How many of us have spent much of our lives leaning or going out of the way we knew we were meant to go in our lives... to please or “go along with” what others told us we should; or, to be the consolation for others? If we do it for too long, we forget how to stand on our own; or to become all we were perhaps meant to be. All too soon, we realize the things that anchored our souls in our youth have been so uprooted, we risk toppling over if we don’t reconnect with the soul’s anchors to refuel. 

Are you ready to exclaim ”Not Today” by: Hillsong United? 

When we are born, we have all the freedoms and possibilities of God’s amazing imagination and planning for our lives. 

How many times do we need to get to a point of feeling like we’ve been dragged down, weighed down, pushed, pulled, twisted, or entwined with the “weight of the world” or others within our inner circles, before we realize we’ve done it for so long we no longer remember where we knew our lives were meant to go; and we’ve lost the essential BEauty God planted within us? 

Let’s have the courage to cut the vines and branches weighing down, burdening, and preventing our inner Light to shine from the depths of our souls, as God intended. 

Let's all begin singing ”The Breakup Song,” by:  Francesca Battistelli! 

Sometimes things we do or places we go can make us feel like we are trapped. 

But, are we actually surrounded by bars preventing us from changing our locations or situations, or are they merely an illusion we choose to see; because, we are afraid of embracing our fears of changing and the uncertainty of the unknown? 

Guess what?  ”God Only Knows, ” according to For King and Country... but, WE have the power to share who we are with others!  Open up, let your Light shine! 

Are our lives resembling the outstretched hands, always needy and empty... waiting for God and others to fill them, our hearts, and our souls, without doing the same for others? 

Or, do we provide, as we are called? 

Do we wait until the people around us are totally depleted of food, water, or shelter in The Word of God to nourish and strengthen their spirits; and, wonder why they feel forgotten and alone... or do we engage when given, or better yet, try to create opportunities to feed and fuel those who are too depleted to bother asking for help, anymore? 

How many of us will do for wildlife; but, not for the humans we see “singing sad songs” or perched around us, each day? 

Why is that? 

Is it because in nature or with wildlife, we might have a better chance of the ones we’ve helped... return to “flutter” or “climb about,” or “make a show,” of public appreciation we can capture to show the world... with no verbal commitment for further engagement? 

Is it because we fear, “once we begin, it’ll never end...” when helping our fellow man? 

Yet, we expect God to always be there to answer our every need, no matter how frequent or how large, the asking. 

The song “First,” by Lauren Daigle reminds us to seek God first; then perhaps, we can relinquish the Gifts we’ve been given so freely. 

What are we willing to give... of ourselves, our time, our talents, our treasures... in order to foster those or similar Gifts in those who would like an opportunity to BE that kind of Gift... for someone else, too? It might be someone a little too spiritually “tattered or torn” to ask; but, who makes an effort to show up.

Is it better to always keep things trimmed nice, tidy, short, and precisely... or is it better, sometimes, to permit a little bit of slacking, loosening or lessening of our need to control the perception of things being so tidy? 

We might find letting a little slack, provides a perfect bit of camouflage for an eyesore or two, while providing the perfect opportunity for other creatures to perhaps find a happy home, nestled in what we initially viewed as “such untidiness, or disarray.” 

Perhaps when we contemplate a song like “Healed,” by Nichole Nordeman... we can remember we have nothing to prove or fix. We have “sinned;” but, Christ died and we are forgiven. It’s time to embrace we are “healed,” whenever we are ready to accept and claim it. And, it is so. 

What can you let go of controlling, so tightly, today, it might help another to breathe a little freer, or into whom can you help breathe “new life?”

Sometimes plants we tend have prolific harvests, sometimes... not, or parts can become diseased or blighted... with only a few fruits or veggies able to be beneficial. 

It doesn’t necessarily matter how much work we pour into nurturing, supporting, and caring for a plant or a person... if they are unable to absorb the nutrients being provided, the nutrients may merely get washed away with the next storm. We can hope, pray, and do our due diligence; but, only the individual and God control the outcome. 

No matter how desperate we are for something or someone to thrive, rather than merely survive and exist... it is the plant or individual who needs to “Breathe” the air and nutrients and draw them inwardly... I know I am lost without them, something Rebecca St. James sings about in her song. 

With the innovative expansiveness of social media, it might be a bit “too easy” for many to “fall prey” to being ridiculed about anything and everything, these days. Bullying comes in many forms, often not seen as such under this latest phase or craze or “hipster verbiage” of the seemingly innocuous, “Be Kind” movement… which is itself a subversive effort to silence people and keep folks from truly connecting with one another on a deeper level. “BEing kind” is what folks did when they remained quiet about the many ways and types of abuses we endured and “closeted” for decades. “BEing kind” is what folks did when they walked away from those in power who were abusing said power or position. “BEing kind” is what kids have been told about not mentioning things like abuse; because, they’re only children and no one would believe them, over any adult. “BEing kind” landed us with generations of abused, abandoned, addicted, or dead people in the most massive numbers we’ve ever seen. “BEing kind,” clearly… did not work. 

What if we stopped “abiding by” and regurgitating the fifteen minute soundbites or slogans of the day, month, or year? 

What if we… stopped being concerned with how expansive our “friend” social media presences are; and, instead began to shrink them to include only folks with whom we’ve spent some quality time in conversations; or, those with whom we’ve connected through reading their posts, direct messages, emails; shared phone calls and/or live video chats, etc. in order to have gained insights to determine with whom our souls truly align. Aligned souls we can spend quality time and not feel a part of the unity between our heart, mind, soul, and body feels the need to retreat into some deep, dark abyss? Souls that encourage us to learn and grow from one another,  mutually. 

What if we… shrink or totally reshape the expansive tables into round tables and replace the table with dinner and/or discussions around a “campfire,” as tribal ancestors, long ago, would have done, in an effort to show no one was any less or more important in position; but, we honor everyone has the right to equal time holding “the talking stick,” when passed around? 

What if we… viewed societal changes, fads, and slogans as “the follies they have been” to the interconnectedness of our own tribes? I find it uncanny… how we often used to hear about “the grass being greener on the other side of the fence.” Yet, it seems not many of us have been willing to take a deeper look at how that’s applied to the many things we’ve “fallen in line” into performing on “the stages of our thinking,” pursuing/chasing, and believing. We don’t even stop to breathe and recognize we are like dogs following the bouncing balls someone else has thrown in the total opposite direction of where we always knew we wanted to go. Some of us don’t even like playing with balls and would rather spend our recreational time another way; but, don’t want to “offend the masters” or risk having them “take the balls away” we don’t even like!  

What if we… stopped chasing the balls we never appreciated… and “the masters” began trying to please us, for a change? What if “the masters” were forced to be the ones trying to figure out what WE truly appreciate and were the ones who had to do the “fetching…” to get US to engage with them, to receive OUR attention, OUR love… to reach and finally appreciate OUR longing for interconnectedness… without sacrificing all of whom we are? 

What if we work to create that power shift? What if?