Feed the Good

My three-year-old son Declan woke up an hour before the alarm, crying this morning. This is more than unusual for my night-owl boy who takes a good forty minutes to get up and move each day. No doubt his little body and mind are starting to get weary with all of the changes he can sense happening, even if he can't understand. He is waking up earlier, staying at school longer, he has different teachers and friends in his room and after navigating all of this with only a couple of glitches, he woke up sad and tired and confused. So he cried. Part of me wishes I could have joined him. The world seems to have turned into a pressure-cooker with not enough warning. And more than the pressure is the underlying fear that there will be a new change, a new crisis, a new problem to solve at any minute. We are on-guard, running hard, and trying to anticipate the next hurdle to jump. So here is what I told my boy (and myself) as I held him in my arms this morning.

We must also remember that, just as Pastor Nate has told us before, the wolf you feed is the wolf that grows. So if we are feeding our anger, fear, and anxiety or if we are feeding our generosity, empathy, and hope that is what will become stronger. More than that, you will find the food you are looking for. If you are looking for ways to justify your fear and hoarding, you can find it. If you are looking for evidence that this is all being blown out of proportion, you will find that too. So let us commit to being a people who find the food to feed the good in the world and to be the good we all need right now.