{"id":498,"date":"2011-05-16T05:55:50","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T09:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=498"},"modified":"2011-05-17T22:12:58","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T02:12:58","slug":"the-worlds-weighty-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html","title":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s Weighty Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For Sam, Cara and George, the large problem looming in their lives on Sunday was if I received their camp forms for the Memorial Day Weekend\u00a0retreat that The Special Gathering holds each year. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Special Gathering is a \u00a0ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For our members, this is an important four-day spiritual getaway and a vacation.\u00a0 They save their money\u00a0all year to be able to attend the camp.<\/p>\n

I stood in front of our members making announcements and their minds were pulled toward camp, not the weightier issues that had monopolized the conversations of most of my friends during the week:\u00a0 persecution of Christians in China, Israel’s 50th anniversary and the invasion of Palastians across their boards. \u00a0<\/p>\n

They weren’t concerned with Republican and Democatic party disputes, mounting federal debt, continuing budget short-falls in every state, 0r the implications of wars in the Middle Eastern countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Honestly, it was a jarring and refreshing change.<\/p>\n

My small world had been occupied with the declining health of my late husband and the increased financial outflow I was facing.\u00a0 I smiled at the honest and forthright concerns that dominated their thoughts. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Are you ready for camp?” they asked.\u00a0”\u00a0Will we be able to have camp this year?” \u00a0<\/p>\n

I remembered a story that an evangelist from Nicaragua had told me about an event that happened one night when the Communists were taking over the government in the capitol city, Managua.<\/p>\n

He was visiting his mother-in-law; and he asked her about the stereo set that she had borrowed from him a few months before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Trouble on the streets of Managua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was surreal,\u201d he reported.\u00a0 \u201cAbout the time I asked her about the stereo, a gun battle broke out in the streets of the city.\u00a0 Gun shots from the insurgents began to fill her house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We dived under the table for safety.\u00a0 As we lay there with our lives hanging in the balance, my mother-in-law started arguing with me about who owned the stereo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“She insisted that I had given the equipment to her.\u00a0 I was in such shock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Bullets were flying around the house.\u00a0 We were hovering under the furniture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“All she could think about was\u00a0disputing the ownership of a stereo.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is obvious that the mentally challenged community are not the only people who campartmentalize\u00a0their lives.\u00a0 I\u2019ve not done any research on\u00a0this subject but I wonder if our minds choose to process those things which affect our personal well-being before other issues are allowed to crowd our psyche.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is why we are constantly told from Genesis to Revelation to seek God and His will for our lives.<\/p>\n

The hardest disciplines in Christendom seem to be prayer and meditation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without a set time and ordered regimen\u00a0in my life, I will never do the hard work of prayer.\u00a0 Even though I cannot imagine that God Almighty wants to have a relationship with me and engage me in conversation, without a disciplined resolve, I will waltz through my day without giving prayer a second thought.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s weighty problems do demand our time and energy in prayer.\u00a0 Additionally, we need to train our members to look beyond their daily needs, hurts and issues,\u00a0seeking God for his perfect will to come into our world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Sam, Cara and George, the large problem looming in their lives on Sunday was if I received their camp forms for the Memorial Day Weekend\u00a0retreat that The Special Gathering holds each year. \u00a0 Special Gathering is a \u00a0ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0 For our members, this is an important four-day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,40,10,16,28,85,12,41],"tags":[690,21,688,696,14,7,699,693,691,13,694,19,689,95,57,692,6],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-inspirational","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged","category-prayer-2","category-religion","category-spirituality","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-death-and-dying","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-grief","tag-inspirational","tag-intellectual-disabilities","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mental-retardation","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-persecution-of-christians-in-china","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nThe World\u2019s Weighty Problems - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World\u2019s Weighty Problems - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For Sam, Cara and George, the large problem looming in their lives on Sunday was if I received their camp forms for the Memorial Day Weekend\u00a0retreat that The Special Gathering holds each year. \u00a0 Special Gathering is a \u00a0ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0 For our members, this is an important four-day…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-16T09:55:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-18T02:12:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/paperwork.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The World\u2019s Weighty Problems - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The World\u2019s Weighty Problems - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"For Sam, Cara and George, the large problem looming in their lives on Sunday was if I received their camp forms for the Memorial Day Weekend\u00a0retreat that The Special Gathering holds each year. \u00a0 Special Gathering is a \u00a0ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0 For our members, this is an important four-day…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-05-16T09:55:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-18T02:12:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/paperwork.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html","name":"The World\u2019s Weighty Problems - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/paperwork.jpg","datePublished":"2011-05-16T09:55:50+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-18T02:12:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/paperwork.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/paperwork.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/the-worlds-weighty-problems.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The World\u2019s Weighty Problems"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?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\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":502,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}