Blues

As you know, I love Blues, especially early in the morning.  It’s energizing to see life clearly; beauty and ugliness, the spectrum of good and bad, even the awesome colors found in the dawn and passing of night.  I know much isn’t beautiful in itself.  Yet for me the presence of it all brings hope.  I find opportunities and a sense of mission and purpose.  I find others reaching out and I know I’m part of a great community!  I also find challenges, within and without.
 
In the midst of this clarity, which often fades as the day gets complicated and messy, I see myself caught between two realities.  I’ve no doubt of my desire and aspiration.  I want to be one of the good guys, reaching out, delivering compassion and hope to those in need.  Yet more often than not I am coming out of a place in life where I have compromised good, promoting the grays which confuse everyone, including myself.  The scene is not pretty.  There are many in this camp, shuffling along, working to convince others to join them in this quest.  To everyone in this camp I find an old writer’s condemnation fitting; “Doom to you [evil peddlers] who think you're so smart, who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!  All you're good at is drinking—champion boozers who collect trophies from drinking bouts and then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty while you violate the rights of the innocent.” (Isaiah 5.21-23) 
 
To those aspiring for good I offer the following advice.  See and understand life for all that it is – good, bad, beautiful and ugly.  Be an agent for change.  Divinity offers each the opportunity to be involved – in small ways and big, in easy times as well as times which are difficult.  Stand up for Hope, Compassion and Mercy.  In the midst of life’s pain, we can be the quiet voice of the blues.  We can see and reach out, we can struggle and climb, and we can walk along side others and share the load.