SURVIVAL IS NO LONGER ENOUGH

Driven by selfishness and grief and regret, and knowing that all is lost, all they can muster is a ridiculously obvious and suicidal frontal assault for which the sheep is well prepared. The sheep has been planning for this moment for a long time. The Shepherd will watch closely, but will not intervene. This is the sheep’s moment, and the sheep must walk it, to a certain degree, alone.

The sheep knows it is time to make a stand. The moment of truth has arrived. The wolves are approaching, thirsty for blood – the same blood the wolves and their ancestors have been spilling wantonly for centuries. History has an incredulous way of repeating itself, and at the same time professing innocence by reason of forgetfulness. But the sheep has a keen sense of history. The sheep remembers.

This time it will be different, but not the dreamy kind of different that relies on belief in the wolf’s desire for enlightened reason, a dream already betrayed millions of times. This time it will be different because the sheep himself is different. The sheep has evolved, has emerged from the ghettos of brutality, crossed vast wastelands of denial, and avoided the pitfalls of indifference. Each of these challenges served to slow the march, and each taught its lesson, but none could dampen the will to survive driven by the faith in tomorrow.

This time it will be different because survival is no longer enough. After passing through the burning furnaces of history, to simply exist is no longer an option. It is uninspiring. Survival will certainly not inspire the children. And there is so much more at stake, so much more that needs to be done – a destiny to be fulfilled, a new chapter to be written, a new era to be revealed, mysteries to be uncovered.

The sheep is now prepared, more than any time in history, to confront the intolerance and hatred for what it is. No more sugar coatings. No more belief in false promises, gentrified facades, and the intrinsic goodness of humanity. The sheep has been down that path before. The wounds may have healed, but the memory – and the pain – remains.

This time it will be different because this time the sheep will dictate the terms. Yes, it will be a dictatorship of goodness, but a dictatorship nonetheless. The democratization of destiny has only served to empower the corrupt and to fuel their evil machinations. Today the sheep will seize the power of destiny and claim stewardship of it – not because he craves power but because he knows only he can make it right, that this is the task for which he is chosen and uniquely suited, and for which creation itself came into being. It is not just for his own benefit, but for the benefit of a better reality for all life on earth and beyond.

The wolves can sense that something momentous is imminent, and it makes them deranged. They gather for one final thrust, rallied by their leaders, for a last desperate attempt to retain their hold on destiny. They lose all sense of tact and self respect to the madness of what is transpiring, the sudden realization that they are (and have therefore always been) on the wrong side of history, and the magnitude of their impending and unavoidable loss. Driven by selfishness and grief and regret, and knowing that all is lost, all they can muster is a ridiculously obvious and suicidal frontal assault for which the sheep is well prepared. The sheep has been planning this moment for a long time. The Shepherd will watch closely, but will not intervene. This is the sheep’s moment, and the sheep must walk it, to a certain degree, alone.

Like the great ones who walked before him, it only takes one to cross the threshold and open the gate for everyone. And this battle is not won with guns or strategies or weapons of mass destruction or mass manipulation. It is won with inner strength and wisdom and love and sincerity, and unleashing three thousand years of repressed chutzpah.

The moment of truth has arrived. It is time to take a stand.

Reprinted with permission from Exodus Magazine