The Obstacle

I hope you watched Amanda Gorman's poem at the inauguration.  If you haven't, you can go back one post on my blog to find the embedded video. 

I was so impressed with her writing, her delivery, and her presence.  And that was before I found out she has struggled with learning and speech challenges. The Today show says, "Gorman, a recent graduate of Harvard University, and her twin sister were born prematurely, and according to a 2018 interview with Understood, Gorman was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder in kindergarten and has struggled with speech articulation throughout her life. She describes it as "dropping a whole swatch of letters in the alphabet."  She was unable to pronounce the letter R until 2-3 years ago. 

Now look at this quote from the poem:

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,

we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.

We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west.

We will rise from the windswept northeast,

where our forefathers first realized revolution.

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states.

We will rise from the sunbaked south.

We will rebuild, reconcile and recover.

Notice all the R's.

There is a Zen Proverb that says, "Obstacles don't block the path. They are the path."  Would you choose your path to be overcoming a speech and auditory issue?  No.  But when the obstacle is there, overcoming it becomes the path.

What obstacles are in your way? Do you choose to stop walking the path? Or do you choose to make them the path? 

(Please note - I don't think every obstacles is a path that must be taken - sometimes God leads us a whole different way.  But my thoughts today are about using the obstacle as the excuse instead of the path.)

Perspectives: Barriers

Last Saturday, Steve and I walked through the park to watch the Veterans Day Parade (Josh was lead trumpet).  On the way, I saw took this picture.  My assumption is that this used to be a bridge across the creek that runs through the park. The bridge is gone, and the large black board is to keep people from walking over the non-existent bridge.  I took a picture of it because it brought to mind a few questions about obstacles. 

1. What obstacles do we place in the way of people across a way that used to be there?  What in our churches blocks people's participation? The obvious answers are accessibility obstacles, but there are others. Do we expect people to dress a certain way? Do we want children to act a certain way? Do we pigeon-hole people into certain roles based on age or gender?  What other ways to we block people from full participation in church?
2. What obstacles do we have in society that need to be removed? Beyond the church, are their obstacles that need to be removed for people to have a secure life? To have a home or food? To reach their potential at work? To achieve success at school? Can we look at life through another person's eyes and see what hinders them?
3. Where is the line between an obstacle that is for safety and one that blocks a person from reaching God. How do we decide?