Paint Party Friday: Behind a Screen

 I love looking at Instagram feeds,

and this year I've been attracted to #calligraphy

and #planneraddicts, and now #illustrated faith.

A lot of women are decorating their bibles,

and I decided to try it!

 "Lord," the leper begged, "if you want to, you can heal me." Jesus reached out and touched him. "I want to. Be healed." Luke 5:12-13

Lord, there are so many things I need healing from. Not only physical ailments, but more importantly, I need healing from the way my mind thinks sometimes! I have to confess that I am not a very loving person, who accepts others unconditionally, the way Jesus wants us to.

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Blink", which is about 'the power of thinking without thinking'. You know, the split second judgement we make about a person just by looking at them? That snap decision that sometimes colors the way we respond to a stranger or circumstance? There is an interesting story in that book about why today, musicians are auditioned playing their instruments BEHIND SCREENS so that they will not be judged with prejudice. The result is that more women get hired into prestigious orchestras like the Metropolitan Opera in New York or the Munich Philharmonic. Previously, the conductor and the others making decisions see that its a tiny woman with a French horn, and their decision-making is corrupted.

I too need a screen that would keep me from being critical and judgmental, and jumping to conclusions about people. And that screen, is to see through Jesus' eyes. To see through His love that was willing to touch a leper, an outcast, willing to heal all who approached Him.

 "Whoever loves God must also love his brother." 1 John 4:21

When we were young, my brother Robert and my sister Tina, were always quarreling. Robert would sometimes maltreat Tina and annoy her endlessly. Then my mom read the passage in 1 John 4:19-21 to them. It reads, "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister."

My mom was amazed because they stopped their quarreling overnight! The Word of God is alive, and if we believe it, we can see miracles, big and small.

In loving others, there's a lot of self-discipline involved. We have to take control of our emotions and not allow our emotions to control us. I learned this the hard way. Some time ago, one of our employees did not take care of some crafts I made and use for workshops and demos on TV. I found it dumped in a box in the stock room even if there were written instructions to take good care of it. I got so furious, I hit her on the shoulder. Even if I apologized as soon as I calmed down, she brought me to the barangay (a small administrative division here in the Philippines), and then to the Dept. of Labor when the barangay did not take her side. I learned that acting on your emotions lead you to make poor choices and decisions, and can land you in unpleasant situations.

Our friends and family won't take us to the barangay or to a court when we quarrel them, but we still cannot allow anger and frustration prod us to say hurtful things. Our brother or sister, wife or husband, they are not our enemies, that we have to protect our ground, and fight them for every wrong they commit. If we encounter people who are rude, unkind, disrespectful, we can be like David who chose which battles to fight. When his brother insulted him in 1 Samuel 17:28, he just turned away. He knew he had bigger battles to fight with a REAL enemy!

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