19:40

Peace....


The church I grew up in had a tradition of asking folks for Bible verses if they came to meeting late. Depending on who was running the meeting, you might have to build on them. But for the most part you just had to quote them. I'm not sure if other churches did this. I have only been a member of 3 churches in my life and only the 1st one did this. It was funny to observe because you saw late people going through their Bibles before they hit the door.

120 has Bible verses. And you do have to quote them as well as build on them. 19:40 is one of such degrees. It has 2 Bible verses. Which I think is interesting since T.H.E.M. Was the one answering these questions. Shouldn't he be using the Koran? I get the people he was talking to were unfamiliar with the Koran, but at some point.....

Anywho.... I adore Ezekiel (God's Strength) 3:18! It sounds amazing when you quote it with emphasis! Like Samuel Jackson in Pulp Fiction. Strangely it was also Ezekiel but verses 25:17. Ezekiel was sure pissed off.... But the verse.... and I'm not writing it out here. You wanna know, look it up.... commissions an uncomfortable duty. We must counsel the 85 or, as the same degree tells, be punished with a severe punishment like being beaten with many stripes.

I hate the thought of doing that. I hate that I am supposed to walk up to folks, all unsolicited, and tell them about themselves. Can I tell you what would happen if someone did that to me??? I got your wrath Ezekiel. But since, as civilized people, we are held responsible for the uncivilized and punished, I have to get over that stage fright.

So what does this look like exactly? Does it look like me walking up to chicks who are showing entirely too much ass, and tell them they need to cover up? Is it going to a rib shack and telling all the patrons and employees that swine kills? Is me knocking on doors like a Jehovah's Witness and asking folks if they know who the true and living God is? Is it standing at the bus station handing out righteous tracts? It kind of is. But that's not my style. It's also not my style to laugh and point at 85ers behaving badly. We all have to find that within us to reach people in a useful way.

It's important that when you talk to the 85, you speak in a way that you words don't get disregarded by your audience. How many times have old people come at you in cold currents and you just go numb? And that's a shame because old people have a lot of sage advice to offer. But when they give good advice with bile, folks turn off. I've seen Gods and Earths do this very thing. Give good advice badly. And rationalizing it off by saying, “Well so what. They needed to hear it.” No... What they need to do is listen and consider, not just hear. That is casting your pearls before swine. An exercise in futility.

I remember back in the 80's Gods would stand on street corners heckling you about any infarction they saw not really offering solutions. It was annoying. “Yo! Little mama get that swine off your lips and seek the true Gawd!” Does that sound like Good Orderly Direction? I flipped them the bird and kept it moving. I'm not righteous because of those Gods. I'm righteous in spite of them.

So here is Serenity's plan... I'm funny. Indeed I am. What I do is greet people in a warm current and make jokes. (And I have met a plethora of UNFUNNY Gods and Earths) Get them laughing and slip a lesson in it. BOOM! Duty done. All the 85ers I share space with all know a little something something about my beloved Nation. Even the people I work with know the difference between our Peace sign and the hippie one. And they know why. When I leave for the day they all say, “Peace” to me. It's a little thing but it counts. Every now and then my boss refers to or calls me Serenity. Just as long as Serenity is NOT on my paycheck we good....

So what are you doing?



Peace