If you wear it, live it!!!!!

24 MARCH
Give up stress. Ask
stress what it has
done for you lately.
Bend towards the
cross. There is a
lot on the other side
of it.

So this is what I'm suppose to be writing about today. As I sit here in teas in a public place reading and learning more about a person, a human, a YOUNG PERSON'S death. Tayven Martin was shot down cold blank after being chased because he was in a grey hoodie. But wait, that's not the whole truth is it?? If we are going to tell it why not tell it it all. He was a young black man whose family dared to have money and live in a nice gated neighbor hood not on a slum ghetto street where he had nothing to do but hang on the corner. HE went out and bout him self some iced tea and his younger family member some skittles. How dare he.  How dare his family live in a nice place that some one thought he didn't deserve. Yes he had on a hoodie. Yes he was black.....but his crime was that he and his were daring to up set the status quo just by where they lived!


I don't know what to say people. I started to leave the bottom part of this "challenge" out , the part about the cross, then I was going to make it more "well rounded" by using other symbolism of places to leave your stress. But I decided not to, for one main reason. How many of you, especially those that are Christian know why Jesus ended up on the cross. (Besides the Beloved Son of God  and for our sins and it was his destiny to die for us.)  What was the excuse? Why was he arrested in the first place?

Jesus was a rebel. Period. He didn't live by the rules of His time so the leaders were looking for an excuse.

The Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Matt. 21:12

And Yeshua entered The Temple of God and cast out all of those who sold and bought in The Temple and upset the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

Matthew 21:12-17

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus at the Temple

 ¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’^[a] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’^[b]”  ¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
 ¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
   “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
   “‘From the lips of children and infants
   you, Lord, have called forth your praise’^[c]?”
 ¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

So as a friend of mine shared in a sermon, Jesus broke Pax Romana , the peace of Roman. He didn't follow the rules. HE caused a ruckus.

If you know the history of the time it is much more complicated then those few versus. People sod animal sacrifices at the temple, not because people didn't have their own to sacrifice, or that they didn't have fruit and grain to sacrifice, but because their were "special guards and priest hired by ROMAN to decide what was good enough. You can bet if you bought your own sacrifice it was not going to be good enough. Then you were not allowed in to pray and cleanse yourself.

The next part is you needed temple money to buy these things, most people didn't have it so they went to the money changers and lost money there making the exchange, before they went to lose money to buy a sacrifice to/for those of  the temple. Yes I said temple. The wording may have been to God...but come on really????

So Jesus stood up!! Made it know how he felt, that a place of worship and prayer, well should be about  relieving stress, gaining peace, communing with God/dess and learning.  Not losing everything you worked a year for.Let's not forget Hs cousin John got beheaded for some pretty radical thinking too. MAny of both of their disciples, did not live to die a quite death in old age.

So enough of this story (though important) we will hear plenty of it the next few weeks.  If you want to learn more, ask me, ask a pastor, google, research...don't just accept the few tid bits tossed to you.
 

We do this over and over through history.  WHY? Why are we so scared of change?? Are we scared if others start getting what is FAIR our fair share will feel like less? Do we think if we keep beating down people AND making laws to make it ok or wrse the government does the beating down its really ok??

Witches (wise women, healers) were burned at the stake like common criminals. Jesus and his followers were crucified beside thieves and murderers.  Queer people are killed by governments while rapists are celebrated.
Wars are fought over so many things. Transgendered people are beaten in a public places and people film it rather than help or even call 911. Politicians that try to make change are gunned down in the street. Leaders for equal rights have their lives cut short by other peoples hands. And suicide. These poor young people. Yes it was by their own hands but again lets be honest......its murder by  bully, culture or pulpit. (People say to this...get a stronger back bone, thicker skin. I say you try it every day. It breaks you back and erodes your skin. Day after day. Before long you believe it and start helping to destroy your self.)

On the flip side I hope people do get thicker skin and grow a back bone. Not to only to survive, but to have the strength to stand up for what you believe in. Those that have survived, need to not just look away, but be a rebel.....turn over some tables....shake up some ideas. Lead the the cause. Make your life worth something. Do NOT sit here and say you survived so can they......make it better!!!!


So yes give up stress and take up passion!!!!

If the cross is your symbol of who you are...wear it for the world to see, but not to brag you are Christian , but to remind you what you should be standing up for and what can go wrong if you don't!! Do we need another Yeshua to suffer and die for us before we can get this right?

What is your religious symbol? The star of David....the Om symbol...the pentacle?  So many things, so pretty....use them for reminders not decorations!!

Lets  take the beauty and wonder of this song and go further. Stop imagining and start believing. The time is now!!! We are already walling side by side with our God/dess. There in your neighbors face....even if that face is brown with a grey hoodie. God/dess resides in us all. Red and yellow back and white. We are created in God/dess image, we have HER in us, we are created from HIM. No matter the religion or the name, we are the divine. That my friends is a crazy power. Use it wisely.

Momentarily back to my Christian up bringing.....don't let the cross stand in vain. The star of David is your back ground.....remember the middle is where divine meets human....where we are suppose to be...don't let the men and women that wore that sewn on there shirts death be worthless. The pentacle,  so full of life....earth, fire,water, air, and spirit. Never ever let it go to waste.

Again I say  yes yes YES give up stress take up passion. Live up to your spirituality and the symbols each have.

Shelama

If you wear it, live it!!!

 Me

“Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter,
and those who matter don't mind”
― Dr. Seuss