A REED SHAKEN IN THE WIND…

“A reed shaken with the wind” in Bible language means a person blown about by every wind of doctrine. Ephesians 4:14 says, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

I have learned SO MUCH from my mother, but this sticks with me as an “overall lesson”: stay focused [almost tunnel-vision-like] in order to achieve your goals; and, if it is going to get done, YOU do it. This entailed on our not focusing so much on the past or the obstacles that were before us, but constantly and consistently moving forward. If we stopped to SEE what was going on around us – if we stopped to feel the pain of it – if we stopped to witness how many were being affected by it – IT would become a weight, a noose around our necks: like what our slave masters not only threatened us with, but who actually carried out the threat as a favorite pastime event. So, no! We were not going to be weighted or encumbered by the threats that were certain to come at any moment…

As a teenager growing up during segregation and having limited access to EVERYTHING, I was protected from the “weight” of it all. I was allowed by my mother’s strength to sail through this period in my life pretty much unscathed. It wasn’t until the Rodney King beatdown by LAPD police officers on March 3, 1991 that I began to catch a glimpse of it – to see it with my own eyes. You see, when I was growing up, ignorance was bliss. It was a protector. It was our magic potion of escape so that we could be able to sense a glimmer of hope that our lives could be better than where we were. Then May 25, 2020 happened. Former police officer and convicted murderer, Derek Chauvin, ended the life of George Floyd with the infamous knee on the neck police brutality move (another noose). This incident though, I not only saw it, I FELT it.

What I have learned since then is that by not looking and seeing and experiencing and feeling our history we are destined to become “a reed shaken in the wind” deceived by those who have weaved their doctrine (beliefs and systems) into our thought processes and ways of life. And THIS has nothing to do with God, and our tendency to blame Him for all of our woes. That SYSTEM that we say is broken?
That’s the doctrine I’m speaking of. It’s that doctrine that is alive and well and working exactly like it was designed to work: to keep us BELIEVING that we need a hand up, a benefactor, a rescuer, etc. THAT!!!

Knowing our history informs us, but we cannot stop there – we must also know that “doctrine.” We must know how it is designed and how it works. Once this has happened, we can then put our heads together and DESTROY and DISMANTLE it at its root: hatred. Knowledge is our power source and wisdom is the counsel that we give one another to become successful in building our future. Our destiny is NOT to be beggars and not to be reeds shaken – but trees PLANTED by rivers of water – bringing forth much fruit.