Being Fruitful, or Not

Why is it that some people do not bear fruit?  It is because they have no trust either in God or in themselves

                     Meister Eckhart

 

You may call it courage, but I call it trust.  When they blew up my house and the whole roof caved in, and I walked out OK I said to myself.  “They can’t kille me.  Oh, some day they may kill my body, but they can’t kill my soul, and they can’t kill the movement.”

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth (when asked how he could have such courage during the violence of the civil rights conflicts in Birmingham, AL)

________________________________

 

There are time I do not understand people

I do not understand people who have to carry guns, everywhere.

I do not understand people who have to always control and manipulate, who are obsessed with winning and domination.

I do not understand people who would refuse refuge to refugees.

I do not understand people who think “they” (whoever “they” are) are plotting against them (and putting micro chips in the Covid vaccine, or using it to poison them).

 

The list could go on, but suffice it to say

that they are people whom I do not understand.

 

I have been trying to figure this out.

Is it as simply as people buying into a paradigm of domination?

I (and my tribe) must be on top.  I must win.  I must be in control?

 

Is it about hate?

Or perhaps an inability to accept change?

Or a fear of change, a fear of loss?

 

And what about my own foibles?

My own anger and frustration?

My own impatience?

My own inability to see those I do not agree with or understand

with compassion?

 

I am coming to believe that it is all about trust.

Do we trust in our own capacity?

Do we trust in God?

Mostly, do we trust in God?

 

Do we believe that God is?

Do we believe that God is present?

Do we believe that God is present in us?

Do we believe that just as God filled the Temple of Solomon, turning it from

just a building to the “mercy seat” of God,

that God fills the temple that is us?

 

If we don't trust ourselves, and we don't trust anyone else.

And if we don’t trust God? 

 

I would suggest much of what we are seeing from the right is in fact a lack of trust. 

 

They don't really trust God (so they need their guns, and their refusal to get the shot, which they say is trust, is really a test, so it is not trust).

 

They don't trust others (again guns, voter suppression and more), and they don't trust their leaders (thus QAnon and all the conspiracy theories).

 

Not trusting they need to dominate.  They need violence.  They need anger.

They need all the sins

 

And when I don’t trust, I join them.

 

So I am working on trust

I do trust God.

I also trust the brains God has given some that enable them to come up with vaccines. 

I trust that many of our leaders (not all) are actually giving us good guidance.

And I trust myself, as a vessel, a "house" in whom God dwells, to make it through all of this.

 

Peace out friends