Month: November 2020

In his farewell speech in 1961 President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the rise of the military-industrial complex and the dangers of acquiring unwarranted influence due to the existence and, sometimes, actions of that complex. Arguably the nation paid little attention to that warning, tumbling through one military misadventures after another.

However, what did go noticed, and imitated, was the immense expansion of the military’s power over policy and the immense wealth accumulated by those who supplied and promoted the aforementioned complex. Over time other similar complexes arose. The healthservices-pharmaceutical complex is one example and the rise of the information-technology complex is another.

Those who led the charge for turning America from being a manufacturer of plow shares into a permanent manufacturer of swords railed against Eisenhower’s warning as a conspiracy theory.

40 years after Presidents Eisenhower’s warning our country finds itself involved in ongoing military actions, our people are deeply divided and have lost faith in government and basic social constructs. But those companies of the complexes, and the titans that run them, have amassed vast quantities of power and wealth.

Have you ever seen a mist lay across a meadow, obscuring the path that a creek takes through the trees?  Or maybe a mountain valley completely altered in view by a morning mist?  Distant landscapes changed by thick white blankets of fog.  Such misty scenes can be beautiful and pleasant for a moment, but then, they are gone.

Have you seen one of those large rock formations that announce their presence, sometimes from great distances?  Often labeled with handles such as chimney rock or lookout rock.

Prior to smartphones and nav systems people remembered and gave directions using such rocks as landmarks.  “Keep going south on the road until you see chimney rock on your left and about a mile further, you’ll see a house with a blue door”.

The use of rocks as landmarks is as old as time.

Not so with the use of mist as landmarks.

It would be folly to use the mist as a landmark, mist is ephemeral and often covers wide areas.  Mist comes and goes.  Sometimes in the morning, it’s there, sometimes it isn’t, but rarely does it stay very long.  It says its piece, melts away, and becomes a fading memory.

The rock is there night or day.  Even when you can’t see it, maybe obscured by mist, it’s still there, waiting to be a guide.

Would you have your life be a mist or a rock?  Would you have your actions guide others to hope and joy or be a mist that sometimes obscures such beacons?

Living your life focused on yourself is mist.  You will generate some beauty and pleasant moments but will become a fading memory.

If you are a Christian then living first for Christ, and second for yourself is the way of living life like a rock.  Let Jesus be your guiding rock and you will be a rock for others.  Strive to let every breath you breathe, be a breath for Him, every heartbeat, beat for Him, and your life will be a beacon, a life abundant. 

Like a rock.