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It feels a lot like Christmas, doesn't it?
Well, it's not just about the increased foot traffic in
malls, especially because many have already received their 13th month pay.
But the air is cooler, more pleasant and more conducive to
wearing more layers of clothing. Rejoice my fashionista friends!
Our weathermen credit Arctic (North pole) winds for our cool
breeze, which hopefully lingers.
How utterly different the Arctic and the Antarctic (South)
poles are. The North Pole, it seems is kinder to humans (Remember Sarah Palin,
the most popular Alaska resident?) with its minus 34 degree celsius
temperature; versus the Antarctic's minus 49 degrees.
The South pole is simply uninhabitable, except by penguins,
and humans who visit during summer for weather tracking.
Guess what, polar bears live only in the North, according to
listverse.com, which reports that the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth
was minus 89 degrees celsius, at the Vostok Base, near the geomagnetic South.
I wonder if "bipolar" has its roots from the
North-South pole juxtaposition: the earth's opposite hemispheres looking
seemingly similar (for their icy nature), yet very dissimilar.
Recent news have reported of popular bipolar personalities.
The term describes someone with manic depressive tendencies — characterized by serious
and significant mood swings or alternating highs and lows, per John M. Grohol,
Psy.D, psychcentral.com.
Would some of us be diagnosed as bipolar too in our
faith-walk?
Our faith goes on high-mode when we read about God's promises;
yet this same faith gets deflated, as if infected by dementia, when confronted
by disappointments.
"Such a person is double-minded and unstable…" James
1:8. "When we ask, we must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." (James
1:6-7)
I've at many times been a bipolar Christian. When I was new
in my faith, I learned to pray, and pray earnestly. Yet, when the answers came,
I dismissed them as pure coincidence. Double-faced na, bipolar pa!
I recently prayed with a young couple for a house of their own.
Could God be waiting for them to step out in faith (in spite of their parents' objections),
since it is His perfect will for man and woman to cleave as one and be separate
from their parents' household?
Jonah, perfect example of a bipolar believer: Called by God
to preach repentance to the Ninevites, he instead ran away because, in his heart
of hearts, he wanted Nineveh destroyed. Yet, Jonah was God's prophet!
Allowing our more carnal selves get the better of us — that's when we become bipolar
believers.
Only by His grace and His Holy Spirit can we obey. So we
need to rely daily on Jesus for our strength.
That's why 1Peter 1:10 encourages us to "make every effort to
confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never
stumble."
Want to be rid of bipolar faith? Let the mind of Christ inhabit
yours.
Alas, we sometimes succumb to bipolar faith. Habakkuk and Paul must have known this in days of yore. Their common advice: pray at all times. Indeed, prayers are what we need every second of our lives in this equally bipolar world.
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ReplyDeleteSo right! I guess our faith tends to go south when too much angst, insecurity and self-focus weigh in on us. The only sure way is to focus on the true North, Jesus.
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