I should have listened to the little voice in my head.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

I turned on the news as I ate my breakfast this morning, the little voice in my head said, "Not a good idea." but I did it anyway. 

I should have listened to the little voice in my head. 

The news had more of the same:

• More shootings
• More people running over people
• More aggressive driving 
• More people breaking windows
• More people painting on other peoples stuff
• More people yelling at each other

And this was just the local news. 

I turned off the T.V.

As I finished getting dressed and ready for work I pondered what I had heard and seen.

As I drove into the "Y" I pondered what I had heard and seen.

I am still ponder as I write this of what I had heard and seen.

I am a context guy. I like to look into the past to see how things might go in the future. I think I get it from my dad. he always told me, "Learn from the mistakes of others, so you don't have to make the same mistake yourself." My context has come in handy more than once at the "Y". I have people that are futurists and say things like, "We should do this, or We should try that." and I am the person in the room that says, "I may be an old bat balding chaplain, but..." This is when they look at me and say, "You're not balding."

It seems to me that we are experiencing a breakdown of our social norms and ethics. 

People speeding down the roads and highways, not just a little bit, but a lot. Treating traffic like pylons and working on their Nascar techniques. 

People cutting in line, demanding to be helped first.

People treating one another with disrespect and no regard. 

One of my jobs at the YMCA is to teach our Christian Principles at New Employee Orientation (NEO). At this training I use the following analogy, "You are waking down the hall of the YMCA. On the floor is a gum wrapper. It isn't very big, small actually, there is no-one else around. You could walk right by it and no-one would ever be the wiser. Or, you could stop, bend over and pick it up. No-one would ever know that you picked it up, there would be no thank you or recognition from it, you do it anyway; this is called integrity/responsibility."

When I say something like, "We are experiencing a breakdown of our social norms and ethics." I am talking about a society that lacks integrity and responsibility. The mantra of, "If I don't get caught, then it must be ok." is so prevalent today that people ae starting to ask the question, "Are we as a country going to make it?"

I am a context guy, I like to look into the past to get a pulse of what the future might bring.

When I contemplate these kinds of things I cannot help but think of Henri Nouwen and The Genesee Diary. A book that has truly shaped me. In his book Henri makes the following observation about actions, thoughts, and feelings. 

He says, "In the contemplative life every conflict, inner or outer, small or large, can be seen as the tip of an iceberg, the expressive part of something deeper and larger.  It is worthwhile, even necessary, to explore that which is underneath the surface of our daily actions, thoughts, and feelings."[1]

Back in 1844, in London England, there was a time there that people lacked integrity/responsibility. A guy named George Williams asked the question, "What can be done?" How can we change their daily actions, thoughts, and feelings. The answer God gave him was to start the YMCA. 

While the YMCA has changed in many ways; one of the ways it has remained the same, is that we work one the whole body, Spirit, Mind, Body. We work with individuals, families and communities to see things differently, to see things with an eye towards integrity/responsibility. 

At our "Y" we like to say, "We are teaching a community to truly love its neighbor." 

There is work to be done in our country and communities. The question I am asking is, "Are you part of the solution or are you the problem?" It is a question I ask myself. 

Something to Ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

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[1]Henri Nouwen, The Genesee Diary, (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1989), 81.