It feels a lot like Christmas, doesn’t it?
Well, it’s not just about the increased foot traffic in malls, especially because many have already received their 13th-month pay.
But the air is cooler, more pleasant, and more conducive to wearing more layers of clothing. Rejoice my fashionista friends!
Our weathermen credit Arctic (North pole) winds for our cool breeze, which hopefully lingers.
How utterly different the Arctic and the Antarctic (South) poles are. The North Pole, it seems is kinder to humans (Remember Sarah Palin, the most popular Alaska resident?) with its minus 34-degree celsius temperature; versus the Antarctic’s minus 49 degrees.
The South pole is simply uninhabitable, except by penguins, and humans who visit during summer for weather tracking.
Guess what, polar bears live only in the North, according to listverse.com, which reports that the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth was minus 89 degrees celsius, at the Vostok Base, near the geomagnetic South.
I wonder if “bipolar” has its roots from the North-South pole juxtaposition: the earth’s opposite hemispheres looking seemingly similar (for their icy nature), yet very dissimilar.
Recent news has reported of popular bipolar personalities. The term describes someone with manic-depressive tendencies — characterized by serious and significant mood swings or alternating highs and lows, per John M. Grohol, Psy.D, psychcentral.com.
Would some of us be diagnosed as bipolar too in our faith-walk?
Our faith goes on high-mode when we read about God’s promises; yet this same faith gets deflated, as if infected by dementia, when confronted by disappointments.
“Such a person is double-minded and unstable…” James 1:8. “When we ask, we must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:6-7)
I’ve at many times been a bipolar Christian. When I was new in my faith, I learned to pray, and pray earnestly. Yet, when the answers came, I dismissed them as pure coincidence. Double-faced na, bipolar pa!
I recently prayed with a young couple for a house of their own. Could God be waiting for them to step out in faith (in spite of their parents’ objections), since it is His perfect will for man and woman to cleave as one and be separate from their parents’ household?
Jonah, a perfect example of a bipolar believer. Called by God to preach repentance to the Ninevites, he instead ran away because, in his heart of hearts, he wanted Nineveh destroyed. Yet, Jonah was God’s prophet!
Allowing our more carnal selves get the better of us — that’s when we become bipolar believers.
Only by His grace and His Holy Spirit can we obey. So we need to rely daily on Jesus for our strength. That’s why 1 Peter 1:10 encourages us to “make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.”
Want to be rid of bipolar faith? Let the mind of Christ inhabit yours.
