It’s technically January 5, 2022, and I’m awake.
Status report. I couldn’t sleep because my throat irritates when I breathe, whether I inhale through my mouth or my nose. 10 minutes ago I was in the kitchen, I prepared myself hot water and ginger, and that’s providing relief right now.
In case anyone’s wondering, I have taste, I can smell. I’ve told my mom and my cousin to load up on vitamin c.
That is all. I just thought this would help with the word count.
Although while I’m at it, I might as well do some plotting. At least until the melatonin kicks in.
I’ll probably be working out with less intensity later, bodyweight work. Maybe throw in some boxing if I’m not gassed out.
I should hit the Scriptures. Last Sunday I drew from Psalm 22, and we kicked the year off by saying this would be a year of being overwhelmed… or shall I say, and overwhelming year? This coming Sunday, it looks like I will be zeroing in on Practical Love, the first of the three perspectives birthed from our being overwhelmed.
That didn’t sound quite right as I wrote it. For if we would really be overwhelmed, we would overflow, and saying ‘Practical Love’ entails some sort of control, or human intervention, at the very least – no, I think the point ought to be that the love we receive is an overwhelming love, one that would have us overflowing in it literally in every aspect of our being, that it is no longer a theoretical love more explained, but a practical love which is lived.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Moving down the line, and considering the two perspectives that follow, we do not have a theoretical grace that needs to be advertised, but a tactical grace which is experienced in our circles of influence.
We do not have a theoretical peace that needs to be proclaimed, but a strategic peace that is observed in the decisions we make for our communities.
And now that I think about it, strategic peace would be timely, because no matter if the candidates we vote for win or not, I sincerely believe the general public will need a heightened sense of leadership.
No, I think I’ll keep the themes as they are: Practical Love, Tactical Grace, and Strategic Peace. I’ll share it here – the term ‘Tactical Grace’ was something I had in the shelves of my mind since, I don’t know, around 2018? It’s only now that I actually found a place for it… and I am confident that this is the year we share it.
Getting sleepy. More later.
10:55am. I’m at the shop, after managing to get the car running from a rolling start. The starter the repair folks jury-rigged lasted me throughout the holidays, but had died on me last Sunday night… and now I’m laughing, because apparently this January, I’m getting a fresh start(er).
10:24pm. At my usual spot in the sofa, typing away like crazy. Feeling this a little bit, only because there’s been a couple things here and there on my mind between now and the last time I made an update.
For instance, recent updates have led me to decide that this coming Sunday, we will most probably be holding our services online, versus the usual physical service. I told my team that it was pretty timely considering that I needed a lot of time to think, not only about this coming Sunday, but for the content I intend to share for the next 9 months.
You’ve probably already read what I have so far in my post 2 days ago, but just for retention – mostly for me, really – this year’s theme for the Good News Aces will be an overwhelming 2022. There will be 3 child themes, each to be covered every Sunday for each quarter of the year: For Q1 2022, we will be talking about Practical Love, Q2 2022 will be about Tactical Grace, and Q3 2022 (leading to the main church anniversary celebrations) will be about Strategic Peace.
We’ll talk about Q2 & Q3 when we get there. Throughout today, however, I was thinking about my message this coming Sunday.
It’ll hit a couple of things. First, a clarification on what the theme of the year 2022 will be. I mentioned last Sunday that it’ll be a Year of us being Overwhelmed with God’s love; I intend to say that this will be shortened to us just being plain overwhelmed… and as I tweeted, this would be good or bad, depending on who you talk to.
I recently read that Pastor Joseph Prince will be talking on his revelation of what 2022 would be for his church, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear him say this would be a year of Rest and Acceleration – precisely the two states you’d be in when overwhelmed. Sure, I’m probably exerting a little more effort than I should in making our narratives fit… but come later this week I do intend to listen to his elaboration.
So there was some confirmation. I also received some clarification, by way of Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast with Dr. Robert Malone, who certainly has credentials to express his opinion on the vaccines and the mess we’re all in that is Covid. The entire podcast is 3 hours long, but I guess what I wanted to take in and listen to was more in the final hour. Not to say that the first 2 hours were a waste of time, no – if you do have the time to listen to everything, do so. It all comes together, and the third hour will have much more impact if you listen to the first two hours first.
A couple of takeaways – I wish there was more, but Dr. Malone and Joe Rogan were talking at such a level that I needed to do some assumptions on definitions and terms just to keep up. I definitely caught on what the rest of the internet pushed to the #1 spot of most searched strings in the past couple of days – ‘Mass Formation Psychosis’.
I will definitely be reading more on that term but what it is, from my understanding, is what is definitely plaguing each and every human being more than this virus could. I see it as something that we’re all under, with all of us fighting over who’s vaccinated and who isn’t vaccinated, who’s Republican or Democrat, vegan, paleo, pescatarian; Here in the Philippines it’s bad enough that we’re polarized between who hates the President and who supports him, but we’re also split on who the next President and VP would be.
All of this leaves us just so confused, anxious, and most of all, tired – exhausted to the point that most of us would easily trust anything just to get out of it all.
What’s sad is that we are all being led to believe that having other people think for us in the name of Science, Medicine, and/or God is the best thing for our safety and survival.. but nothing can be further from the Truth.
I say clarification because I suppose this is the problem that Practical Love can solve – with us being so overwhelmed, first of all, by the love that God has for each and every one of us, and understanding that this love is wide, deep, long, and high… we would (1) look at what polarizes us from a perspective of compassion, understanding that the love that overwhelms us frees us from choosing sides, and (2) we would engage the world in a more practical approach, setting other people free from calling thinking for yourself taboo, and free from other entities that would manipulate you or downright force you to think the way they want you to.
Simply put, Practical Love sets us free to think for ourselves, knowing that we will never be left alone by our God, who loves us. He loves us with a perfect love that consistently casts out all fear. He loves us with an everlasting love by which we overflow, acting out of being overwhelmed.
Not sure if I can go this far in sharing my message, but I will definitely think down those lines when it comes to these Sundays we talk on Practical Love.
I suppose that’s what made me ‘smarter’ today. I worked out too; I thought I’d ‘dust off’ the Beachbody Insanity videos, to do cardio workouts which I was doing beginning more than 10 years ago, apparently. The Plyometric Cardio Circuit killed me as much today as it did back then.
Finally – and unfortunately – I believe I spent more money than I made today, paying for a full replacement starter for the car, as well as some gas.
Hey, at least I could say I started the year right. Literally.
Later.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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