Being Great

Time to Ponder

            So I find myself home-bound due to this beautiful snow falling outside my window.  I enjoy scattering birdseed and filling the feeders for those winged creatures who seem to rejoice in the resources I share with them.

            Alas it gives me time to ponder just what is happening in our land.  As I listen to the “news” it seems that we are a people who have fallen victim to fear.  We fear those who have transgressed and gotten into our country without deserving it.  Does anyone understand why they came?  Or do we care anymore?  We used to care, didn’t we?

            We are afraid someone is going to get something without paying the dues.  What dues did I pay?  My dues came at the hand of being born to the right parents and having the means to get an education.  My earning came from being brought up in a white, middle class church and listening to both the Gospel and the “gospel” of success which became part of my very being.

            We are afraid that under every rock is a terrorist which means they are winning the war while we think we are.  We are afraid that health care should be for those who pay the price instead of thinking of it as a basic right because we are all children of God who get sick under the same umbrella.

            We have allowed the mantra of making our nation great again to erode what it means to be really great.  Being really great is not about being number one or having a flag that reads “Don’t Tread on Me.”  Being great means having a great heart that cares, especially if you have the liberty to be able to care without worrying where your next meal comes from.

            What is happening to us?  In that gospel I mentioned earlier, not the one about success, I was taught that being great means being willing to be a servant.  I learned from a tutor that said that being great means getting at the back of the line sometimes.  The teacher I learned from talked about the being great means paying attention to “the least of these.”  His teacher must have taught him from an ancient book that portrayed God as being angry at people because “they had sold the poor for a pair of shoes.”

            The word “repent” in my sacred book means to turn and go another direction.  It means that there needs to be a change of heart.  O well, it is snowing and it is beautiful out there.  The birds of the air who “neither sow nor reap yet their heavenly father provides,” are outside my window enjoying seeds that they did not earn.  Of course the truth is that it seems that Heavenly Father is depending on me to help out…so I do with joy.

            Let us find joy again in being family with all creatures great and small.  That includes our brothers and sisters who walk on two legs.  Let us find true greatness again by “turning” and having a change of heart.