Nobody's right if Everybody's Wrong

Neither side speaks my mind

Those who cry intolerance

Are themselves intolerant

Those who cry foul

Also commit foul

Conversation has become a shouting match

Where no one listens

Where no one is heard

Labels fighting labels

Humanity has disappeared

Opinions fighting opinions

Truth has vanished

Meanwhile

The innocent are slaughtered

The poor are ignored

The children are starving

All lost in the arguments

Of those proving their points.

PRESENT IN THE MOMENT...PERSISTENT IN ATTENTION

If I want something to grow healthy, strong, and fruitful, I have to intentionally devote time and energy into helping that growth develop.  I will attend, care, and love the object of my intention, be it a person, an idea, or a talent.  Time and energy are finite things so I do need to be intentional about how I use them.  It is easy to have both of them depleted by insignificant and unimportant demands that the world puts on us.  Busyness is often a waste of both time and energy; it consumes them and yields nothing in return.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  That tells me there is something already established; something that I will be a part of.  To see how things are in that place, I need to look to someone who came from there; I need to look at how Jesus lived while he was on earth. 

One thing I see is that he was intentional about the time and energy he spent, both with God, his Father, and with the people he interacted with.  He wasn’t rushing around being busy.  He took his time with individuals, focusing his energy and attention on them while he was in their presence.  He knew them, each one of them, just as a good shepherd knows each one of his sheep.  He paid attention to them, knew their strengths and weaknesses, knew their thoughts and their concerns; he was present to the moment and persistent in his attention.  He was faithful to what had been given to him by God.  That is the example I am to follow. 

IDENTIFY YOURSELF

The purpose of calling yourself something, labeling yourself as something, is to give your self an identity.  It provides a standard, a plumb line to grow true to and to measure yourself by.  When  a group loses its identity it no longer shares its unity as a group, but becomes a bunch of individuals with no common center, axels of a wheel without being connected to a hub that will crumble and lose its function as a wheel.

Without roots a tree will fall; without an anchor a ship will drift aimlessly at sea, tossed around by wind and waves.  People of God, people of faith, people of the Spirit must return to Jesus, for he is the standard; he is the plumb line.  “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2).  “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26). 

People of God, people of faith, people of the Spirit must also return to the Scriptures.  The Holy Spirit will teach us and guide us through the Scriptures.  “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them they have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39).

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

Has leaving home,  neglecting God, neglecting Jesus, neglecting the Holy Spirit, neglecting the Scriptures, and living the way we want to live made this world a better place?  It’s time for God’s prodigal children to remember their identity and return to their loving Father who will welcome them with love and open arms.