My first time picking blueberries today became a thoughtful and spiritual experience.
Are you contributing to the chaos?
Or are you representing the Redeemer?
Yesterday’s events unfolded before our country in real time. I could only sit agape and experience a number of emotions. It was easy to say, “These actions are horrible.” It was hard to witness a flag with a cross on it and signs with Scripture on them. They don’t speak for me.
Especially with my teenage daughter beside me, wondering: Has it always been like this?
I would say no. No U.S. election has been this extreme.
Then I talk to my friend from a former communist country. She has seen similar behavior before.
Then I talk to a pastor friend, who is Black. He has experienced similar anger before.
Entitlement and hatred can grow and fester in any heart. There is the potential.
It can happen to me. It can happen to you.
That thought should sober us.
If we’re honest about it, then we can be diligent.
If we think we’re beyond temptation, that can be our downfall.
If you are a follower of Jesus, together we have a high calling to live out his truth.
It may require confrontation, but we must do so for the purpose of God’s greatness and not any person’s glory; we must do so to honor his image knit into every person’s life.
We must look inward.
We’re all culpable in some aspect.
But there’s hope.
With Jesus, we’re also all capable of change.
“Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” —Psalm 51:10
(Photo by © Steve Carr 2017)
Here I stand
on the precipice
—looking out.
It’s a new day
of a new year
in a new decade.
Thoughts swirl
through moments seized
and moments lost,
communication captured
and words misconstrued.
While I know
it’s a construct
—the line drawn
between one moment
and another.
Still it feels defined.
Yet . . .
tomorrow beings anew
the same as it began today.
Calendars say a date.
Yet . . .
each day has the same hours
within its grasp.
There is time to fix
the things that went awry.
There is time to build
upon the victories.
So I breathe.
I reflect
I project
upon the year and decade
that was,
as well as
the ones to come.
Today and tomorrow
only have the power
to intimidate
or
to invigorate
—in my mind.
My choice
is to stand
upon the precipice
of this moment
on this day
—and cling to the hope
of all the things
that can be.