Source: Two Fires
Photo Credit: Background Image Scary Dark Alley from flickr.com
Racism
Two Fires
Fire can breed life or destruction. It depends on the source. If it’s come from the intentional igniting of a spark, it can bring warmth and healing. Yet if it roars from the roots of careless ignorance, it’s destined to devour all in its path.
There are two fires raging in our streets. One is a fire of hatred—born in the crucibles of suffering only to birth relentless pain and endless ruin. The other is of love. It rises in the hearts of those who refuse to be overcome by the darkness of evil, bearing power to overcome the destructive force of hatred.
Hatred will only perpetuate hatred. As a seed begets its corresponding fruit, so hatred results in destruction and death. The seeds of love bring forth healing and life.
We have a choice. We can leave a legacy of hate, or a legacy of love. Only one is a worthy legacy.
To choose love over hatred requires change. It means letting go of our hurt and fear in favor of the higher calling. Generations to come will reap the harvest of our choices, for good or for evil. Hate breeds hate; love breeds love. Love, though met with hatred, will ultimately prevail. What will your legacy be?
“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy…For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life…” (Francis of Assisi)
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love…we love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:8, 19)
Photo Credit: Free photo: Wildfire, Fire, Flames, Hot – Free Image on Pixabay …
The Mirror
war is a mirror
revealing who we are
and what we will become
if we ignore hatred’s spark
and allow it to grow
to a raging flame
we pray
“deliver us from evil”
as if evil
were outside of ourselves
untouched by our minds
distant from our hearts
we pray
“deliver us from evil”
but the honest will pray
“deliver us from ourselves”
poetry by j.e. fernandez
Small World?
it was a world of hatred, a world of strife
where hearts grew bitter and numb to life
but ignoring the pain
the people still sang
it’s a small world, after all
multitudes lived out their lives of ease
while others were lacking their basic needs
though the poor cried in vain
all heard the refrain
it’s a small world, after all
wealthy men’s dumpsters were filled to full
while the hungry were starving outside their doors
the rich entertained
while they sang and they sang
it’s a small world, after all
humans were bound in captivity
greedy appetites funded their slavery
hungry for more,
oppressing the poor
it’s a small, small world
nations went bankrupt, destroyed by greed
though warnings poured forth, they failed to take heed
corrupted, they spent
until drowned in their debt
it’s a small world, after all
children with guns killed potential friends
reports of destruction were without end
the suffering went on
yet still, came the song
it’s a small world…after all
cultures destroyed due to race and skin
terrorists blinded by mortal sin
innocence failed
while hatred prevailed
it’s a small world, after all?
battles were fought, countless lives were lost
still, they neglected to count the cost
fighting wars uncontained
until no one remained
it’s a small, small world
Photo Credit: ignorance | ignorance | Z S | Flickr
More Than a Day Off
While multitudes revel in a day off work, history calls. As we indulge in the glory of our pillow and comforter, our slumber unhindered by the blare of the alarm clock, something stirs. Do we hear it? Do we remember?
Today, I will enjoy a day home with my children, blessed with their ringing laughter, incessant fun, and smiles that shine with their glowing brown skin. Tomorrow, I will return to work, teaching precious children with skin of every beautiful color. I can’t imagine it any other way. And it’s all because one man had a dream.
It was hard last week to tell my classroom that there was a time when what we have wasn’t allowed. Their best friends wouldn’t be their friends. Their classmates wouldn’t be in the same building. They wouldn’t know each other. All because the color of their skin. What an ugly place, the world of segregation. What an ugly, hateful place.
It was just as difficult to tell these kids that though there’s been progress enough for us all to enjoy one another’s friendship and learn under the same roof, the world is still not the beautiful place it should be. There are still awful evils. There is still gross injustice. There is still racism and prejudice. Things that should not be with all the sacrifices made for change to come.
We live in a fallen world. And it will be as long as we live on the wrong side of heaven. I told my kids we each still need to do our part to bring the change.
And I told them we will have a day off school to celebrate a man who believed against all odds that things could change for the better.
So today is more than a day off. It’s a day to remember the darkness we’ve come from, resolving never to return. It’s a day to reflect on where we still need to change, repenting of our own sins of racism and prejudice. And it’s a day to dream, with Martin Luther King Jr., that ALL our children “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
May it be on earth as it is in heaven.
This Life & Beyond 
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