Bloganuary writing prompt

Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

View all responses

There’s a blog I read daily. It’s called “Wake-Up Call.” It’s published by a group called Seedbed that is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee and is very close to my home in Nashville. However, I’ve never gotten around to visiting Seedbed’s headquarters in person.

Today’s post resonates with the thoughts that were developing within me this morning as I stayed in bed and paid attention to them. The thoughts didn’t seem to be Christ focused. I kept trying to redirect them in a more spiritual direction, but they persisted in what appeared to me to be a political track, where I didn’t want to go. Finally, I surrendered. I got up and posted them on Facebook. Here they are:

“Cruelty and hate
Have never made
A country great.”

“If we make America hate again, we will push it into uncontrolled cruelty, violence, and self-destruction. Is that what we want?”

I don’t like being controversial and getting hostile feedback from people, but I feel compelled from within to pass on what occurs to me. As I wondered about those thoughts I came to today’s Wake-Up Call thinking that there’s no way those thoughts will be aligned with it (as my early morning thoughts frequently are). However, they did match today’s Wake-Up Call about the attitude of the Pharisees that too many Christians are embracing today. After reading it, these thoughts came to me:

“You can’t force people to be honest, kind, and un-self-focused. Without a change of heart, they’ll just rebel.”

“Forced compliance
Leads to defiance.
Without reliance
On heart-felt kindness
We’ll stay stuck
In cruel blindness
And our fate
Will be far from great.”

“People of faith need to cultivate their awareness of the presence of God to the point that they begin to be inwardly led by His Spirit and thus demonstrate to other people that the risen Jesus is also available to heal and reveal Himself in and through them as well.”

“The snooze alarm can be dangerous, but fasting and the hunger that it produces within us is a powerful tool to help us cultivate our personal awareness of ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’”