Release & Restore … You
October 15, 2020
Release to Protect: A Mini-Series on Release & Restore … You
October 28, 2020
These teachings are now available in 30 minute videos at our YouTube channel at 721ministries.org.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28-29, bold added)
(Please note: If you missed last week’s Putting Green you must, you simply must go back and read it at https://www.puttinggreenblog.com/2020/10/15/release-restore-you/)
Last week I introduced the idea of restoring our souls in this crazy, soul-scorching world in which we live. There is very little, if anything, in this culture that will draw you closer to Jesus. Everything is designed, not necessarily to draw you away from Jesus, but to draw you towards something else – specifically what they are selling, be it merchandise or ideas. The result is a soul separated from its Source.
We are all in a quest for peace, a search for soul rest. We just perhaps do not realize it. C.S. Lewis said your soul is a vessel for God to fill. Well, if He is to fill it, we must be proactive in plugging the holes this culture is pricking in it.
This was John Eldredge’s message to us in Colorado Springs recently. We must take care of our souls, and our souls are currently under constant attack. Each time you open your news feed, each time you check Fox News or CNN, each time you open up Twitter or Facebook, or turn on your TV, Social Media, movies, or whatever, you are venturing into “Destination: Distraction and Discouragement.”
Now some of you are rolling your eyes, thinking I am exaggerating the issues, or that you – you being the only one! – are not affected by any of this. But consider this: A British archeologist did an extensive study of cultures and communities, and how they relate to the size and development of our brains. His scientific conclusion is that our brains – and I would add our souls – are only designed to handle a community of 150 people.
Let that sit for a moment.
Think about it, until very recently this would have been the norm. It is just recently that we have been exposed to every woe, every evil, every misfortune that is happening around the globe. The first worldwide TV broadcast was the moon landing in 1969. And even after that it was years before we were watching in our living rooms disasters taking place in Bangladesh.
And now you are watching it in the palm of your hand. And it is crushing your soul, whether you know it, or whether you acknowledge it. Your soul was not designed to handle a worldwide community.
As we were flying out to Colorado, I hit my news feed, which I am … was … wont to do, and saw four hundred whales beached on a coastline somewhere, in a freak act of nature. So, four hundred dead and rotting whales accompanied me out to CO, their vivid picture lodged in my brain. They were joined by news of a horrible killing, a loving husband dying while trying to save his child, and a young girl kidnapped and raped.
My soul withered in the face of this onslaught. All right there in the palm of my hand. But I did not know it. Not until John Eldredge pointed this out to me, was I even aware of what I was doing to myself. Doing to myself, mind you. I was numb to it all.
Did you know the average person looks at their cell phone eighty times a day? Not you, of course, but the average person. I am sure it is … was … me.
No more!
I am putting into practice measures to break the hold my cell phone has on me. Here are the guardrails I am erecting to protect me from careening off into the cataract of the cacophony of this culture.
- I do not even turn my phone over until I have finished my time with Jesus in the morning. I keep it face down.
- I only look at it every thirty minutes – on the hour and half hour.
- At 8:00 pm it goes down again.
Emails and texts will have to wait until the hour and the half hour during the day. By the way, I asked a couple of my attorney friends, men who live and die on their phones, if they could survive on my new thirty-minute email and text check. Their first response was incredulous. I thought their heads would explode. But in just a moment they each said, “Yes, I absolutely could.”
You can too, you know.
If you will reject the cataract of the culture, you will find rest for your souls.
Next Week: Release to Protect
