Echoes

Echoes are priceless.  Yet most think they are only here for children’s enjoyment.  Echoes go beyond the idea of shouting funny sayings in order to hear a cave talk back.  Echoes include any process which allows us to hear, see, and feel what we have already said or done.  Far too often I listen through filters which ignore anything unpleasant, look through rose colored glasses, and buffer my senses with a coat of emotional armor.  I don’t really want to hear, see, and feel what I have done; why does one need to look at it?
 
Unless reality hits home, in the space my heart and mind hide from the world, there is little chance that I will do anything materially different from yesterday.  If this is the case I doom myself to a life stuck on repeat.  Yet the opposite is equally true.  If I can muster the courage to listen, serious and intently listen to the echo of yesterday’s words, I can grasp the opportunity to make a difference now.  If I experience the impact of the actions I just made, the window to do something about the needs of those around me grows exponentially.  If I look with virgin eyes, ruthlessly examining the events and my role in them, I have the opportunity to see what Divinity is trying to do with each of us.  Everything turns on our echo.
 
People usually ignore echoes.  Politicians think everything is rosy when it isn’t.  Denial on a myriad of fronts is alive with our sports heroes.  Key players in history were legendary in their ability to deny established facts.  One example was the senior religious leader of Jesus’ day.  He missed his echo.  When “he didn't say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for the nation, and not only for the nation but so that all God's exile-scattered children might be gathered together into one people.”  (John 11.51, 52)  He had no clue.
 
Today is an opportunity to hear echoes.