Another sign of life. Water

19 Sep Another sign of life. Water

I sit here contemplating many things. I unfortunately feel like I need to connect to the news and see what is happening in the world. Like many or even most, what I leave with is a message that drains the heart, mind and body. So, I sit back and draw into focus life, lessons, items received and discover something very human, an automatic response and very normal human behavior. What is it? Glad you asked. We are negative magnets. We troll social media posts that take a turn downward or add something to the posts so we can grab our popcorn and follow all the comments. We like clockwork slowdown at accident sites, red/blue lights because we want to attach ourselves to someone else’s bad day. It kind of sickens me but I realize I follow suit. We become very reactive when the negative shows up, especially when that negative is directed toward us, a friend or family. I agree with Scripture that says we have a bent, leaning toward sin. I’d add that we naturally lean toward negative and discover that it is so much easier to do so when ideally at our heart it isn’t what we really want. My time invested and dealing with so many hurt, injured and broken people help me to understand though we are “bent” like that, we also desire to be whole, healed, happy and moving forward. The problem with that is that it’s so automatic and easy to stay bent, verses the heavy challenge to move forward into the positive. We by nature are quick to judge, damage, point out the short comings, failures. We lack patience with people of responsibility. Listen to the info spread about a teacher, school system, law enforcement, a group labeled hate, a news media and the list goes on. I think it is called a “wildfire.” Speaking of fire, think of these massive fires in our nation’s west. Fire spreads rapidly and so many factors make it so. Temperatures, conditions being dry, right, too much over growth and the only way to mitigate it or try to stop it is by sheer manpower, a strong will and water. It is harder to bring water to fire.

So, I believe that while this is true, negative exists, always has, always will. The hope would be that the cooler heads and hearts would prevail. In ALL relationships it takes bravery to embrace our vulnerabilities and make a move (against the grain) toward the light, towards a positive focus, toward hope. In this world that seems to be on fire, how difficult it must be to maintain light, hope, humanity, love and peace. If enough people carry a bucket of water to a fire, the water will eventually overtake the fire. This is true for human relations regardless of age, color, race, sex, spirituality and any other ideas that separate us. My question is this. Who will be the first to lay down their opinions and pick up a bucket of water?

Water extinguishes fire, true but it also satisfies the thirsty, give hope to the farmer, washes away the filth, cleanses wounds, cools on a hot day. Water contains life. Water is your sign of life today. Now, go. Go and do.