Ten Years Gone: The Start of Reflectionary

 

2020 Reflection:

This post was first published on Saturday, October 5, 2013 - ten years ago, today. Initially, I would draw a variety of samples from the day's lectionary readings. I would seek the common theme, or if there were none, then find a way to connect them all together. At first they would simply be called "Reflectionary," followed by a Roman numeral, in sequence. 

It's remarkable, how it all reads, with the experiences of the past ten years behind us. Since writing it, both of my daughters graduated high school and college (one earned a Master's Degree). One is getting married in two weeks. 

Obama finished his second term. Trump served his one. And then 46 held the Oval Office. 

I became a full-time building substitute teacher. My Dad died. I had exciting long-term substitute jobs in the Michigan Virtual Charter Academy (on-line), as a Dexter Schools long-term Band, then Choir sub. I held a regular permanent teaching job in a private school, briefly. I taught in Perry Schools for half a year. 

The Hudson Music Center grew rapidly, to revenues topping $100,000 in 2020. But then under the weight of lockdown excesses, it reduced itself back to pre-2012 levels. 

I had the normal experience with catching whatever bugs were going around, every year. 

I came to terms with the Anderson case, and probably the Nortel case in my professional career.

Ten amazing years. As good as my childhood was, then college, and then the first fifteen years of my career, still the 2010s up to the present had many of my best moments. 

But the world . . . in looking at my thought ten years, has continued rapidly down the spiral that I described then. I can only imagine the world . . . in 2033. 

Reflectionary I

"How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!"

"It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."

"So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails."

"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him."

"Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us."

"So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

There is a sense in history, that despite the best efforts of good men and women, to advance the cause of justice, peace, purity, honor, and wealth - that the world itself conspires to return to violence, carnality, poverty, slavery, and chaos.

Every Moses has his Pharaoh. Every Ghandi, his Pol Pot. Every Lincoln, his Booth. Every Christ, his Caesar.

If the Universe is expanding, becoming more random and disorderly, then it makes sense for the Great Designer to create the method for it to be attracted back to that good state that was at the very beginning. We stray, and God calls us back to Him. We stray again, and the process repeats itself. 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God and the Word was toward God." I write "toward," because I have read that this is much more accurate translation than "with", as in "The Word was with God." It denotes God's Word, His plan, being simply this: the plan that would draw everything back to Himself. God lets us go our own way, knowing that we will choose violence and slavery. Yet He speaks a Word (and that's all it takes) - and, hearing it, we may choose to return back to Him, to progress back, if you will, to the original state of innocence and peace. Except that, having lived our lives in this realm, we have gained the knowledge that comes from pain, disappointment, failure, and heartbreak. A hurt being is an empathetic being is a compassionate being is a loving being, and so on.

Western culture has twisted the meaning of slavery, so that it can never mean something good. But as Dylan said, you've got to serve somebody. We are never without being subject to someone's whim. Our response to God's word, our return to Him, is hastened by our becoming His slave. If your master builds you into your true self; If He provides your needs; If he cares for you more than anyone else. If he can, and does, offer you eternal life, then this is a slavery worth having. It's all in the return to the Universe's first voice. You can either go out and make your own way, and take the randomness that will follow. Or you can get with the program - - - with the team, if you will. Like a well-tuned instrument, your willingness to be bent and adjusted to your own best fit, puts you in sync with the world's true Social Network. You get into a zone like no other.

The world and its programs, even the good ones, lead nowhere. But listen, wait, be still, and hear the voice that calls gently, but more persistently and lovingly than any other.