5 months and 19 days

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

My dad is a civil engineer and worked for the state of Texas his entire career, beginning at the age of 20 as an intern, and in 2 years, will retire at the age of 62. The last 30 years have even been in the same office. One benefit of being a state employee is you get about 100 different, odd "holidays." Growing up, it seemed like at least once a month dad had a day off because it was "Celebrate the Honey Bee" day or something similar.

One of those holidays for state employees was (and I believe still is) today, "Juneteenth." Whether or not this is accurate, this is how Wichita Falls explained this day to me: This is the day that the slaves in Texas received word of the Emancipation Proclamation. In other words, this is the day they heard they were free.

So for 5 months and 19 days, people kept working as slaves even though they had been set free. The delivery of this news then is about as efficient as today's delivery of corporate strategies through the company's ranks.

I thought about this as I walked to yoga this morning. Just around the corner from my condo is my yoga studio that wakes me up and gets me moving every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Today, as I walked to yoga in my flip-flops, I must admit I was a little grumbly, wishing for just a little more sleep simply because my brain cells are working on overload assimilating my new job and church.

As I turned the corner to the studio, right in front of the studio, was an old-run down Ford Thunderbird, painted "primer" color, hubcaps missing, windows rolled down and seats reclined cradling two people, most likely in their 30s but aged by their living well into their 40s and 50s. They had not arrived early for yoga and decided to grab a little shut-eye; they slept there all night. I didn't want to stare and I didn't want them to wake-up and ask me for money either. Here I am, ready to claim my inner peace, and the reality of homelessness, hunger and poverty sits right in front of my yoga studio.

When the first car pulled into the parking lot, the driver woke-up, got his senses to him, started his car and he and his friend drove away. They never asked me for anything. They didn't even say hello or good morning. Of course, why would they, I didn't say anything to them either. Maybe they didn't want to talk to me as much as I didn't want to talk to them.

I believe our society is living in the very-long age of "5 months and 19 days." The truth has been announced and yet we haven't heard it. So we keep living in our own personal slaveries, we keep enslaving others and in so doing, enslaving ourselves. These two lives have been labeled and they are in a spiral that most likely is stronger than their ability to calm the storm. Who knows where they drove to after they left. And who knows where their car is parked tonight.

What truth has been announced that you have not heard? God has made a proclamation and the truth will set you free. Do you hear it?