I DON'T DO POLITICS

How many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t do politics!”? Where does this come from? What do they think politics are? People arguing and griping about societal problems? Too much money and too much ego? Businesses lining the pockets of ‘our’ representatives to manifest their clandestine agendas?

The definition of politics is “the science or art of political government; the practice or profession of conducting political affairs. An associated idiom is the term “playing politics, which is to engage in political intrigue, take advantage of a political situation or issue, resort to partisan politics, etc.; exploit a political system or political relationships; to deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way, as for job advancement” [dictionary.com].

Politics operates on sets of rules and laws that govern the exchange of facts and opinions based on the agendas of the people who choose representatives to advocate their principles in how they want to live and exist in their communities.

Now, when you get up and get in your car to drive to the market, politics are involved. Laws were crafted to ensure the safety of your vehicle, the purity of the gas that fuels your car and the rules of the road that you drive by to get to your destination.

When you get to the market and shop for food, politics are involved. The food you buy has to be inspected for quality; the price of the food is determined by the supply and demand and the person who checks you out at the register has a set wage determined by collective bargaining for the time they spend in checking you out.

Business and people are the constituents of politics. You cannot escape it. It is a part of your life and to deny it reveals that you are either totally uninformed or you are completely selfish. Politics determines the rules of our lives and to ignore the process by which we live and breathe in society is foolish at best. We have been given the Divine gifts of free will, grace and Divine love in order to exist in our environments.

Are we thankful for these gifts? Do we stand up proud and say, “I don’t do politics!” and then complain about how things are? Or do we realize that the world around us is an amalgam of souls living and breathing with each other and seeking to understand the ‘grand scheme’ of things. Our interactions with people in our societies are all played by the rules of politics. To deny that is to live in an imaginary world where you are the monarch of your life and everyone else is a serf for your selfish pleasure.

Get off of your self-imposed high horse and get down in the dirt with the rest of us to balance the science of politics with the art of politics. Be diligent in knowing the world in which we live and affecting positive change. How do we do this? By committing service to our communities with the talents, skills and abilities that the Divine has imparted to us. Say this instead; “I do politics and I refuse to let politics do me!”

Affect your world with the Divine blessings you have been given and share those gifts with all of us. Retreat to your closet and commune with the Divine and get out into your communities to help others. Otherwise, politics will ‘do’ you and make changes in your life that you might not like or endorse.

Participate in life by affecting the political discourse with truth, honesty and transparency. After all, what you put out you will get back. If you don’t ‘do’ politics, it will surely ‘do’ you! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

IF I HAD A HAMMER

What does it take to express the values that you KNOW are life-giving? Does it take too much effort or do you just ‘feel’ that it will? What if you took a stand on these values and make the declaration that ‘the buck stops here’? And what does that mean? It is a metaphor for accepting the responsibility for what you will allow to exist in your life.

If something exists outside of what you ‘value’ and it ultimately hurts you or others, it is incumbent upon you to call it for what it is; aberrance, evil or acrimony. If you ‘pass the buck’, you are shifting the responsibility or blame to another person. It reveals exactly just what you value AND how real those values are to you.

If you had something that could help you express what you value would you use that as a tool to create the fulfillment of those values? A carpenter uses a hammer to fulfill the plans laid out for them. The nails hold the wooden frames together but it takes the ‘force’ of them swinging the hammer to drive the nails into place. It takes action in a direction to ‘join’ pieces of wood in such a way in order to reveal the end result that the carpenter ‘sees’ in their mind.

The designer or architect creates from the top down; in other words, sees the final picture and creates a model of what it will look like. The model is a representation of the final product and is used to ‘guide’ the architect in creating the plans that the carpenter follows. The carpenter creates from the bottom up by following the plans and constructing the parts and raw materials into the ‘vision’ of the architect.

It is much the same for us in constructing our lives. The Divine has designed our lives by ‘seeding’ us with our Divine purposes. Are we following the divine plans or are we allowing our egos to second guess the divine plan for our lives? When the structure or results of implementing our plans reveals walls that are not level or plumb, it reveals that we went ‘off of the plan’ and second guessed the divine plan.

When we hear of atrocities in the world, due we ‘ring the bell’ and let others know? Or do we retreat into our ‘comfort zones’ or inner sanctums and acclimate ourselves to the ‘perceived’ fact that there is nothing we can do about it? Is fighting or warring the only answer? Or is seeking peace through constructive dialogue more apropos to effecting peace?

Is there a song of peace in your heart or a song of war? Are you declaring with your words, actions and behaviors something other than what you are thinking, feeling or believing? Are your ‘walls’ level and ‘plumb’ or are they off kilter? It is up to us to align ourselves with Divine order; not the other way around. It is we who ‘go against the grain’ and create problems and perceptions of struggle in order to justify our egos being in command.

If we are not ‘hammering out justice’, ‘ringing the bell of freedom’ or ‘singing the song of peace and love’ among all of our brothers and sisters than we are NOT fulfilling our Divine purposes in Divine order. We can only align ourselves with the truth when we allow the peace, understanding, joy and Divine love to guide us into complete alignment with our Divine purposes in Divine order. All else are games that our ego plays to control our lives and fulfill its selfish agenda.

Focus on that which brings out those divine values and edifies all. Create a ‘structure’ in your life that follows the divine plans. Hammer out justice to all; ring the bell of freedom for all; sing the song of Divine love between all of creation. Be ye therefore perfect! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.