Momentum

           Many traditions have led us to the awareness that speaks these are indeed the times of Armageddon. The word Armageddon is only mentioned once in the Greek New Testament and yet it carries a very heavy weight. The words Armageddon and Apocalypse are often interchanged. While they do share an overlapping space, they are not the same word. Armageddon is mentioned once in Revelation 16:16 and is the Hebrew word for where the last battle between good and evil will be fought. Christ says he will come as a thief in the night and tells us that those who watch for his return shall be blessed (Revelation 16:15).

            When looking up the meaning of Apocalypse many definitions show up ranging from insight, hallucinations, cataclysmic event, doom of mankind, complete and final destruction of the world, and an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. However when looking deeper into the etymology of the word, the Greek root literally means “an uncovering”. It is a disclosure of knowledge and yes, revelation! All around us we see the signs of the times, and yes, it is easy to believe that a catastrophic event or a cataclysmic change is just over the horizon.

            Rolling Stone put out an article on Global Warming making it very clear who the real enemy is. Bill McKibben talks about the damage that the 0.8 degrees Celsius that our Earth’s temperature has already been raised has done. The Copenhagen Accord met and one hundred sixty-seven countries signed as being on board with the two degree goal! Two degrees is the most we are allowed to raise our temperature. Wait! If 0.8 degrees Celsius has already caused one-third of the Arctic’s summer sea ice to melt and has also caused the oceans to become thirty percent more acidic, how much damage will 2 degrees do exactly? (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-188550/?print=true)

            Most of the world is waking up to the fact that we need to wake up. Now what? How must our global communities respond? Howard Thurman speaks of our need to find our common ground. I would love to believe that we will find it before the cataclysmic event arrives. It is more likely unfortunately that the cataclysmic event is what will bring us together. So how do we prepare? What are some ways that this might be done? First, we must prepare to the best of our ability for the most likely gamut of possible cataclysmic events. We as leaders must teach our communities how to survive “off the grid”. We must teach one another how to defend ourselves in case of the advent of a military state police take-over. We must store foods and water, and learn how to plant and grow and cultivate and prepare our own foods. We must stay abreast of current knowledge and remain connected not only to our own city or town community but also our global community.

            Chronos has us so busy chasing our tails. We as the American culture are racing around toward our next destination, stopping to stare at the next digitized screen. What does it all mean? What are we purposefully being distracted from? What cataclysmic event awaits our dissociated race? Why does the pace continue to become faster and faster. Where is acceleration leading us? Now, stop. Breathe! Reflect. Apocalypse means revelation. Apocalypse means an unveiling. Is Apocalypse then the bridge that leads us to Heaven on Earth? The world was born in the timing of the Divine. We breathed life in the perfect moment. Kairos.

            Kairos is the perfect moment waiting in the darkness for the world to be formed. Kairos is the OM that became the first sound. Kairos is Jesus appearing to his disciples after being raised from the dead. Kairos is Peter realizing he didn’t have to drown. Kairos is arriving in the right place at the right time. Kairos is meditating so we can breathe deep and hear the whispers of our mind. Kairos is all that shows us the way to the Divine. Kairos. Kairos. Kairos. What if we had the power to walk from one Kairos moment to the next like stepping stones in a sacred garden filled with life and poetry? What if we had the power to call Kairos to us in the moment of our greatest need? What if Kairos is silently waiting for us all to be free? Kairos. Kairos. Kairos.

            Women like Angela Davis have learned to pay due respect to Kairos. She followed her spirit through the dark and stormy waters of being a black, female activist in a time when nothing she was had ever been popular. She has the courage to write books, travel the world with her wise words and spare nothing for the justice she so firmly believes in. Kairos. Is there not a little Angela Davis in us all? Doesn’t every creation story have a Fall? Does it not take almost drowning to realize we never had to at all? Should we then be afraid for Armageddon to call? Kairos.

            John Pavlovitz said it so perfectly when he stated, “I’m so tired of Christian prayers. I imagine God is too. I’m quite certain the people we so readily say that we’re praying for are tired of them…Stop praying already Christian. Stop tossing off hollow words to the ether when you’re standing on the bloody ground of a hurting world…This is not about passing the buck to God. This is about incarnating the love of God…Pray less. Move more.” We have the power to be the change we seek in the world (Gandhi). Prayer is beautiful if it is the mantra by which we articulate our plan of action. Prayer is not beautiful if we do nothing but sit and expect God to save us all.

            So here we are, in the last hour. The clock is ticking faster and faster and Chronos has us dancing like marionettes on strings we don’t even believe in. The wind-up toy this society has become is racing faster and faster instead of slower and slower but burn-out is the only outcome of this current arrangement. Bill McKibben made it abundantly clear that we are the monsters responsible for current ecological situation and even if we stopped carbon emissions right now, it is already too late. Our “environmental efforts to tackle global warming have failed (p. 5)”. So should we as humanity just assume the definition for Apocalypse that stands for our final doom? What is left to do?

            I stated earlier that we must be as prepared as we possibly can for cataclysmic catastrophes. I believe that the second phase to becoming prepared should be our global connection with the rest of humanity. Should something of an apocalyptic, seismic, catastrophic nature occur we will definitely do better to stand together. Furthermore, is it not about time to put down our differences and find that common ground of which Howard Thurman so passionately spoke? We have all these digital methods of social interfacing now available and society has become more segregated and more dissociative than ever. It is time we come together! The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of the Divine will arrive in the nick of time. Mark 1:15 reminds us to be ready. It reminds us to repent. Kairos. Kairos. Kairos.

            For every soul that sees. For every heart that knows the battle cry. For every leader that knows part of their calling is to lead the people to the Promised Land, we must surely act now. We must use the social medias as our sacred tools. We must gather those that hear together. We must speak from the mountain tops the poetry that knows no age, no language, no gender. We must play the sacred harp that calls all cultures, all religions, all people to come nigh. We must act as if the lives of all the world depend on it. We must have faith that all we do is not in vain. We must have faith that our suffering is almost over. We must have courage to keep marching until Zion is no longer a mythical land in the distance. We must lead the people home.

            Every soul who knows the way must take their level of responsibility, their level of duty, their level of action to the next height. We all get caught up in habits and rhythms that we know are incorrect. We must be true to our own soul and we must emanate a light for the world to see. We must show the world in what we must believe. We must show the world how we can be free. Freedom comes to the soul that harbors no weight of guilt. This does not ask of us to be perfect. What spiritual freedom requires is the honesty to own up to our wrongdoings and to constantly work at becoming better versions of ourselves. We have all that it will take to set the human race free.

            For every injustice we must rise. For every act of oppression we must cry out. For every lie told we must shed light on truth beyond a shadow of doubt. It is our duty to level the playing fields and to stand for the unification of the human race. Power and greed have so many weeping on their knees. Yet it rains on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. We are our own worst enemies. We all have a deep darkness within us. The most powerful move one soul could make, would be to honor their soul and to evolve daily. Should we all follow this model of human living, the population would ascend to a higher vibration which would raise also the vibration of this planet. Life will surely breathe on. May we become like Peter and rise from the waters of our self-doubt. May we rise like the Phoenix from the ash and know that we are all a part of the living solution.

I perpetuate forward motion

Propagate revolution

Healing contusions to my mental

Elemental to my peace

I release this beast from within me

I am the moon in all her fullness

Reciprocity by definition

I have this confession

It is our time to rise!