Monthly Archives: February 2021

Here are three questions I want you to consider, as we dive into this topic:

1. Have you ever been in (or can you imagine being in) circumstances where you were so lost that your only desperate desire was for someone to come along who could show you the way out?
2. Is there someone, when you think of them, who causes you to have an involuntary visceral reaction of loathing?
3. Now, if you found yourself in the desperate circumstances of Question #1 and the object of your loathing in Question #2 came along with fully reliable directions of how to get out, would you follow those directions and get out or would you spitefully remain in your misery?

Of course, I recognize that not everyone will answer these questions the same … especially in identifying the object/s of their loathing. Otherwise, though, I expect that the vast majority of you will answer similarly … particularly with Question #3. Incredibly, though, in recent days, I’ve seen many across the U.S. exhibiting the foolish opposite response of rejecting a message, containing much needed reliable directions, due to their lack of confidence in the messenger.

DESPERATE NEED

The polarization in the U.S. seems to have reached critical mass. As pointed out in the recent article Such A Time As This In America, without intervention, it may well result in civil war. Clearly, the U.S. is in desperate need of “reliable directions” in order to get out of these circumstances. Opinions on this topic have not been hard to come by but clear-cut solutions have not been as evident. Surprisingly to me, I saw the absolute best solution put forth in a Super Bowl LV TV Commercial. It told us this:

“There’s a chapel in Kansas, standing on the exact center of the lower 48 (U.S. States). It never closes. All are more than welcome to come meet here, in the middle. It’s no secret, the middle has been a hard place to get to lately, between Red and Blue, between serving and citizens, between our freedom and our fear. Now our fear has never been the best of who we are. And as for freedom it’s not the property of just the fortunate few, it belongs to us all. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, it’s what connects us and we need that connection. We need the middle. We just have to remember, the very soil we stand on is common ground. So, we can get there, we can make it to the mountaintop, through the desert and we will cross this divide. Our light has always found its way through the darkness. And there’s hope on the road up ahead.”

… To the Re-United States of America.

BOLD FULFILLMENT

The first in a series of recent articles entitled Beauty For Ashes, pointed out that American families, resting on the firm foundation of our communities, was once the strength of our social fabric. The second edition of Beauty For Ashes targeted the importance of restoring the stability of that firm foundation … the faith found in our houses of worship. The “chapel in the center (middle)”, as depicted in the recent Super Bowl commercial, represents that firm foundation. It recognizes that everything good in the world has faith in God as its foundation. The bad in the world, that many view as increasing at an ever accelerating pace, does not share that foundation.

REJECT THE MESSENGER

Sadly, many have foolishly rejected this message containing our  desperately needed reliable directions due to their skepticism towards the messenger. The primary object of this skepticism has been Bruce Springsteen, who served as the actor in the Super Bowl LV Commercial. Initial skepticism here came from the view that, in reality, Springsteen isn’t the sort of person that he depicted in the commercial. That has been summed up in saying, “He appeared to be a Conservative, cowboy hat wearing, guy from the heartland. But he’s really a Liberal, earring wearing, guy from New Jersey.” Additionally, since the airing of the commercial, it came to light that Springsteen had recently been arrested and charged with a DWI during a visit to New Jersey’s Gateway National Recreation Area. As a result, the commercial’s sponsor, Jeep, had the commercial removed from YouTube. Although the level of skepticism towards Jeep has not been nearly as intense as the skepticism towards Springsteen, the fact that this was a commercial that Jeep paid for has also detracted from the message being taken seriously.

RECEIVE THE MESSAGE

From my perspective, none of the skepticism outlined above has merit. Springsteen didn’t write the commercial. He was just the featured actor. I’d add that it’s unlikely he took the role because he needed the money or that he wanted more fame. Maybe he just thought it was a great message and he wanted to endorse it. Likewise with Jeep. Yes, it was a commercial that they paid for and no doubt, they hoped it would reflect well on them as a company. But, the only Jeep models featured in the commercial were models from the past, not current models. Maybe they, too, just thought the commercial contained a great message they wanted to endorse. Regardless, in order to get out of our present circumstances, the U.S. is in desperate need of the “reliable directions” contained in the message of this commercial. Even if this message had been delivered by the sort of objects of loathing that I described earlier, we would be absolute fools to reject the message as a result.