VIEW FROM BELOW

I talk about myself a lot because it’s easier than doing what I used to do (talking at length and critically about others). So, when I waxed less than eloquent about the Push becoming the Shove yesterday, I thought about all of the times I felt outmatched. It came up perhaps because I find myself thinking often about the appetite I acquired for the various currencies that spend in American society. There’s fame or notoriety, money, prowess and status. From the time you set foot on the playground, the scramble for one or all of those ensues.If you’re not careful, the quest consumes you whether your realize your objectives or not. But I ended yesterday asking myself and all o’ y’all where or how you find the resolve needed to shove back when the pretentious, inanimate vices lure you into the hedonistic life. God is how I answer, more specifically Jesus Christ and the reason is because the Jesus I’ve met as an adult isn’t afraid of tension, frustration, sin, lethargy, procrastination, etc. Somewhere along the quest we’re all on I shook my fist at God for prayers answered “NO”. I’ve taken theology to task along with tradition and found Jesus in the tension. In fact, it’s become easier to shove back when life threatens because historically Jesus shrewdly packed more life into 3 years of ministry than I have in 34 years of breathing. So…the shove I need is found in the Jesus who is in the heart of the alcoholic, convict, prostitute, etc. thinking they’re too weak to shove back because addiction and indiscretion mopped up the floor wit ’em. Surely a God who puts the dog in the fight must have put some fight in the dog.