The hankering hankerchief

Hachoo, Achoo!🤧

Sometimes it comes in twos, maybe threes.

We stumble and clumsily reach for a tissue to wipe it all away, get rid of them.

The tears for fears.

Or maybe the tears from the fears.

Could have come from anywhere:

A virus unleashed on the borders of somewhere else, from someone else. When the retreat occurred the result ensued that everyone point a finger at someone else.

No. It was not me who passed the bug along, I got it from you.

Round and round and round it goes and where it stops nobody knows.

Take a shot. Don’t take a shot.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter because the money has all been spent, hidden under a mattress, squandered at the tables of hope.

One day, ya wake up and finally admit it.

It was her.

I, however, did not take the needed and necessary steps to protect myself from the worst of it all.

What happened?

Well. The worst.

No tonic or drug or remedy or therapy in the world really puts it to rest. There is a lot of talk, many exercises and the dreaded like.

The good news is there are honest to goodness people desiring to help along the way.

The bad news is the negative always gets more attention that the positive.

Funny thing about the human condition is that it cannot be very funny at all.

Hachoo! AChoo!

The human condition is a cacophony of sounds and symbols begging for our attention on a 24/7 cycle of do’s and don’ts.

We do this, we will get this.

We don’t do this and we will catch this.

Round and round and round it goes.

Our healthy outlook wanes and wavers. We desire for change but are hamstringed to take the next step. Trip over ourselves in trying to prove our rightness. bump into incessant road blocks that stand in our way as our patience wanes and the we pull our Achille’s heel past the point of no return.

Point the finger at someone else and we poke ourselves in the eye.

Ouch.

Achoo! HAchoo,

Or is it,

Hachoo, Achoo.

I forget.

Why?

Because I am tired. You are tired. Tired of trying to figure out a world where everything seems flat and dreary and no one likes each other.

A push, a shove turns into a knife fight. It has been said a person cannot bring a gun to a knife fight, yet here we are.

Doing just that.

The stakes have become so much more dangerous and we are at a lost as to how to stop the madness and concrete insanity cemented in the hard times.

What are we all to do?

When all else fails?

When humans fail?

My go-to-guy is Him.

1 Samuel 17:

The biblical story of David and Goliath is the classic tale of an underdog.

The tale of a shepherd boy named David who volunteers to fight Goliath. A giant Philistine warrior who had been taunting the Israelite army.

The Bible tells us so.

The renditions may vary. With repetition God puts all the sense back into the senseless.

David, armed only with his faith, a sling and five smooth stones.

Now before you call David stupid, remember who the Judge is.

David goes on to defeat the giant with a single strike to the forehead.

Today. Modern day stories see riots, rallies and violence that have recorded that one strike of violence, one strike of hate on another human being can cause death.

David fighting Goliath is different.

Although the common denominator of the stories is fear. Non-believers in something greater than themselves may be dropping the ball into a vast and hate-filled crater of doubt and confusion.

In David and Goliath’s fight there were other common denominators of the modern-day stand-offs of violence and crimes of hate.

1. The stand-off. As the Philistines and Israelites are at war, on opposite hills in the Valley of Elah, Goliath, at 9 feet tall, and heavily clad in heavy bronze armor, challenges the Israelites to send out a champion and fight him.

Everyone is terrified.

Much like modern-day today where the fear is palatable and the answers are hate-filled remedies of knives and spewing words of discontent and abysmal forgiveness for our brother, our fellow man. Voluntarily or otherwise, we all gotta step it up.

Who is brave enough nowadays to do the right thing? Who is unafraid to take a positive forward step for another? Way back when David was that brave man.

2. David. David steps forward. David is the youngest son of Jesse, arrives at the battle lines to bring food to his brothers. Distressed by Goliath and his defiance of “the living God.” David, the young shepherd volunteers to fight. King Saul’s initial response was protest of the youth’s inexperience.

Sometimes, when we are confused as to what to do. We can punt, puke or pray.

3. The confrontation of David and Goliath included David rebuking King Saul’s offer of heavy armor as he steps up to the plate to fight Goliath. David loads a smooth stone into his sling, runs toward giant Goliath, after Goliath mocks him incessantly. Why? David approached the fight with God in his heart and God’s invisible armor of strength in his soul. “I come in the name of Lord Almighty”. David declares.

We are weak because we are fearfully waiting to be chosen. Little had we remembered how God chooses our weakness, those meek and humble to step forward, step it up.

4. David loads the smooth stone into his sling, runs toward the giant, and hurls it, striking Goliath directly in the forehead. The giant falls face down, and David uses Goliath’s own sword to behead him, causing the Philistine army to flee in terror.

What does this story try to teach us?

Faith.

The battles belongs to God. When a faithful smaller, weaker underdog aligns with God’s will, the enemy is beaten.

Believers know His will to be stronger than any possible fear.

Non-believers are those who may not have reached the maturity to understand we cannot do it all alone.

We need to lean on one another because no human down here is perfect.

He is perfect.

He has patience.

He chooses us in our weakest moments.

Not to close our eyes when the stone comes our way.

To step up and shield one another from our own worst fears.