Faith In The Future

I sit here and reflect on how Christians around the world have just come off one of the most joyful of celebrations. A celebration wherein the Son of God has been resurrected and would walk amongst his followers once again before his ascension into paradise to be with his Father, as he had prophesied in his teachings. The same promise he would make to those followers if they believed in him during those times of turmoil and uncertainty, and within his houses of worship today where his message still rings true to his followers. 

Yet the day after that wonderful celebration, flags have once again been lowered to half-staff as a nation again mourns the loss of five co-workers of a 25-year-old bank employee who opened fire on innocent victims of his rage and the wounding of at least nine others in another senseless act of violence in Louisville, Kentucky. That on the Monday after the world celebrated His teachings of love and understanding. 

The world itself seems to be spiraling out of control as we speak, as another nation lies in ruin, where innocent children lie in the streets dead or severely wounded 5,000 miles away from that bank in Kentucky. The war in Ukraine seems to be descending further and further out of the reach of responsible men and women who can ultimately bring peace to this conflict before it reaches an outcome none of us wish for mankind.

Given all of this negative energy, I do have hope that we will deal with these horrific challenges in a manner that will make us all proud. Yes, I’m an optimist and one who tends to see the positives that lie ahead of us, especially after looking into the eyes of hundreds of beautiful children on this last Sunday as they gathered up the colorful Easter Eggs during the Spring Jubilee Celebration at Mackle Park just a few days ago.

Oh, I’m not telling you that the road ahead will be easy. It won’t be. It will take a great deal of sacrifice, something future generations will have to swallow hard on. Our nation has shown it has the will and stamina to do so, as did our forefathers that came before us.

This recent generation has come to expect that success will be easy, but I know it won’t be. That someone will be standing there to lift us over those high hurdles when in fact, the success we seek must lie within us. It will require each of us to reach deep within ourselves to get over the next obstacle while reaching back to help the next person behind us. Unfortunately, I sometimes think we have forgotten that together we can conquer most any challenge that awaits us.

If we are to be successful, we must develop new ways to solve problems, explore new ideas and embrace technological advances. We must go beyond the tried and tested ways of the past and expand our thought processes, expand our minds and infuse new energy into every endeavor we involve ourselves in.

Leaders of tomorrow must embrace and nurture those that will eventually replace them rather than fear for their own positions in life, understanding that simply standing in place means we are losing ground in a world that moves so quickly around us.

There exists a void in leadership within the world community and here in our nation to make the tough decisions that must be made. It is leadership that fans the flames of hope and provides the energy to move us forward. For a nation and a people that attempt to stand on its laurels is one which soon will find itself without the momentum to move forward and take on the great challenges of the future.

We must find it within ourselves to ignite those great flames which past generations have found necessary to power our nation once again into the future. Our nation’s greatest days are ahead of us if we choose to stand up and take on those challenges.

We are not a nation of hate or bigotry, as some would have us believe. We choose to empower those amongst us regardless of the color of their skin, the house of worship they attend, their gender, or the nationality of their ancestors. None of this has been an easy transition, for we are human and have made mistakes, but we will continue to overcome those errors of our past and move forward, for we must learn from those failures of judgments and not attempt to run from them, but instead learn from them.