My roots have grown, but I don’t know where they are…
The Head and the Heart
My head and heart are all over the place this morning. I was in total shock at what I saw yesterday happen at the Capitol. At the same time, the fires of division that have been stoked where leading to an event and a moment like we witnessed. So, shock on one hand and on the other, the sad outcome of what has been brewing. And for the record, I am talking about what happened prior to the breach, the breach itself and what happened after it was all said and done at almost 4 am this morning. All of it.
There are some deep issues that exist within American government and we the people of America. They are deep and they are real. To deny it is to live in a universe that has a set of alternative facts. To simply blame the other side - those people over there - for it all of the glorious dysfunction, well, that is also delusional.
There comes a moment when we take personal responsibility for that which we can and should own. There was both a prominent Republican and Democrat that said a version of this yesterday: “enough is enough.” Have you reached the point of enough is enough? It is at that point that you are willing to change courses and move forward? Until you own where you are, you are doomed to stay there or move backwards or sideways, never really forward.
Own where you are today. Own it with all you have.
Your roots have grown someplace over the past week, months, and year. Do you know what you are planted in? Do you know what is actually feeding you and giving you life. For many, I see it is anger, outrage, blame and hatred that have become the soil they have planted themselves in. Their roots go deep and the fruit is horrible.
Examine today: where are your roots? Am I growing in a place that gives life, or something less?
Pslam 1 says this:
Psalm 1
1 The truly happy person
doesn’t follow wicked advice,
doesn’t stand on the road of sinners,
and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful.
2 Instead of doing those things,
these persons
love the Lord’s Instruction,
and they recite God’s Instruction
day and night!
3 They are like a tree
replanted by streams of water,
which bears fruit at just the right time
and whose leaves don’t fade.
Whatever they do succeeds.
4 That’s not true for the wicked!
They are like dust
that the wind blows away.
5 And that’s why the wicked
will have no standing
in the court of justice—
neither will sinners
in the assembly of the righteous.
6 The Lord is intimately acquainted
with the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked is destroyed.
Common English Bible. (2011). (Ps 1). Nashville, TN: Common English Bible.
Now is a time to replant ourselves by the streams. To draw on God’s life, love, hope, faith, grace and truth. It is time.
Enough is enough is enough...
Yet, we all have the choice with what we do with this time that has been handed to us. This will be my sermon this week: You have been entrusted with life - what will you choose to do with it? You can choose wisely or you can choose poorly - what will your choice be?
I will leave you with this quote today from Lord of the Rings:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Fellowship of The Ring
Strength and courage,
Kevin A. Parido
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