Are We Being Divided Without Realizing It? A Call to Discernment and Love

What is happening in the world that is dividing people?

It is literally breaking families apart.

It is breaking friendships apart.

And we've got to speak out about this.

We are literally destroying communities because people are putting ideologies and causes ahead of God and ahead of their communities, ahead of their relationships.

And so this is something that's been going on for years, but it continues to become a problem.

Our relationships, our communities, are literally being ripped apart, and people are basing it on causes and emotions.

And so today we're going to talk about what's really happening here and how do we move away from this division and come together in unity?

How do we start operating in the world from God's truth, not from how we feel about something.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Living, the podcast that equips you to live well spiritually, emotionally, physically, and purposefully.

Each week, we'll dive into conversations and biblical truths to help you strengthen your faith, pursue meaningful work, care for your whole self, and live in line with what matters most.

The honest truth is, I don't know many people at this point that haven't been affected by this sort of division, this feeling that people will literally unfriend you, they will unfamily you, if you will, if you don't align with what they think is right or what they think is the cause or, you know, how we should be showing up in the world.

And it's kind of sick, actually, because people aren't seeing it for what it is.

Even yesterday, a woman I know online, this exact same, same thing happened to her.

Her mom posted something.

It was actually about the two different super bowl halftime shows.

And literally this.

The.

The daughter, the sister literally has unfriended the other sister now because they didn't align or support something that was the same.

But I have extended family who hasn't talked to their parent.

I have friends that their sisters won't speak to them.

And all of these things, and yet people think that's normal.

Folks, that is not normal.

This is not how community.

This is not how families operated for most of the time.

Remember, at some point in history, you had to be part of the tribe, right?

Or the community.

If you weren't, if you're ostracized in any way, you wouldn't survive.

Yet we are literally alienating each other.

We are isolating each other.

We aren't speaking to each other or we're just holding.

We're seeing people as evil or bad or sinful if they don't align with something we believe.

And yet it's not biblical.

Now people can try to say it's biblical, these different issues, but at the end of the day, God, right, one of his biggest command is love your neighbor as yourself.

It's to love people.

It's not to judge them, it's not to think they're bad because they have a different viewpoint than you.

Yet that's what we're doing.

And so I want to dig into this a little bit.

I read a. I wanted to talk about this topic for some time and look, I'm probably not going to get it just right either.

So I'm sure this is going to be polarizing because anything that we speak on where it can be interpreted different ways or if anybody thinks I'm inferring one thing, of course it may.

Some people may say, oh my gosh, I felt this way.

And other people might say, you know, you're horrible.

But you know, the truth is we have to speak on things that we see or that something that kind of hit me.

And this is something that I wanted to talk about this week.

So I read a really.

I'm sorry, I listened to a really good post by Stacy Renee.

So she's someone that puts out Bible studies and talks on biblical topics, but she's basically talking about this topic in one of her recent posts.

And basically she's saying, you know, there's people we love, people we know, people that we know are intelligent, yet they seem to be acting a bit off their rocker.

And maybe this is you, right?

Maybe this is some of us, or maybe we're doing it and don't even realize it.

But basically, here's what's happening.

She says, you know, you fake, you find conversations go nowhere, people shut you down or they just unfriend you or unconnect with you.

And it's as if we can't disagree to or agree to disagree.

We can't just regard and respect people, we can't just love them if they don't align with something that we think is right or that we think is just or cause or has, you know.

So the problem with that is we're making it about ourselves.

We're making about a cause that we think or a viewpoint that we think is righteous.

But in.

But we're not going back to the Bible to say, is this true or is this actually a half truth?

Is this selective framing?

Am I being fed these reels, these stories that make me angry, that make me feel a certain way about the people on the other side or people that don't Align with what I think is right or, you know, so I think, one, we need to take a step back, and we need to look at our own behavior in the behavior around us and say, is this how God wants me to show up in the world?

Because if we're showing up in any way other than love and kindness and respect, then there's probably a hardening of our heart.

I am not saying that we shouldn't serve others, we shouldn't help the poor, we shouldn't help widows, like, right.

All those things.

But we need to do it out of a place of service, out of love.

And we're not all called to help the same causes.

We're not all called to, say, have the same viewpoints.

Now, I don't mean from a biblical perspective.

I mean how we're supposed to show up in the world.

But here's the thing.

So Stacy goes on to say, you know, what's really happening is people don't realize that they've gone astray.

People don't realize that how they're showing up is not of God, if you will.

And so here's what she's explaining is discernment is gone, right?

So we're either choosing deception or discernment.

And when people are deceived, they don't know they're deceived.

When people refusing.

Okay, sorry.

And so this is the scripture around that.

It's.

That.

Let's see, it's Romans 1:28.

And it says, furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not be done.

So in other words, people are acting off of their emotions.

They're acting off of what they're seeing in the world, which often is spin, right?

It's often trying to stir the pot.

It's trying to create division and angst.

And they're not operating from a place of discernment.

Okay?

And so basically, you know, she's saying that over the last couple of years, yes, we had the coronavirus, but everything around it was so divisive, right?

It was, do this or else if you don't get the shot, then you're bad and we can't see you.

But.

But they were causing division.

And they do it with politics and causes and viewpoints as well.

Right?

I mean, the media spins things.

People are stirring it up, but instead going back to God's word instead of going back to look at our hearts and see how we operate in the world.

We aren't all using discernment and we don't even realize that.

So we are being deceived.

And basically, she says the reason it's so hard to understand is because why logic just doesn't land anymore.

And it's because people are deceived.

And Chatfield talks about this in a different way.

And he says basically, are we operating in life from emotions, right, or what we're seeing that selective framing, half truth, not from God's word.

And he says when we get swept up by the chaos itself that's telling us something, that's telling that we're not grounded in God's truth.

And he says, and are we sinning because we think a cause or a viewpoint is righteous?

Instead of going back to what God says, what is his word?

Not a half truth of what the Bible says.

Because it's easy to cherry pick and say, oh, but it says this, but does it say that?

Does it say we should act a certain way?

The other thing I'd say is a lot of people want to have a strong opinion in a viewpoint, but then when you dig a little deeper, they're not actually doing anything.

They're not taking action to help the person, the group, the cause, whatever it might be.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it's easy to say, well, this person doesn't have any food.

Well, you should, you should be somebody that wants to give them food, but then they don't actually open their bank account, they don't open their time to go and help at these places.

So it's easy to speak, but it takes a lot more to go serve, to show up.

And so if you have a strong viewpoint on something or someone else, you do.

The question is, what are you actually doing about it in the world?

Instead of speaking about something or going and protesting, are we actually doing something to help the cause, the purpose, the thing God is putting on our heart and calling us into?

Because we do that by showing up in love.

We do that by going and having laws change.

We do that by voting in different political candidates.

In other words, we do that by being the hands and feet of Christ in the world, not by just having a viewpoint.

And so I think we've got to start checking ourselves.

And then we also need to give grace to the people that we can see.

They are operating out of emotions, they're operating out of anger or bitterness or not because someone else doesn't agree or align with them.

Instead of saying, I respect that, you can have a different viewpoint or opinion than me.

Because that's how it's always been.

We never had to all agree on the same things.

But now it's like it's tribal thinking, right?

Because in other words, if you align with something in some way, some group, then if that group doesn't think that, it's like you're going along with that instead of what God says and how he says to operate in the world.

And so it's really a separation from God.

Now, that doesn't mean you can still be reading the Bible.

You can still be going to church and be deceived.

Right now you can be missing discernment because maybe your heart's been hardened, maybe you have been pulled into this chaos, this emotional thinking.

And even in the Bible, it says, you know, don't.

Don't operate from emotion.

It's about truth, God's truth.

And then Sean Foyt, he said, are we being occupied with schemes, division and conspiracies?

He says we need to make a choice.

Are we going to choose conspiracy or conviction?

You can't have both.

And let me be clear, I'm not talking about conspiracies.

Like, should you do this or should you do that?

I'm saying, are we getting caught up in the spin?

Are we getting so emotionally anger and bitter towards something or someone?

Are we letting what's going on in the news just fill us instead of going back to what our calling is?

And he says conviction is the only way we are alive, breathing, calling and purpose and mandate on our lives.

Anything that gets in our way of the clarity of the calling is distraction.

We have to disavow and disconnect.

The Bible warns.

And he says we have to surrender to these crazy, wild things that want to hold our mind captive.

And look, I know what he's saying.

Like, I've been here before.

Not recently as much, but even with COVID like, oh, you know, is this bad?

Is this good?

Is, you know, worrying about things going on in my own family.

But I was.

It might not have all been conspiracy, but it was distraction.

In other words, I was letting my mind be filled with things that were not good and worthy and godly.

I was letting fear and worry and anxiety creep in.

Or I was letting, oh, my gosh, people don't see this thing.

I was letting that not fully consume me, but it was consuming too much of my thoughts.

I was consuming too much of my thinking.

But that distracts us.

That gets us away from what God has us here in the world to do.

And, you know, he Reminds us, Sean Floyd, that Jesus, right, God, he's the only one that we can really believe in.

He's the only hope in the coming days.

In other words, we need to set our sights on him and we need to take a step back and we need to think about how are we showing up in the world?

What are we posting?

Are we immediately getting angry at people that don't align with our viewpoints or our political views or a cause that we believe is so righteous?

Because there is not one right answer.

And usually the world is full of gray.

Grayness, right?

Not black and white.

And obviously God's word is black and white.

But what I'm saying is living in this world, right, as a human, there's a lot of gray.

And by gray, I just mean you can have one data point or fact, but not all the facts.

You can see one side of a story because that's the clip you saw, but it is never the full story.

Because if you aren't there, and if you aren't asking God for that clarity, if you aren't asking God for discernment, you're likely not getting the whole picture.

And beyond that, if you don't have the discernment of God to operate in the world every single day, you're not asking God for that.

What are we missing?

In other words, we know that Jesus turned most things that culture believed on its head, right?

Like the way he shows us, the way he teaches us, the way that he's telling us to live in the world is not of the world.

So we need to go back.

Who was Jesus?

How did he live?

What did he teach us, Right?

What was that yoke he's saying to pick up?

And is that the way we're living?

Is that where our hearts are aligned?

And are we fixed on?

Or do we.

Did we fix our focus on Jesus?

Because if we're fixing it on anything else and we're showing up in anger and bitterness and unforgiveness towards other people, we will not be able to operate in the world the way that God is asking us and the way he wants to use us.

And so this is just one of those things that whether it's you personally that you need to kind of look at this for your own self or whether it's just people in your lives.

Now, let's talk about people in our lives for a minute.

I know that people that are stuck in this space, right, they just can't see God's truth in all of it.

They can't let go of some position or opinion.

And I'm not saying people shouldn't.

Like I said, this isn't about saying people shouldn't think one way or another.

It's, are they thinking to a point where they're severing relationships, that they're hardening their hearts, that they can't have grace for people on the other side?

Another example of that is regardless of who the president is and if you align politically or even morally with them and everything else, we want to pray for people, whoever's in.

I don't care if it's a Democrat or Republican, if it's Biden or Trump or anyone else.

The point is pray for the people that are.

You know, pray for your, the governors and the senators in your state, too.

Like, in other words, whether you align with them or not.

For instance, where I let live, I don't like some of the laws that they're trying to pass right now in my state.

But guess what?

I don't have bitterness for them.

I don't hate them.

I just say, lord, I pray for them.

Right?

And I pray that our state makes good choices that are going to be helpful and that I, you know, that I think are better laws.

Now, that's just my opinion.

Obviously, it's not everyone's opinion, but do you see what I'm saying?

Like, in other words, we got to get rid of the hate.

We got to get rid of the anger, and we need to have grace for everyone.

Even if we don't like them or align with them, even if we think they show poor choices or whatever it is, then pray for them.

Pray for them to have a shift in their heart.

Pray for them that they will align better with God, right?

So especially if they're supposed to be Christian.

But, like, we have to stop making people the bad guys and start figuring out how do we come together, how do we cross over, how do we work together for the good of our communities, for the good of our families, for the good of this country or wherever you live.

How do we come together to be a people of God?

Because when we lose sight of that, nothing else is gonna, right?

It's gonna line up.

And about this family thing, because it's seriously a big problem when we place such judgment on someone in our family that it causes division and it causes us to say, I'm not speaking to you anymore.

Like, I'm done.

Something is wrong there.

And if people can't see that, that shows you they're being deceived.

Because it's when families crumble it's when families don't have the support of each other that the devil can come in even more.

Look at all of the families that are single parents.

And believe me, I am not saying that people choose that.

I know that is a hard path.

What I'm saying though is there's so many families without two parents or so many families without a male role model, but all of these cases, it's easier for the devil to take hold.

What do I mean by that?

I just mean, or let's say all of us are all working, so are we with our kids.

What are, who are they learning from?

The point I'm trying to make isn't our lifestyle or the situation we find ourselves in.

It is, are we opening?

Are these fissures creating more places for darkness to enter?

And so what I'm saying is we need each other.

We need our families.

Now, obviously, if you're in a situation where there was extreme abuse, trauma, that is a different situation.

But if, but for those of us that have families that function to some level, you know, and the people, our families are helpful, they're not perfect.

None of us are.

But we need each other, right?

We're going to need to rely on each other.

Just this week I was over helping my in laws because one of them was having a medical issue and had to go to the er.

But like, we need each other.

We don't have to agree on viewpoints, we don't have to politically be the same, but we do need to show up in the world with an open heart and ready to serve and ready to love others.

We need to show up in the world with God's discernment.

And I actually just listened to this reel that this, it hits home so much about what I'm talking about today that I'm going to share with you.

It was by J.J. douglas, and he's basically talking about that we don't have to be part of every conversation.

We don't have to give up our peace.

And so let me just share what he says with you.

He says, I read somewhere, somewhere someone said self care is also choosing not to argue with people who are committed to misunderstanding you.

Oh my goodness, he says.

And that sat with me longer than I expected.

Because there was a time I thought explaining myself was growth.

I thought staying in the conversation meant maturity.

I thought if I just found the right words to say, they'll finally hear me.

But some people aren't listening to understand.

They're listening to respond, to defend, to protect.

The version of the story that keeps them comfortable.

And no amount of clarity can reach someone who already decided who you are and what you meant.

Oh my gosh, so good.

And then he goes on to say, that's when I realized arguing wasn't costing me my pride.

It was costing me my peace.

It was costing.

Oh, I'm sorry, it was.

I was leaving conversations exhausted, questioning myself, replaying moments in my head, trying to see what I could have said differently.

And the truth was, nothing I said would have changed it.

Because misunderstanding isn't always confusion.

Sometimes it's a choice.

So I stopped fighting to be understood by people who benefited from not understanding me.

And I stopped explaining my heart to people who weren't holding it with care.

That was self care, not dramatic distance, not silent treatment, just discernment.

Knowing when a conversation will heal and when it will only drain you.

Choosing peace over proving a point, choosing rest over being right, and accepting that not everyone deserves access to your inner world.

Some clarity doesn't come from talking more, it comes from walking away quietly and honestly.

And that choice changed everything.

What that's like the best quote.

I want you to remember those words.

Because we don't have to be part of every conversation.

We don't have to know everything going on the news.

We don't have to know all the details about the latest scandal.

We just want to keep our peace.

We want to stay in the present and do what God's calling us to do in whatever season we're in.

And that means sometimes not being a part of the conversation or not being part of trying to change people's minds.

Sometimes that might look like putting our head down and getting to work, getting to serve the people around us.

Other times it might like look like putting or facing our head to heaven and just being with God, getting in his word and finding discernment in the situation.

Finding discernment in our day.

Finding.

Finding where our heart needs to be changed and shifted so that we show up a person that forgives.

We show up a person that's not bitter.

We show up a person that chooses love over anything else.

Because that's the example Jesus taught us and that is the way we are called to live as Christians.

If you want a little bit of a reset around this topic, I do have a daily worksheet that you can download called Joy Rising, but it's basically taking a gratitude, a daily gratitude practice and just expanding it.

It has you write down what you're grateful for each day, but it also has you focus on where were there bits of joy in your life or what was joyful in your day?

And then it has you answer a question around how was God present in your day?

Where did you see him moving in your life?

Because when we set our sights on these things and we stop letting the chaos of the world, we stop letting the spin of media just consume us, when we do that, everything shifts because we are doing what God says, which is to set our sights on what is good and what is worthy.

And, you know, what is of God, not of this world.

So I just pray that this episode maybe opens in you a little bit of a new perspective.

Maybe it just gave you one thing to think about or one thing to pray on in your own life.

But I think if we all showed up with more grace towards each other, everything would shift.

And we can't make other people do this, but we can choose how we're showing up and hope that over time more people wake up and get back to seeking God, get back to asking for his discernment, and get back to stepping into how we're supposed to operate and show up in the world today.

If you want to grab my Joy Rising download, head over to KristinFitch.com and it's under my Workbook section.

If you enjoyed today's episode, if you could leave a rating review on Apple Podcast, Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps the show get discovered by more people so that we can continue to uplift and encourage people in their faith journey as well as all of the other parts of their lives.