An aware person is someone who is sensitive to the experiences and events around him, but also to the experiences and events within him. Consider how tiring it is to watch the news and read the newspapers about all the hardships being suffered, the complexities being unresolved, and the divisions that give rise to conflicts which endanger all. Now consider being able to see the same within yourself. Each person is terribly complex. The good, the bad, the indifferent are all there inside each one. Wars rage, calm occurs, love exudes, bitterness bites, deceit flourishes, truth exists, justice lies next to manipulation and self interest in the same location, all within one person, and so much more.

I look at all the wars that history has recorded and see elements of myself, the good, the bad, and the ugly, as a movie title suggests. In each horror, blessings can be found because humanity is not left completely bereft of hope. February is Black History month, and in Lake City, Olustee Festival, a remembrance of the Civil War. The two events are tied together as some of the struggles fought then are still alive now. The Civil War was a great internal battle in which America fought America. We, as a country could not reconcile our self awareness, our conflicting opinions, our good and bad selves. We acted as though we could separate and negate parts of our selves and refuse pieces of our selves that were living internal parts.

Each of our individual body parts are necessary to the others. The kidneys cannot refuse the liver or the hands refuse the feet. We, as a nation, are built of necessary parts, each are invaluable to the others. The gift is that we are not the same. The liver is not the kidneys. Our nation is beautifully fitted with all the complexities that can create greatness or great destruction, just like an individual. We choose the outcome, the individual and the nation.

The issue then, as now, is that we are individual parts contending against each other. We need a unity that only something greater than the aggregate can supply. We are limited within ourselves to ourselves. God is greater and provides a point and purpose which unifies all the individual parts without stripping any of their uniqueness. God created the body so all parts and organs could work together while being individually amazing. The body was even created to have self healing properties which would balance against imbalance. He does that with individual people. He is working on that with a nation and all nations. We will have great joy when we allow God to rule.