Where Is Home?

Another Ministry Moment

This image is from today’s Tarot Card of The Day.

Before I begin, I want to start by saying that much of what I’m about to post is only my opinion. Agree with it or not, that’s all that it is. Even if you just don’t agree with it, the only thing I ask is that you think about it, meditate on it (please don’t ruminate, it will not help at all) and just consider what I’m saying.

I normally don’t pull these cards for anything other than very personal messages. You can always do something about you or your situation, even if it isn’t much in the moment. You can’t really do much about world events unless you’re in a much larger and more well-organized group but that doesn’t mean you’re not powerful. There are certain figures that have been almost romanticized in our history as though they did things single-handedly when we know that’s not the case. These people had teams of people behind them. Many of them were strong and capable leaders.

America has figures just like that. To get right to the point though. I was born here, raised here and had it hammered into me that I needed to be polite, exhibit some basic common etiquette, speak well, present myself well, be as smart as I could possibly be, work hard and enjoy the fruits of my labor. That’s just to name a few things.

Then, something happened. Fast-forward to the last twenty years or so, America has not felt like home for me. I could say that it hasn’t felt that way in just about over that time but it’s become more pronounced today.

In order for someone else to “feel at home here” many of us had to be disadvantaged further and further as time went on. Note that I’m not saying it’s anyone of a specific color or nationality. I can lump all of us into one category: Americans. Americans who have strived all their lives to be the best at what they do that they can be, people who’ve gone through the process to become naturalized citizens, to hold jobs, to pay bills, facing ever-increasing costs, being told that we’re all some type of “X-ist” or “X-phobe” for even disagreeing with the extreme takes that became policy became exhausting for some and enraging for others.

Many of us were exhausted and tired, it was only the first step, the demoralization. Then, it became even more insidious. Those in power didn’t divide us, let’s be honest for a second, we did that. We allowed the production of labels and purity standards to keep us at each other’s throats. Make no mistake, people, there’s a civil war in our home as our metaphorical door was kicked in, we were told to take in people who were invading our country, we were told we were privileged while being put under the thumb and told to shut up about it. When they trashed the place, we were expected to clean up the mess.

It understandably, harbored some resentment but I urge all of you to scroll back up to that card and get a good look at the image. Isn’t this what we fought for? Even if you don’t believe in American Exceptionalism (which hasn’t been a thing for awhile) you have to admit that the image of having the family pet there, right by the hearth of the fire, right there with the one you love and share that life with was only the first of many end goals.

I’m here to tell you that this image matters. Sure, things are still a mess. We have a lot of cleaning up to do. We finally have someone who, whether I like him or not is beside the point, a much stronger leader and I have a clip to share with you, this is what a strong leader does…

Having a strong and capable leader is one thing but now the question that we need to ask ourselves is, what can we do?

First, we really need to think about our nation. If you were born or naturalized here and you love the liberties, the laws designed to protect those liberties and the fact that the power is truly and has always been in our hands, congratulations, you’re American. If you can enjoy your Liberties, take care of your responsibilities and then leave others to do the same, congratulations, you’re American. If where you are is far better than where you once were and you’re on that path to naturalization, congratulations, you are American.

That is home. It’s not perfect but it works and always has. It’s always had its problems and, I suspect, it always will. There are people that signal virtue while being absolutely horrible people to everyone else. Ignore the signal, watch their actions.

So why are those people here? Because they want to fundamentally-alter our home. You and I? We’ve been expendable. We’re not to be considered in the least.

As of this past November, many of us are now taking these people out of our homes by their ears and hurling them out of our yards and to the curb.

Once we shut the door, clean up the mess and finally relax in our own home, we have to understand that it’s one thing to relax but we need to remain vigilant and that comes with having a polite and informed society.

The first thing we need to do is restore individual liberty to us. That comes with responsibilities. We have to keep our home clean and ensure our own safety. We have to perform our civic duties and stop trying to shirk them. We have to take stock of what truly matters and put out the fires so we can rebuild. Once the door is put back on the hinge, the interior cleaned and repainted, the sink and toilet fixed, then we can take a breath. Until then, we do all have work that we need to do. After that, we can repair the fences and dislike the neighbors next door all that we like in the comfort and security of home if we must.

Until then, every one of us dreams of the day where we’re one of the people in that image.