Simply choosing any news source will bring forth much information about a menacing virus that has brought about world-wide attention and many types of crises such as loss of health, distance from loved ones, loss of income, impact on community resources, and more. Christians are not exempt from crises.
You put a bandage on a cut or take antibiotics to treat an infection, right? No questions asked. In fact, questions would be asked if you didn’t apply first aid when necessary.
So why isn’t the same true of our mental health? We are expected to just “get over” psychological wounds — when as anyone who’s ever ruminated over rejection or agonized over a failure knows only too well, emotional injuries can be just as crippling as physical ones. We need to learn how to practice emotional first aid. Here are 7 ways to do so
I am starting to grasp that the good life is found in a life of dependence on God and interdependence on others. Joy is found in community where we depend on Jesus continually. When we partner with Jesus, our perspective changes. We see miracles happening, we begin each day with a joyful expectation waiting to see what will happen. This is the intimate adventure he offers us.
Last week the IPCC called for an overhaul of our global food production system to help fight climate change, and tackling food waste was one component of this.
In its special report on Climate Change and Land, the IPCC called for urgent change to farming practices, land use and dietary habits in order to maintain global food security, and to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
It found climate change is already affecting the whole food system — from drought reducing crop yields to extreme weather events damaging produce, food shortages are leading to increased poverty.
And while food waste can occur as a direct result of climate change, reducing it was also identified in the report as critical for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving food security.
So what’s the situation in Australia?
Make a list of your normal activities (before physical distancing). Label them: absolutely essential, important but not essential, helpful but not necessary, or trivial. Reflect on whether there are any activities you would like to refrain from starting again once physical distancing measures are over (from Richard Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity).
As a Gen Y-er growing up in the post my-order-to-me-now-while-I-eat-some-smashed-avo age, I’m bombarded with constant messaging on financial freedom. There’s online businesses to start, click funnels to create, social media followings to grow, passive income to generate, all the while maintaining my day job and somehow saving for a shoebox house in Sydney and praying hard that my Super will see me through my old age.
For two hours this week, practice the spiritual discipline of silence. Use this time to reflect on those moments when you use words to flatter, gain favour, gossip, or make yourself feel important.
hate putting my bathers on.
But anyway. I do. Occasionally. Put them on. And swim.
Public pools are weird. Like a big bath we all jump in and frolic around in the water, and because we know that we are all dirty, germy and prone to defecating in the water we make sure it is full of heart stoppingly strong chemicals. We don our bathers (swimsuits, trunks, swimmers, costumes, the things you wear when swimming because you can’t wear jeans in the pool), we make sure not to make eye contact with anyone, and we enjoy the buoyancy of chemically treated water. Bliss.
