I Sit and Wonder

Weekly Thoughts
From
Rev. Dr. Gary A. Williams™
www.revgawmsn@hotmail.com

April 27, 2010

Recently, I began working with young people again. As I interact with them on a daily basis, I have an opportunity to talk and listen. I have an opportunity to teach and learn.

I have become more aware that we are living in the time of a new youth culture. They are faster and more advanced in many areas than we were when we were their age. They have access to more information and the ability to get it quicker. They are technologically advanced. They text, chat, e-mail and twitter effectively. Yet they are still developing.

They have grown-up problems with only the ability to process their emotions from a child’s perspective. They don’t have the emotional strength or have the emotional experience to process the adult decisions that they often make. They need guidance and help. Yet they do not like to be told what to do, how little changes as one ages.

However, young people do appreciate being shown and having adults model desired behavior. If one doesn’t establish an authentic relationship wherein personhood is respected and shared one looses the ability to be the type of adult influence that our children so desperately needs. When children don’t have positive adult influences in their lives they become bitter and/or incorrigible adults. Perhaps you’ve met one or two. As I reflected on the following scripture, the Poem below arose from my spirit.

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart.” -Proverbs 22:6

I sit and wonder

I sit and wonder
What is up?
What has my generation been up to?

How have we made this world a better place?
For my sons, grandchildren and great grandchildren

Though I have yet to have grandchildren
I wonder how will they navigate though life

Have I instilled values that will make them humane respectful
Loving and kind

Will they have the tools to make it in life without harming their fellow human?
Will they be sexist?
Will they fall for the ism that seek to restrain and define them?
Those things that seek to confine their spirits

Or will they be free and live free
Not out of defiance but because I and my beloved partner have impressed
Upon them the truth
The truth that they are free
They have choices and that they have the right and the ability to make choices
To live by their choices and to thrive because of their choices
Not someone else’s but their own
According to their skills, passions and abilities

My desire is for my children and offspring is for them to know without reservation or interference that free spirits cannot be contained.

He is Risen!

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. (KJV)– Mark 16:6


“He is Risen”

Each year I am blessed to learn more about “The Resurrection.” I can truly say, “He is risen indeed,” these first forty days after we have celebrated Christ’s Resurrection. It is difficult to see when you are in the middle of a storm. What may be a storm for you may not be a storm for another.

Those things that challenge you and weigh heavy upon your psyche and soul may not cause anyone else to give it a second thought. It is not until you personally are in a storm that you need to have your faith resurrected. It is not until you’ve prayed and bargained and lamented and sought to hold on to God’s unchanging hand and ignored all of the negative self talk, that you personally encounter ”The Resurrection.”

Those that believe in Christ is on a faith journey, a journey to hang out with Christ through thick and thin. It is not a matter of whether Christ will hang with you but rather if you will hang with Christ. It is easy to hang with Christ when all is going well. It is more difficult to hang when things are personally bad for you.

I was taught that when things are going well with you, you are being blessed, so consequently when things are going bad for you, you are being punished or damned. I realized that in the midst of my storm I had forgotten or chose to ignore the reality that rain falls upon the just and the unjust. I also forgot that we need rain for growth. I am reminded of a song that shares, “If I never had a problem, I wouldn’t know that God would solve them.” I believe that these statements are true, I have learned through my own resurrection that it is up to me to continue to believe and to continue to move forward despite obstacles, disappointment and setbacks.

I have learned that sometimes we need to slow down to gain new perspectives and to consider other options. I’ve learned that it is easy to look at negativity and much harder to really count our blessings. How often I have shared that if you can take a breath, walk up a flight of stairs, if you know your name, you are truly blessed. Being blessed has nothing to do with possessions; it has everything to do with who you love and who loves you back. I have been resurrected through those who I love and who truly love me. I am grateful for it is their love that resurrected me. So I too, like Jesus have been resurrected and I too have received the gospel; it “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith" (Romans 1:16). Thus without a shadow of a doubt I can say, “He is Risen.” You ask me “how I know?” It is because, He is risen in me!

“Living in the Power of the Resurrection”
-Rev. Dr. Gary A. Williams