Scripture: Ecclesiastes3:4
A time to weep and a time to laugh, case
a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Thought for the Day: Maybe it’s time to think about a new dance. This bloody gavotte we’ve been performing for thousands of years has caused enough mourning. The machinery of war, troche constantly banging out its percussive shrapnel attack, has accompanied too many dances of death, for far too long.

I think that at least part of the reason we’re stuck in this singular, self-destructive groove is because nobody has the vision (maybe courage) to dance differently. We continue to hate each other and justify invasions, terror, and warfare against our own people (either directly or through economic disenfranchisement), because of ancient and archaic prejudices. We continue to fight over borders and resources as if they belonged to us in the first place, when in fact nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to God.

If we approach our world from a new perspective—that everything is God’s, and nothing is ours, maybe we’d start a new dance. If we’re not owners but stewards, our responsibility to each other and the planet intensifies. Life is no longer about what’s mine and what’s yours and the constant disputes that mentality causes. Life as God’s stewards removes borders and barriers, and unites us as one people. We are a singularity in the mind of God. I believe with all my heart that if we started thinking that way, the world would be a much nicer place to live.

Prayer: Help us mix it up, God of diversity. Help us teach the warmongers stuck in the old ways how to riff a new dance, for a new era, where all people recognize they are many leaves from the same branch—you, our Holy and Eternal God. Amen.