How We Think Matters

Slavery officially ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, but too many of us are still in shackles.
No, not iron shackles, binding our feet and hands, but mental and emotional shackles, which keep us from experiencing life to the fullest.
I thought about this last week, actually, when it became obvious to me that a whole lot of folks, black and white, are enslaved by the Conservative Right. The debacle with Shirley Sherrod made that all too clear, and, sadly, it showed that our president is included in the ranks.
The Liberal Left is enslaved because they are so worried about the upcoming elections and the 2012 presidential election. They are running scared, listening to poll numbers, and the rants of those on the Right who oppose President Obama and all he does.
The president is enslaved by that same group, and his slavery is exacerbated by a group of advisors, primarily white, who have advised him to steer clear of anything racial. Geez. President Clinton had more rapport and demonstrated more comfort talking about race than Mr. Obama.
That being as it is, however, my bigger concern is how WE are enslaved by the way we think. We think little. We think of all the reasons something cannot be done. We think of all the things we cannot do …and because of that, many of us are living stagnant, unproductive and unfulfilling lives.
There is something amazing that happens when we step out of our comfort zones, put our toes, metaphorically, in the warm sands of a new experience. It is as though the warmth beckons us and whispers to us that “we can,” and once we begin this new journey, we become transformed as we realize that the whispered message was correct.
We can do a whole lot more than we think we can.
Hard times are opportunities to find out just who we are, what we are made of, what is inside us. The Shirley Sherrod episode showed the NAACP and the White House how effectively they are enslaved by fear of the Right. President Obama, in addition, is enslaved by a fear of being “too black,” having been convinced that to talk on behalf of justice as concerns race is a sure way for him to alienate important voters in 2012.
We, on the other hand, ordinary people, are enslaved by clouds of self-doubt that serve to keep us “in our place.” We continue to be the backs upon which rich people get richer and powerful people become more powerful, mostly because we think we can do no better.
In this year of repentance and transformation, it is time for us to “turn away” from old things and “turn toward” the Christ. In that turning, it is time for us to ask Jesus to change our doubt to faith, to cleanse us of the skepticism which keeps us put, and to believe that Jesus will answer the prayer. It is time for us to stop saying what we cannot do, and jump into the possibilities of all that God has equipped us to do.
If God enpowered Gideon to beat 300,000 Midianite armed soldiers with 300 men armed with nothing but trumpets, jars and torches, then surely God stands ready to empower us to do great things as well, both individually and collectively.
Since God IS, we ARE. Physical slavery in this country was outlawed in 1863. It is time for us to outlaw our self-imposed slavery to the powers and principalities which can only survive if we decide we want to stay in our shackles