"lions and tigers and bears...and huge taxes...oh my"
with the ever expanding economic crisis i have been reminded of a book i used to read and have taught to my students in the past; the wizard of oz. you all remember the story...dorothy gets taken to the land of oz by a cyclone where she kills a witch, causes another witch to be angry, makes friends with munchkins, obtains some silver shoes (that is if you read the book instead of just watching the movie) and told to follow the yellow brick road to find the wizard who will be able to fix all her problems and send her home.
along the way dorothy makes some new friends. a scarecrow who needs a brain, a tinman who needs a heart and a lion that needs courage. they all band together to go to the bright shining emerald city to find the all powerful wizard who will give them everything they desire. and what is it they discover once they reach the glittery emerald city and find the wizard? they find they have been deceived. they find that this wizard, in fact, had no real power at all. that he was hiding behind a facade of power that did not exist. that he was a fake. that it was not within his power to help any member of the group obtain what they desired most. it was all smoking mirrors.
while many people believe that the wizard of oz was written by baum as a metaphor for the populist movement, i can't help but see parallels between the book and our current crisis. people all over this nation who are suffering for a plethora of reasons are looking to our emerald city, washington d.c. and our wizard, barack obama, to fix all of their problems. for many the glittery promises that extend outward from washington d.c. and the man that presides over it has caused them to place their faith in a place, an institution and a man that truly has very little power to fulfill their basic needs let alone the desires of the heart.
while it seems as though all is lost for dorothy and her friends, as well as many of us, there is a silver lining. in the book it is revealed that dorothy and the others had the power all along. all they had to do was decide what they wanted most and they could make it happen, because the true power came from inside themselves. for us it is the same...with a bit of a twist. we do have the power to help ourselves and we should be working towards bettering ourselves, not waiting for our government to do it for us, however, i still think there is something we are missing that is the key to true happiness and success.
we should not be following the yellow brick road. we should not be seeking emerald city. we should not be seeking the wizard. instead we should be following the narrow road less traveled. we should be seeking heaven. we should be seeking the Father. once we begin to seek the Father and we become heavenly minded, we will indeed find someone who will make our lives complete and not just for now, but for eternity. and while this road may be far more difficult to travel, unlike the wizard, our Father is with us every step of the way, and at the end of that road is a place to which emerald city could not begin to compare. it is a place of peace, beauty and love with a glorious Father who loves us and will make us all whole again.
as we continue in this economic crisis, i pray that we will all remember that the Father never leaves us and never forsakes us. let us be heavenly minded and always praising His name.
peace and love.
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