{"id":1024,"date":"2017-08-21T13:58:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T13:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2017-08-21T13:58:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T13:58:38","slug":"how-to-think-in-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Think in These Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning on one of the Internet news websites &#8211; remember I don&#8217;t have TV any longer &#8211; the headlines were &#8220;The Day Laughter Died&#8221; and &#8220;The Day the Sun Went Dark&#8221;. The two reports concerned the death of Jerry Lewis and, of course, the total solar eclipse for a large portion of the US.<\/p>\n<p>It is interesting to me that we have such a US-centric view of the world. If it is happening to us then it is important. If it happens elsewhere it doesn&#8217;t grab our attention so much. I guess that&#8217;s human nature. I admit, I am the same way. If I stub my toe it hurts. If you stub yours, quit complaining.<\/p>\n<p>But I desire to be a citizen of the globe. I want to see world events and my own neighbors through God&#8217;s eyes and have His perspective. He tells me to bear another&#8217;s burden; treat them like I want to be treated. He says over and over to strive for justice and care for the poor.<\/p>\n<p>He tells me the world and its interests are passing away. It&#8217;s all very temporary. Yet we act as if it is all there is.<\/p>\n<p>How do we correct our thinking? How do we sort out what is important and what is not?<\/p>\n<p>The only way I know is to study God&#8217;s Word. He reveals what is important in the long run &#8211; obedience to Him. And He has said it quite plainly. &#8220;He has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you. But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.&#8221; (Micah 6:8)<\/p>\n<p>Today, when so much is going on in our world, let&#8217;s resolve to walk humbly with our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, \u00a0work for seek justice and love kindness. We don&#8217;t have to make it so complicated. If each of us did our part in our own area of influence&#8230;wouldn&#8217;t it be a better world until Jesus comes to take us to Heaven. Even so come Lord Jesus!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning on one of the Internet news websites &#8211; remember I don&#8217;t have TV any longer &#8211; the headlines were &#8220;The Day Laughter Died&#8221; and &#8220;The Day the Sun Went Dark&#8221;. The two reports concerned the death of Jerry Lewis and, of course, the total solar eclipse for a large portion of the US.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[149,151,115,150,152,153],"class_list":["post-1024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eclipse","tag-global-citizen","tag-god","tag-jerry-lewis","tag-justice","tag-the-poor"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Think in These Days - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Think in These Days - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This morning on one of the Internet news websites &#8211; remember I don&#8217;t have TV any longer &#8211; the headlines were &#8220;The Day Laughter Died&#8221; and &#8220;The Day the Sun Went Dark&#8221;. The two reports concerned the death of Jerry Lewis and, of course, the total solar eclipse for a large portion of the US.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-21T13:58:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Think in These Days - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Think in These Days - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"This morning on one of the Internet news websites &#8211; remember I don&#8217;t have TV any longer &#8211; the headlines were &#8220;The Day Laughter Died&#8221; and &#8220;The Day the Sun Went Dark&#8221;. The two reports concerned the death of Jerry Lewis and, of course, the total solar eclipse for a large portion of the US.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html","og_site_name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","article_published_time":"2017-08-21T13:58:38+00:00","author":"Ruth Graham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html","name":"How to Think in These Days - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-21T13:58:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-21T13:58:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/08\/how-to-think-in-these-days.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Think in These Days"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/","name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Ruth Graham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975","name":"Ruth Graham","description":"\u201cTransparent\u201d is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham. No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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