I was driving with my son Liam one day, and he asked me an interesting question. He had been mulling over all the problems from the past few years - COVID restrictions, politics, protests, news, etc. and he was frustrated.
Liam is a thinker and one of his deep desires is to see people treat one another with kindness and justice. Yet he was seeing a lot of skepticism in our world and the decline of truth.
He asked, “Dad how do you live in a skeptical world?
How do you keep sane and not get frustrated with all the problems and issues that are happening?”
I responded, “that is a great question.”
Then these 3 things came into my mind and spirit:
1. I answered his question with a question. What is one of the main attributes of God? He said: God is good. That was exactly what I was thinking. If he believed that God is good, that would influence how he viewed life. I told him: Seek God. Look at God. Spend time with God: Pray, see what the bible says, fill your time with being with Him, worship him. Ask Him what He thinks. Discover what the creator of the world designed the world to be. He is the smartest one. He is the wisest one. If you do this your thinking will shift and you will begin to have the same opinion as Him. We become what we observe; what we look at. Being with God, knowing his character and hearing what he has to say breaks skepticism and frustration with the world. We begin to see how he views us, how he views everyone in the world and how he views all the problems and issues. This will give us peace.
2. Then a saying from VeggieTales came to me, one that Liam knew from his childhood, “A thankful heart is a happy heart.” Gratitude breaks skepticism and leads to a heart at peace. When we are grateful/thankful for our lives, the people in our lives, where we are and what we have, no matter the societal/political/cultural/relational situations, we can break out of skepticism and live a freer and fuller life.
3. Number 2 leads us into the third one. We overcome skepticism in our lives and in the world when we serve others. We can make our home, community, school or nation a better place. When we love and help others, part of the benefit for us is that we stop looking at ourselves and we make the world a better place. We become like Jesus Christ, and we impact people's lives. We make a change and break chains for others.
If you desire to break skepticism in your life and in others:
- Begin to spend time with God, so much so that you begin to think like Him.
- Be thankful. No matter what the circumstance. Thankfulness, in and of itself, may not change the circumstance, but it will change you.
- Serve others. Help others. The world needs you to love them. Use what God has given you. Ask Him what to do. Use what you are good at. You can break skepticism in your life and in others.
Bless you today and Overcome with GOOD.
Matthew Blacklock
A song and an encouragement from the singers:
Matt and Kerry Blacklock have worked with disenfranchised children, youth and families in Canada and Central America since 1996. They have seen the poor, hurting, abused and forgotten healed through care, family counselling and sports. They believe in the reconciliation of families and strive to see the healing of children and families in Guatemala. They love the outdoors, hiking, running, dance and all kinds of sports. They have 4 adult children: Rubi, Abby, Hayley and Liam, who have walked with them in all the crazy adventures they have gone on.
Their motto in life is: “To use what you are good at to help others and inspire others to use what they are good at to help others.”