The sin of our parents is the opportunity and challenge of our today, the hope of our children's children, and the legacy of our generation to stand in the gap and fight for the land for a better tomorrow. We have already been admonished to “first go, and be reconciled, one to another...”
Whereas we looked in former times to substitute - bureaucratic, institutional and dead (corp, mort, etc.) devisements - for our own responsibility to sacrificially give security and comfort one-to-one in weary and troubled times; mistrusting ourselves and one-another, and becoming lazy; we had already forgotten how to be good gardeners. We could never cast the seeds of humanity into those sterile soils and expect them to live.
Our parents fell asleep; trusting the doctors with their health, universities with their education, corporations with their food-supply, networks and newsrooms with their information, psycho-therapists with their minds and hearts, churches with their God, businesses with their livelihood, self-image and purpose; governments with their welfare, and politics with their dreams.
So then, is it not a good thing - for the ground of our being is being revisited here and now? What must first take place in order for us to get back to the basics, and begin to make correct new decisions and declarations for the legacy of our civilization and future generations to come? What are the courageous qualities, measures and sacrifices we each will each need to contribute in these troubled days to enable a unified and harmonious society to emerge which exists for the good of each individual?
We have allowed ourselves to become far too used to watching the suffering of our peoples from the estrangement of being bystanders. We have become accustomed to idly watch while not enough rescuers assist those smitten by tsunamis and gulf storms; not enough firefighters put out our fires, while a seemingly helpless populace evacuates to wait out their ruin encamped in nearby stadiums. Not enough food baskets can be sent over land, sky and sea to nourish those living peaceably on fertile land with available underground water but lacking knowledge of living ways.
Our scientists are predicting pandemic, while once again we individually are deciding all the while that it will be the authorities who will save us. There aren’t enough hospital beds or licensed care givers for the large-scale debilitating illnesses expected to come; yet, how many are there that can bring a cup of water, change and launder soiled sheets or produce needed warmth, friendship and love for our neighbors? What will bring about this needed shift from helpless, selfish giant to maturely empowered meek?
We are a nation of self-proclaimed religious ‘believers.’ Yet, our religion must quickly begin to adapt to the changing needs of its people, or face becoming irrelevant. As the structure we have falsely looked to continually dissolves around us, perspectives about our world are necessarily changing and opportunities and need for maturity is being thrust upon us individually and corporately. Who will step forward and decide for this? Who will perform the single small deeds for one another asked by Jesus almost 2000 years ago in Matthew 25?
“34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”
Seeking to eschew the stickiness of real relationship, will we continue attempting to delegate en-mass the roles, rights and responsibilities of caring and compassion or yet continued our own trend to the alarm and emulation of an on looking jealous and thirsty world. Right leadership is not something one can “do.” It is something one must “become” through day-by-days decision to grow from one’s circumstances and to not “shrink back unto perdition.” Knowledge is responsibility. Whatever we know to do is actually what we must do. We must train ourselves to act quickly when the opportunity arises, or else become convinced in our minds, as our parents did, that we do not actually need to act at all. But, we must learn to do this under right leadership and authority and not as renegades.
Laying aside, then, all form of blame; commit and acknowledge that we are all - Each and Every one - in this One World Together, Citizens of this one Blessed Nation Under God, Members of our State, Joined to our Communities and Inner Cities, Rightly Overseeing our Families and Ministry and being Overseen. Recover and Restore Ourselves, Gather our Strength and Wits, Spend time in Contemplation, Read Inspired Words, Watch and hear little programming, and begin to do Immediately what small acts and deeds lay clearly At-Hand to Do joined together under and with covering.
May God have mercy upon us, our families, our populace, and our institutions and governments alike as we find for ourselves new adventures, conquests and victories within ourselves and our right relationships for the Hope that is in us, Jesus Christ, the Lord.
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