes with the day and age we live in. If I find my identity in securing my retirement program, if I find my identity in securing the direction I want for us as a nation to go in, I can get crazy.
Yeah.
But if I remember my identity is in Christ and somehow that changes the direction of my view, I look more towards him than Then I want to be reminded of the places in scripture that remind me what my life is to look like when I realize that's where my identity is. So Paul in the to the Colossians, he says, "You're chosen. You're holy, beloved. So put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other just as Christ has forgiven you." those realities of how I should live only happen when I remind myself of the fact that I am his child.
Yeah, it's a whole different paradigm of how to live. I think as believers we can get so caught up I can get caught up in what's happening in the world and not have a broader picture of what God is at what God's doing
and to put off just kind we kind of just let it settle on us and we don't have the discipline. I don't have the discipline to take off and put on.
Yeah. So, just this is just a practical thing, but do I spend as much time reading God's word to remind myself of who I am as I do looking at or reading the daily news or my daily feeds or whatever it may be. I think I can get out of balance in how I view things and how I view this world when my source of information is only whatever newsfeed I listen to.
And It boils down to what we allow to come into our heart and our mind. And we're actually going to talk a little bit more about that in our next episode. So, we hope that you'll hang with us and stay with us. And we look forward to sharing with you again next week. Have a great day. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.