Low Vibes Are Good Vibesনমুনা

## All Vibes Help You Thrive There’s a lot of talk these days about vibes . Your vibe has become synonymous with your tribe. We look for people who resonate with us or vibe like we do. We call these our “vibe-tribes.” You might hear someone say they no longer hang with this friend or that family member or a coworker because they just don’t like their vibe . Conveniently, vibe has become the new clique—an excuse to exclude anyone you want to. It can even lead to ... judging, which never helps anyone in the long run - especially you (Matthew 7:1-2). Let's talk a little bit more about judging before we get into our vibes and how they fluctuate in life. Matthew 7:1-5 says, > "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." That's pretty straight-forward, isn't it? One of the issues with calling people out for not vibing high enough to associate with is this area of judging. At different stages of our lives, we all go through things. No one is on the same growth path either. Saying that you don't want to spend time with someone because you don’t “resonate" with them has become a polite way of "judging." But God tells us not to judge. This is because He knows that we are all sinners and we all face various ups and downs in our spiritual growth. We see this in Psalm 103:14, "for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." God also knows that someone who is "down" could need a friend who is going through a more positive time in his or her life to encourage them. This encouragement can't come from a place of judgment or looking down on someone else. It has to come from a place of acceptance. Two verses remind us of this: "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." (Romans 15:7) "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:11) Truth be told, no one vibes high all the time. Those who claim to do so simply mask the times they don’t. It’s inauthentic. Our bodies experience wide emotional ranges. Happiness. Hope. Doubt. Hurt. Joy. Peace. Fear. All comprise our emotional journeys. And all can have a good purpose when we look to God in the midst of our valleys. We risk becoming stuck when we fall into the illusion that we can only live on one side of the emotional grid—the “high-vibe” side. We risk becoming inauthentic, even to ourselves, and judging others. Life consists of a duality of emotions and experiences and without duality, you can’t truly know the fullness of what you feel. Hurt informs hope. Strength comes from suffering. Disappointments help define our delights. Emotions enable us to both learn and create. What would a movie be like without conflict? Would you watch a film that focused only on high vibes? Me, either. Our various emotions are the oils that merge to make the canvas of our lives beautiful, unique and interesting. We need our ups and our downs. It takes all vibes to thrive. Once we recognize that about ourselves and begin to show ourselves grace to feel what we feel, even in the valleys, we will also begin to accept and encourage others in the body of Christ as we have been created to do. Prayer: Jesus, thank You for my personal emotional journey. You are teaching me so much and giving me opportunities to learn and grow even more.