Razing in the Son

In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry's heart-stirring play, "A Raisin in the Sun" debuted on Broadway.  The first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway, "A Raisin in the Sun" portrayed the (fictional) Younger family's agonizing struggle with competing dreams and-- as poet Langston Hughes called them-- dreams deferred.

Some of us know exactly what it's like to struggle and agonize internally with competing dreams or desires. Others of us languish over unfulfilled hopes and dreams deferred from our "Younger" days. 

As we prepare our hearts to reflect on the agony Jesus endured on the cross on our behalf, let us remember that Jesus knows what it's like to agonize over competing desires.  In the garden of Gethsemene, the night before He was to be crucified, Jesus sweated drops of blood as He asked, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me."  Even though He admitted His desire to forgo the agony of the cross, His desire to fulfill God's will led Him to conclude, "nevertheless, not my will, but Thine."

Our desire for self-preservation is natural.  We naturally and instinctively seek comfort, safety in satisfaction in our lives.  But, when those things compete with what we have been created, called and commissioned to do for the Kingdom, these urges must not be raised up to a position of prominence.  Instead, they must be razed, or cut down.

Some of us will never truly start living until we are finally willing to die to some things.

What have you been raising in the sun?  What have you been allowing to grow in the natural nourishment of the sun and soil--the earthly, natural environment? If we continually nourish the physical and emotional soul at the expense of our spiritual growth, we fragment ourselves and the wholeness and sense of fulfillment that we seek will continually be deferred.

Our God-given gifts, talents and dreams are always given to us for the greater good, not just our personal satisfaction or private ego boost. Once we finally see the big picture from God's point of view, there is no competition between what we desire and what God desires.  To fulfill God's desire is to feel full-- full of power, full of purpose and fully alive!

This Friday, "Good Friday," provides an opportune time for us to cut out those things in our lives that hold us down because we insist on raising them up. The signs of the time are daily reminders that we cannot afford to hold on to people, places and things that don't move us forward.  Remaining in "neutral" or "park" is simply not an option.

If we're honest with ourselves, we know exactly which attitudes, actions and acquaintences need to go.  So, let's stop putting sweat equity into raising in the sun those things that we actually need to be razing in the Son, or nailing to the cross.  When we do so, we might suffer pain and separation anxiety, but just like Jesus, if we hold on, our Sunday morning will come!

My prayer is that we will not only celebrate Jesus' resurrection this Sunday, but that we will also be able to celebrate our own!

BNcouraged!

Rev. Karen