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Tanara McCauley

~ Love Knows Color

Tanara McCauley

Tag Archives: Christianity

Know Your Enemy

24 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Bible, Christian, Christianity, community, compassion, enemy, faith, forgiveness, grace, healing, hope, justice, love, mercy, power, prayer, relationships, roaring lion, unforgiveness, unity

Black-maned male African lion roaring, headshot, Africa

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him.” 1 Peter 5:8, 9

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians.

Busy getting friends to turn on each other because their opposing views become offensive and that offense becomes more valuable than the love they used to have for each other.

Busy getting us to one-up each other in sarcasm and rhetoric rather than outdo each other in love, mercy, grace, and kindness.

Busy getting Christians more concerned about issues than souls, more condemning of others than forgiving, more critical of others than prayerful, more determined to make a worldly point than testify of the goodness, faithfulness, and sovereignty of the Living God.

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians.

Busy inciting fear, hatred, violence, injustice, retaliation, bitterness, separatism, vengeance, murder, and deception in the world, and busy getting Christians to join the ranks in picking worldly sides and buy into it from a worldly perspective, while we completely ignore his handiwork from the shadows.

He’s very busy there–in the shadows, recruiting the same souls for destruction that we should be turning to the Messiah. Recruiting us to rally for a candidate or a cause rather than look with compassion on the lost. Recruiting us to redefine “the lost” and to use our own judgment for determining who’s worthy of compassion and forgiveness. Recruiting us to look at skin or uniform color rather than the soul inside. Distracting our attention away from who and what we really wrestle against.

The enemy has convinced many of us to ignore that in our anger we should not sin, that the very sins we condemn others for we ourselves commit or have committed, that those sinning against us are in need of the same grace and repentance we have been given, that we are to love our neighbors and enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute and spitefully use us, and not resist an evil person.

The enemy is busy getting us to live like desperate citizens of a lost world rather than confident children of the Almighty God. Children who have the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

He’s busy getting us so angry that we become unforgiving, and in becoming unforgiving we forget how our own sins ripped through Christ’s flesh.

He is busy convincing us that God is silent. And that if God is silent we should be shouting. At the world. Not crying out to our Father. Together. United.

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians. He is busy keeping us subjected to the influence of media and away from the instruction of God’s throne. He is busy trying to make us look and feel hostile, sarcastic, furious, forgotten, forsaken, indifferent, uncaring, hard-hearted, and hopeless. He is busy trying to make us look and act like him.

Resist him.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

 

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Unashamed

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Christ, Christian, Christianity, encouragement, faith, gospel, inspiration, love, relationships, truth, unashamed

Man with arms raised towards the sky

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

Nor am I ashamed to love. But neither love nor encouragement equals unlimited concession or acquiescence. Love is truthful and patient. Sometimes encouragement is to encourage away from the bad and toward the good. Sometimes love is the courage to say “I’ll never leave you, but I won’t lie and tell you this is good.”

Love doesn’t support or congratulate self-destruction. It doesn’t sell the eternal for the temporal. I don’t correct those who aren’t in my close circle because that’s not my thing. But I wonder about Christians who say, “Do what makes you happy” instead of “Do what God created you to do.” Anything that leads away from Him and more towards self is a lie.

We weren’t created to glorify ourselves. We weren’t even created to be happy. We were created for His glory. Everything above that is a blessing and a gift. And if we put happiness before His glory, before obedience, before truth in love, before dying to self, then we’ve sold the Creator for the creation. It’s a cheap trade of tragic proportions.

All have sinned and fall short of His glory. That doesn’t mean we languish in sin because we’ll never measure up. It’s meant to turn our eyes toward His grace, His goodness, His love, so much so that we find ourselves lavishing in His glory. It’s about Him, not us. So when I feel tempted, by popular opinion or law or fear of being misunderstood, to conform to the world and not God, I remember. And I remain…

Unashamed.

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Be “Hoo” You Are

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Christ, Christianity, conformity, early bird, faith, fitting in, God, motherhood, night owl, parenting, peer pressure, prayer, relationships

night owl

~My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word~
Psalm 119:148

As a young child I came alive at night, and snoozed each morning till the last possible second.

In college I signed up for all the evening classes I could find. The professor of my one morning class once gave me a dignitary’s greeting. “Miss McCauley! How nice of you to grace us with your presence!”

I performed my way into a job with a flexible schedule, often baffling the poor security guards by strolling into an empty office around 2 a.m.

And yet, despite always knowing I thrived best under the glow of a silver moon, when I became a mother I tried squeezing my night owl thighs into early bird tights.

Those suckers refused to fit.

Still, the desire to blend in with other moms had a strong enough pull to make me keep trying. No matter that my little ones were involved in several activities, or that they could read before kindergarten. Forget them being accustomed to being on my schedule.

Others would hear how we ran our house, and show their disapproval to the tune of raised brows, clicked tongues, and the occasional snarky comment disguised as friendly teasing. I began to question my methods and doubt my adequacy as a mom.

I’d retire at a normal time, then lay there thinking about what I could be doing instead of actually doing it. I struggled to make it to 8 a.m. playdates, despite having gone to sleep just three hours prior.

And though nothing changed with my internal clock, my liveliness faded. My time with God became mechanical, reading the Word without actually absorbing any of it, praying from a confused, tired, joyless frame of mind.

What I’d had with Him before, in the watches of the night, had been rich and full. And I missed it.

I realized what I had sacrificed in order to assimilate and be acceptable on the ever-so-competitive mom scene. And the urge to conform lost its luster, because the cost was too great.

Of course I rise early every morning. Those kids have school. They need to eat. Practical stuff like that. But I no longer force myself to engage when I’d rather be calm and silent. I go to bed when I want, and take a nap if I need to.

And when the world sleeps, when my house is clean and silent, and more words to a story have been written, that’s when my eyes see Him best, when my heart hears Him clearly, when my joy is full.

Because that’s how He made me. So I’ll be “hoo” I am.

Your turn: When have you been tempted to operate contrary to how God uniquely designed you?

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Moving Right Along

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by tanaramccauley in Writing and Pursuing Publication

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

amediting, amwriting, blog posts, blogging, Christianity, editing, faith, growth, living in the past, moving forward, progress, self-help, trust God, writer, writers

oneway

 

Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.
Proverbs 4:25

Not too long ago I was alerted to a new comment on one of my old blog posts.

I had to read my entry for context before responding, and found myself frowning. At the time that post was written, I had a thing for semicolons.

What started out as a harmless reply attempt turned into a critique and edit session. I whipped that thing into shape, replied, and was just about to sign out, when the link to another old post caught my attention.

Hmm. What’s this one look like?

I pulled it up and rolled my eyes, asking, “Tanara, could, you, possibly, add, one, more, comma?” The actual writing? Don’t ask.

That one ground into presentable submission, I attacked a few others. Some of them were so bad they fought back.

Though my schedule’s already packed, I convinced myself something had to be done. But before I could commence Operation Edit a Hundred Blog Posts, the following verse came to remembrance:

“Behold, I will do a new thing, shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” 
Isaiah 43:19

As an unpublished novelist, it’s tempting to make sure every public word I’ve written lives up to my ever-increasing standards for writing. It may seem a worthy endeavor, but at the end of the day it’s simply a prideful attempt at perfectionism.

To learn and write new things, looking forward and not behind, is to let God guide and grow me.

He won’t make roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert if I choose to camp there with my own little pickax and water bucket. And I can’t move forward if I keep tinkering with what’s done and over with.

Should I edit my novels? Of course. Year-old blog posts? No.

Glimpses into my writing past should result in praise for what God’s done since.

The foundations of a road have been laid, a riverbed hewn, a writer made better and growing still.

A writer determined to keep moving right along.

Your turn: When are you tempted to dwell in the past? What helps you to move forward?

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Risky Embrace

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Christian, Christianity, contentment, embracing difficulty, gardening, inspiration, lizards, pests, purpose, reptiles, save lives, scorpions, taking risks, trusting God

lizard

I saved a life today.

Not intentionally, and not of the most precious variety, but a valuable life all the same: that of a fat, feisty lizard.

He lives in my backyard. And our relationship is…uh…complicated. (A vague adjective, missing all the negative connotations applicable to our feeble ties, but I’ll go with it.)

See, I don’t like him, but I’m glad he lives here.

He enjoys his home, but he’s no fan of me either.

So we do this little dance around each other. The steps should be fairly simple. He roams the yard at his leisure, eating bugs and diminishing the scorpion population. The backyard is his kingdom. Only when I glide onto the scene, he’s supposed to dip into the shadows.

Apparently human kings aren’t the only royal types to resist abdication, no matter how temporary.

He’s dashed past my feet a number of times while I’ve watered jalapeños or clipped rosemary. He’s perched on the wall and watched me with what I’m sure was a superior lizard scowl on his face. He even accosted guests once, running at them on hind legs with his mouth gaped wide like he’d swallow them whole. That little episode propelled my six-foot-three nephew over the fence in an amazing display of gymnastics.

Bad lizard! Bad, bad lizard!

Despite his nuisance status, I was more than a little upset this afternoon when I found him floating upside down in the pool. The sight of his sea-blue underbelly bobbing under the hot sun sent me screaming–water hose tossed aside–to fetch my husband. (Critters bring out my inner chump. Don’t judge me.)

As I waited for hubby to do the honors, it dawned on me what the reptile’s absence would mean. More bugs. Infested plants. A lost relationship.

Come again?

Apart from my awareness of Lizard’s usefulness, I didn’t realize until I thought I’d lost him that I’d grown a bit attached to the little sucker. But before I could work up a decent drift down Sentimental River, remembering with fondness how he used to bask under the morning rays (cue the music and a slow motion close-up of Lizard lifting his head to the sky), my husband brought the news.

Lizard, once scooped onto a flat pool-screen, righted himself with a fair amount of indignation, then perched on the edge to await royal transport back to land.

He’d floated motionless on his back to conserve his energy. That, and me finding him, saved his life. And I’m glad he lives.

Lizard serves a purpose here. Though I don’t always approve of how he goes about it, I appreciate the fruit of it. Less scorpions equals less danger. And he’s become a sort of wild pet, in a that-doesn’t-mean-I’ll-be-petting-him sort of way.

Sometimes the things that keep us on our toes or riled up now and again, are the very sources God uses to work good in our lives. We resent it when we really ought to give thanks for the difference it’s making.

Maybe it’s inconvenient yet improves the quality of life. (I hate that Lizard zips by and startles me, yet I love that his appetite for bugs lets my plants thrive. Thank You, God, for Lizard.)

Or perhaps the effect is more internal. (I’m terrified of reptiles–okay, any creeping thing–but I’ve grown in courage since Lizard’s been around. Thank You, God, for Lizard.)

If we learn to embrace the difficult–to be content in all situations (Phil 4:11-12)–we risk tapping into all measure of blessing and growth and depth of character God has planned for us.

And that’s a risk worth taking.

He’s still an ill-behaved, cranky, arrogant, bad, bad lizard. But he’s my lizard, and I’ve finally embraced him.

Your turn. Do you have a thing/situation in your life that’s less than ideal, but you see the benefit of embracing it?

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You Marathoner, You

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

amwriting, champions, Christianity, Corinthians, encouragment, endurance, finish the race, inspiration, perseverance, spirituality

ID-100146402
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” 1 Corinthians 9:24

Go ahead then. Let’s do this thing.

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The Value of Grace

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics, Short Stories, Songs, and Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

brotherly love, cheap grace, Christianity, covenant, encouragement, exhortation, freedom in Christ, grace, holiness, Jesus Christ, judgment, legalism, rebuke, relationships, riches of grace, spirituality, walking in obedience, wisdom

ID-10051379

Value A:
I know I’m not perfect
So why even try?
Don’t want too much Jesus
Just some of his pie
And you there, don’t judge me
Hold onto that stone
Who made you my keeper?
My life is my own
I’m free now, He said it
I’ll live as I choose
Your talk about walk
Don’t apply to these shoes
My sins have been paid
My failure erased
Try daily for holy????
Ain’t you heard of grace?

Value B:
I know I’m not perfect
But sin breaks my heart
Today I may stumble
The next’s a new start
To live it for Jesus
This life He redeemed
And walk so that in me
His name is esteemed
If I get distracted
Or wander astray
Encourage, correct me
And more ’til that Day
Though you may not know me
Our Father’s the same
And we have a duty
To GLORY that name!
Christ suffered my judgment
Then died in my place
I’ll not dare forget that
Nor cheapen His grace

Which is yours?

Image courtesy of digital art / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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A Little Tact, Please

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in and Other Topics, Faith, Relationships

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

arguments, Christianity, compassion, debate, grace, humility, in your face, love, political topics, relationships, religion, social issues, spirituality, tact

argument

Years ago, in a modest California home on a crowded California couch, I sat next to my Great-Grandmother who was visiting with my parents for a few weeks.

Remote in hand, I flipped through their zillion channels for something suitable to watch. It went a little like this:

Click. Pause. Interesting? No. Click. Pause. Seen it. Click. “Bleep, bleep, bleep, get your bleeping, bleep, bleep…”

If there were a record for the world’s worst remote control fumble, I’d have it, because I dropped that thing about five times before I could finally get a grip strong enough to turn off the television. I felt like I’d just been on the receiving end of a hefty slapping session.

I was humiliated to have subjected my Great-Grandmother to that.

In the same way, whenever there is a social or political issue that drives passionate exchange between differing views, I get flustered and humiliated when I see, hear, or read about Christians expressing themselves with insult, crude language, and in-your-face hostility.

Can we disagree with people without name-calling? “Speak evil of no one.” (Titus 3:2)

Can we talk about someone we didn’t vote for without insult? “It is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.” (Acts 23:5)

Can we have healthy exchange without it being a volley of sarcasm and anger? “Let your speech be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.” (Colossians 4:6)

Can we stop being right long enough to be compassionate about another person? “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Can we consider that what we say in the name of our Master is a reflection of that very name, and choose to honor Him instead of doling out pieces of our minds at every turn? “Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” (Matthew 12:36)

Can we, as Christians, just have a little tact? Please.

Titus 3:1-15

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The Bible – Better Read Than Watched on TV

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

black Americans, Christianity, Egyptians, historical accuracy, Malcolm X, Marthin Luther King Jr., minorities, Native Americans, pharaoh, racial tensions, relationships, religion, social issues, spreading the Gospel, The Bible series, the History channel

I’ve been hearing all week about the upcoming The Bible series on the History channel. Though I originally determined not to watch it (because movies derived from books rarely do the original work justice, and I didn’t want to have that disgusted feeling about the precious Word put to screen) I succumbed to the pressure of numerous tweets and advertisements by prominent Christians who promised an epic, powerful visualization of the Bible.

I watched the first installment tonight and…I wanted to like it. I truly did. And if my reasons for not liking it were limited to the numerous creative liberties taken, or the occasional skewing of facts that occurred, or the huge amounts of material left out, I’d most likely not be writing this post. After all, Margaret Minnicks did a great job of addressing many major concerns on her post.

My core issue, however, comes from a social standpoint that is such a huge stumbling block for so many people when it comes to Christianity. It’s a delicate topic hard to tackle with delicacy, and I’d prefer to avoid it altogether. But, as it stands, it needs to be addressed; because many people whom I’ve met, witnessed to, and even love, would watch such a show and reaffirm their misgivings about the real agenda behind Christianity.

That agenda? Well…read on.

I was disappointed when I saw the major characters in tonight’s episode. For although historically all of them were Hebrew, Egyptian, or some tribal version of African/Middle Eastern, most of the actors weren’t brown (except the servants, slaves, and supporting cast).

Color and race do not the Kingdom of Heaven make!

But at the very least in a movie it’s quite distracting if you get it wrong. After all, you wouldn’t cast Jet Li to play Martin Luther King Jr., or Adam Beach as Winston Churchill. Moviegoers would spend the first part of the movie thinking: What?!? Why?!? And the second half standing in line waiting for a refund.

The distracting part is not what drives my passion about this issue, however. What does is the fact that Christianity (not Christ!) has a very oppressive past, especially in America. And because that past is fundamentally racial in nature (e.g., Native American boarding schools, slavery justified as biblical), any attempt to anglicize Bible history more than necessary is seen as a “brown is lesser” message among those who have not forgotten. Consider the words of Craig Smith: “Native people have often hidden behind the notion that Christianity is the Whiteman’s Gospel.”

Or think back to Malcolm X. Was it not Christianity portrayed as a tool to make blacks feel less than whites that played a strong role in his becoming Muslim? Do not the unseen forces all around us, the ones who would see us perish rather than give our hearts to our Almighty Creator, use and perpetuate these racial tensions to keep the lost lost?

There are thousands of Christians who belong to minority races, myself included. This message is not about us. It’s about the ones who aren’t willing to hear of Christ because they are hard-pressed to find biblical visuals that don’t support the notion that Christianity is of another world that they must sell-out to in order to become a part of.

They may or may not know much of the Gospel, but they’ve heard tell of pharaohs and Egyptians, sandy deserts and camels, and caravans of people who dwelt in sunbathed tents as they journeyed from land to land. Only when it’s brought to life they’re looking at European (or European-esque) actors in ethnic settings. Instead of opening their ears and hearts to receive the message within the story, they narrow their eyes in suspicion and nurse old wounds as stories of how they were stripped of their culture and constantly told they weren’t good enough boil back to the surface.

Within the confines of Christian fellowship (meaning when we’re preaching to the choir), who plays who doesn’t really matter. Put on a play at church and let the sound guy – whoever he may be – pour his heart into an Oscar-aspiring Paul. When trying to reach those on the outside, however, by all means make it true to life people!

Because if they can’t trust us with the small stuff – that an Egyptian has brown skin, or that Jesus may have looked like Oded’s much less attractive cousin – they won’t even want to hear the big stuff. The good stuff. The soul-saving stuff.

And if we’re not out to win the lost, what on earth is the point?

My goal here is not to criticize the makers or producers because I do applaud their efforts to give us something to watch with Christian worldview content. I would hope, however, that in the future we as a body, as a church, as a people, would consider those we are trying to reach, would consider the story we are trying to tell, and consider every block we can avoid that might cause someone to reject it, then make our biblical accounts as visually accurate as we can make them.

For we can’t be all things to all people if we won’t even represent them in the story of salvation.

Thoughts?

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