Personal Meditation no. 215

"Everyone chooses their level of involvement. We might share the same place BUT that does not mean we share the same space. Not everyone in the congregation is Christian."

Be the Change.

It was a busy end to the week around the plantation. My oldest daughter graduated and is off on her first vacation with her friends. The youngest son became a Webelos and we did some weekend stuff to get him more independent and ready for scouting. The youngest daughter was busy with dance recitals and my oldest son was part of the graduation ceremony and is performing this afternoon. So, a lot of moving pieces around the plantation this weekend.

Everyone needs to work on what is going to get them happiness. I can no better choose for a stranger what will make them happy than I can for a family member. I can guide and counsel and mentor BUT the choice is ultimately up to the individual. And as a person in the vocation of teaching, that seems a rather foreign concept in a system designed to make folks into more of the same. Just a bunch of folks that think and act in accordance to a set of subjective rules. And the longer I am in the system of education, the more I just shake my head and laugh. There are so many folks that just want to mold folks into those non-questioning, order-following automatons. The kind the system needs to keep on chugging along. And there is never a shortage of those folks.

I don’t know anymore. I see a system that says a lot about critical thinking and independent learners and does everything to stifle dissent and creativity. I see a system that says a lot about making choices and being an individual and does everything to mandate choice and silence voices. There is a dichotomy of hypocrisy that is out there that takes very little to uncover. I am no longer able to voice my opinion without it being shouted down because of my faith. I get to pay for bad choices BUT I can not voice my disapproval for those choices. There is a hypocrisy in freedom that this system and this society does not see as ironic. There is a society present that bullies and suppresses truth. And nothing has made that more clear than the past fourteen days.

We have all seen folks that we thought were righteous and outsiders that completely fell in line with the state. The country of Israel convinced the descendants of Israel to walk around with papers in their homeland with The Holocaust not a hundred years in their past. We have seen folks work with the state and the system to report neighbors or stand by and watch. It is all out there in the past fourteen days. All the worst things that can happen when individual governments work together to control folks. And there are all the signs that since this was rather simple the past fourteen days, then why give up on that control?

I know this is a bit all over the place this morning BUT there is a lot on my mind about the fear that is being placed into people. The fear that has them worrying about all sorts of things that are not as scary as a life without the Almighty. I see a lot of folks out there afraid of things that God promises to provide. I see a lot of folks looking for temporary solutions to eternal problems. I see a lot of children swinging blindly in rage and panic when they can have peace. When you are not healthy, you make poor choices about your health because your brain isn’t thinking well. And we are surrounded by folks that are unhealthy physically, mentally, and spiritually. And we need to live the truth for them. We need to be a guide, a beacon, a testimony to what can happen if they simply give eternal control to their temporary problems.

And for years I thought that meant being another bully about my message. BUT that isn’t the case. The world has enough bullies out there shouting and screaming and acting foolish. We are supposed to be different from that. We are supposed to be unified. We are supposed to be one. So, that doesn’t mean telling them they are wrong. That doesn’t mean telling them they are going to Hell. That doesn’t mean emphasizing the negative. This world is negative enough. We have to be the positive. We have to be the light in the darkness. We have to be the change. Because we can’t expect anyone to change if we haven’t already done the work.

I hope you find that peace in change. Embrace and be the change.

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #BeTheChange

Personal Meditation no. 214

“Hurt people hurt people.”

Be the Change.

Today is all about change. Today my oldest daughter graduates from high school. And a mere thirty years ago I did the exact same thing. That is how quick things change. Does it feel like thirty years? Does it feel like eighteen years since she was born? Does it?

Of course not. There is a lot of change out there that gets you emotional. I can sit here full of emotion about today. And I get to choose whether that emotion is loss or hope. I get to choose to be positive about the change or negative about the change. BUT what I don’t get to do is stop the change.

Change can really hurt people. Folks get really committed to their life being one way and then life throws them a change. Their health might change, their status might change, their income might change, their family might change, and rather than embrace the change and incorporate the change into your life, folks will fight the change. Because sometimes change really hurts badly.

Folks can see change as unfair and unjust. They ask, “Why is this change happening to me?” They question God for the change. They turn their back on God because they feel that this unfairness and injustice is too painful, too much. BUT they are not looking for justice. Folks are looking for vengeance. This world is a ball of emotion wanting vengeance and their pound of flesh. Justice is God’s realm and vengeance is the realm of sin and death.

Broken people are out there choosing violence every day. They are out there looking for revenge for the wrongs they feel. They are tied down to the temporal and the fleeting time of life. Thirty years ago I was walking across that stage with a plan. And thirty years later I will watch my daughter walk across a stage with a plan as well. And she, very much like me thirty years ago, thinks that plan is going to all fall into place. And that is the comedy or the tragedy of life to embrace. And that is the choice we all get to make.

Taking our plan too seriously, putting too much faith in ourselves, and failing to enjoy the beauty of this time here are some of our greatest obstacles to joy. These things lead folks to feeling hurt and being broken. When they can be healed and whole.

That is a choice we all get to make when life changes. Sometimes the changes are large and sometimes the changes are small BUT we get to choose whether we let them hurt or if we let them heal.

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #BeTheChange