36 Square Feet

PrayerMetro puts out thoughts to provoke thinking not preach religion. Think. Meditate. Pause. Pray. Consider. Act.

36 Square Feet.
The typical American has a privacy zone of 3 feet any direction.  That covers 36 square feet of space for each person.  When we allow someone to enter that space, there is possibility of major change.
By changing the person in the middle of those 36 square feet, you can effect change to anyone with whom they have personal contact.  The more individuals you change through thoughts and actions the more catalyst potential exists in a community.  Think of all those squares bumping into each other on a given day.

Decisions Change the Squares
Last year at this time decision makers made a decision.  They decided to wait, watch, and see.

Community Collision
Our community had a long time resource named the Oklahoma Family Policy Council.  Over the years, it had good impact among youth in the schools and in information among legislators and community leaders.  Involvement in cooperative efforts with congregations and other organizations brought visibility and support to family and fathering needs.

The decision resulted in change.  The organization is gone.  The need is not.

New Needs
New needs erupt over time in any community and culture.  New approaches with maybe ancient messages have to be engaged.  New faces have to come forward.

Pain - Just Do It!
Change requires pain.  My friend, Jesus, once advised that unless you plant a seed and let it die, you will never see growth.  A single seed of corn can become a small piece of a meal or it can become the birth of thousands of other seeds through planting and growth.

Voice
In my prayers and pains watching and intersecting with our community, sensitivity to need strengthens. There needs to be effective voices for the right messages.

Fixing Fractures
Family is really the only positive and generational solution to community chaos.  The co-commitment of marriage and relationships of blood and bond keeps a community vibrant and humility intact.

Fathers must be strong.  There just is no way to make a community work without strong fathers and men that support and protect.  It is the way of things.

Faith turns the tide.  People of  faith are people of action.  Action brings results.

Friction must be engaged with conversation and cooperation.  You cannot ignore disagreements and conflicts of opposing ideas.  There must be engagement at a visible and invisible level.

Front-line leadership is required.  Figureheads serve a major purpose.  Ignore this at risk.  People follow leaders within organizations.  Leadership must be touchable. They do not follow organizations with no visible and touchable leadership.

Just Thoughts
These are just thoughts.  My prayer is we find a community solution in Oklahoma.  Yesteday, I met with another leader in the community working on sexual assault and violence prevention.  Raging issues run in the undercurrents.  Without a clarion call to action with a clear course to take, the issues will continue to pound our community stability. Symptoms of domestic violence, date rape, painful divorce, child neglect and abandonment, discordant souls reaching for drugs and gangs to assuage pains of fractured relationships, sexual abuse, bullying, and other anti-social ills will persist among us always.  There must be voices to speak in support of solutions.  People know the problems exist though they may not realize how much destruction happens daily.

36 Square Feet of Change
May we birth something in our society to change our sphere.  We can't change everything everywhere.  We can change the 36 square feet around us.