![Maintaining Your Faith in Hostile Territory]()
During the mid-1800s, the state of Tennessee divided over the issue of slavery. Most of Western Tennessee sided with the Confederacy and wanted to separate from the Union.
On the other hand, people from Eastern Tennessee didn’t depend on farming and agriculture, since they lived in a mountainous area. Therefore, they didn’t rely as much on slave labor. Therefore, they supported the Union.
Following the Union surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861, Tennessee broke away from the Union. Immediately after Tennessee split from the Union, Eastern Tennessee petitioned to break away from Tennessee. But the state legislature denied their request to break off from the state of Tennessee and sent Confederate troops into Eastern Tennessee to prevent them from splintering.
So the Union supporters in Eastern Tennessee went underground. Many Eastern Tennesseans engaged in guerrilla warfare, burning bridges, cutting telegraph wires, spying for the North and supplying soldiers for the Union army. Eventually, Union troops liberated Tennessee from Confederate control in 1863.
In a lot of ways, we’re like the citizens of Eastern Tennessee. We live in a world that’s in a state of rebellion against God. The world questions the legitimacy of God’s authority to rule.
Read MorePhoto credit: Rick White
This short TED talk sheds some light on a phenomena called negativity bias. Negativity bias refers to “the tendency for humans to pay more attention or give more weight to negative experiences over positive ones.”
Alison Ledgerwood, professor of psychology at UC Davis, argues that once you view things in a negative light, it takes work to get unstuck.
As I watched this video, my mind was instantly cast toward the dangers of ingratitude and discouragement in ministry. Or to put it positively, Ledgerwood’s talk underscored the importance of expressing gratitude and training our mind to dwell upon the good things God has done (Philippians 4:8).
Read MoreWhen the Roman general Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal and conquered Carthage during the Punic Wars, it is said that he sowed salt into the fields so nothing would ever grow again. I’ve encountered discouraged Christian workers and leaders who view serving Christ as similar to cultivating a Carthaginian field.
Under these conditions, we may feel tempted to bend our theological emphasis to fit our discouragement. Often, we couch our discouragement with spiritual sounding statements such as, ‘We’re just too “results focused” or “fruit centered.”’ How do comments like this fit with some of Jesus’ statements in the Gospels?
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