Hard Questions

Just before a New Year, one naturally reflects.  It is almost as if we cannot help ourselves.  We review the highlights of the year.  We relive the low lights.  In between, we wonder aloud.  What could have been different?  What should be that is not.  We try to ask the tough questions.  Even at a time where is comes naturally, I wonder if we really want to see and ask ourselves what needs to be asked.  Are we willing to explore the difficult questions that strike at the heart of our values?  Are we willing to look hard in the mirror?  Will we accept the shortness of our lives as a motivator to live fully and completely in the present?
As much as I would hope that my answers were and are a resounding yes, I am not so sure.  I listen to the questions that others before me have grabbled with and I am not sure I am willing to face the truth of my answers.  “Don't we all come from one Father?  Aren't we all created by the same God?  So why can't we get along?  Why do we desecrate the covenant of our ancestors that binds us together?”  (Malachi 2.10)
These simple questions strike at the heart of what I want to be different today and in each that follows.  I want the world to be a better place.  I believe it can be.  If both are true, the beginning for me starts within.  We share a common Father.  The same God created us.  The choice of getting along pivots on what I do in each moment.  The only one I can touch is the present, so in a sense everything in my life rests in and on the moment at hand.
I find that as I accept the reality of where I stand, I begin to see how God has put me into a community where Divinity is always present.  There are lessons to guide and instruct.  God has chosen to live within your life and mine.  We are the difference.