Culture's Newest Catchphrase

For a long time, I felt like I was the only person with the word ‘unity’ in their common vocabulary - the only person even thinking about it; however, now, on February 9, 2021, the word has become one that I see every day on the news and on my Twitter feed and hear dropped as casually as the weather. And as someone who is passionate about unity, i’m not totally sure how I feel about it.

What do i do now that the word unity is top of mind? That the nation’s leaders and thinkers are using it to market their campaigns and move their image forward? These should be good things. I want people to hear the word unity and find the hope and reconciliation that it contains.

But right now, it doesn’t seem like the word unity contains much of anything - because right now, it’s being used as just a word.

Unity isn’t meant to be a marketing buzzword to grow your product or your persona. It’s not meant to be used in such a way that it isn’t backed up by any action. It’s not meant to be a drop in an empty bucket.

Unity is mean to be strong, to be a foundation - A foundation for community and opportunity.

And right now, as someone hell bent on learning about unity, writing about it and trying to live it out, it’s hard to watch a passion became a product to use and wield without regard to the deconstructing its doing to such a powerful word. As David Dark puts it, “Unity without reckoning is marketing.”

May unity grow, thrive and increase in our world, not only in its vocabulary, but also in its actions.

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Don’t just be a marketer.

Awe

It’s a foggy morning in Oklahoma City. The Devon Tower, OKC’s tallest skyscraper, is nearly 3/4 hidden, as are the other city’s other major skyline buildings. The cloud cover has taken over, at least for the time being, and in that take over, I typically find a lot of peace.

There’s just something about the way that fog makes the everyday world around us disappear. It brings a slowness to a day that wouldn’t normally be there, and I feel like that’s why I usually just want to sit in a bed with a good book and a bottomless cup of coffee on days like today. The fog tends to hide the anxieties and stresses that the city can bring with it just by looking at it.

A concept I often think about is how humans build tall buildings to make us feel small because I think we all like the feeling of standing in awe of something greater than ourselves. I think that’s why we love mountains and oceans - they’re big, beautiful and things we can just stand at the foot of and feel the awe.

Today, fog feels like one of those things too. The way it takes over and impresses itself upon us all, and for that, we can be grateful… especially until Oklahoma grows more mountains or somehow gets access to an ocean (would not be great for Texas).

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Standing up and feeling small is where the awe comes into place.

Who Cares About the Details?

I don’t often write much about Faith on this blog, not specifically anyway. It’s hidden in the trees if you look for it, but often times, I want to write in a way that gives the reader the opportunity to interpret what the words mean and feel to themselves, rather than try to always put a certain spin on things.

With that, I cannot say want I am feeling this morning without first saying that I operate from a Christian belief and perspective, so take that as you will as you read.

Today, as there is everyday, there is peace in the world, even when it doesn’t feel like it. There is peace in the hope that one day, we’ll be in God’s perfect House - a House set at the perfect temperature, with the best views and where nothing breaks. A House where there’s no striving to fix things, be anywhere else or do anything. A House that’s, essentially, just being in God’s presence all the time, which relieves guilt and anxieties and replaces them with assurance and rest.

God’s House is going to be the best House because God is in the details, and God cares about the details. Ever since He communicated how to build an Alter and a Tabernacle, with all of the acute measurements and materials, He has cared about the small things, and I can only imagine how legit His house is going to be when I get to step inside it because I know he cared about every inch of its construction process. And like this, I hope I can remember He cares about the small things in my own life and in your life, even when life’s problems feel anything but small. The God who created everything cares.

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Is there really anything considered ‘too small’ for a God that is so big?

Thanks, Obama

It’s hard to think about the leaders in my life that changed it without me even being aware that it was being changed.

It makes me feel indebted, like I owe them something - something big, because after all, they changed my life.

This was something that I was reflecting on this morning. Specifically, the leadership a global figure that gave me purpose, passion and direction without me even knowing it. It was 2008, and the leader is Barack Obama.

Where I come from, he was questioned, criticized and accused, and his election was the first time time in my lifetime that I can recall leadership of any kind being denounced by the people around me.

Regardless of political views and opinions, and what mine are and were at the time, he changed my life because he broke barriers and shook the world around me so much, that I saw the brokenness of it all for the first time. And that is what gives one purpose and an opportunity to ‘take one’s greatest joy and help meet the world’s greatest needs.’

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Thanks, Obama.

Good Different

There’s something extremely refreshing about being in the company of individuals who are different than you. Each time, it’s like a crash-course in, “Things I Missed in ______.”

Last night, I met up with a friend at a local pub to share a few pints, and we talked about literally everything: drinks, movies, work, jobs, girls, racial inequality, social justice, religion, sports, EVERYTHING. And with each topic, it felt like I was getting so much background that I had never had before because this person saw things I could never see, experience things I could never experience and know things I could never know. And that, my friend, is refreshing.

It’s peace to know that your thoughts and beliefs aren’t the only thoughts and beliefs because we all know, all of our thoughts and beliefs, no matter how strong they are, have holes in them. It’s peace to know that seeking to understand, rather than to be understood, is a position of love that we can all pursue. And it’s peace to know that the backgrounds that define who we are today will continue to teach us tomorrow, as we create new backgrounds through learning from those who are not like ourselves.

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Seek the goodness in not always being right and hearing the stories of those who prove you wrong.

Is Unity a Moron?

This morning, I was thinking about how unity is a moron - an oxymoron.

Unity feels like an ambiguous term, in that it’s an immeasurable word with a moving target. Your definition of what unity looks like is probably going to be different than what my definition of unity looks like, based on whatever situation we happen to be in. There’s no clear definition to it, other “Let’s all just get along,” which isn’t really a definition that solves many problems at all.

For this reason, it feels like unity is ambiguous, and that saying that unity is ambiguous is an oxymoron, or a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction.

Unity - joined together as one
Ambiguity - the quality of being open to more than one interpretation

Maybe that’s why striving for unity is so hard - everyone’s version of it looks different, so there’s no set benchmark, and just as there’s no set benchmark, there’s never any easy answers. The chase for unity is foggy and never quite in focus until it’s right in your face.

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: “Let’s all just get along” doesn’t cut it anymore.

Melting by a Window

Today, when the music hits just right and the sun shines through the window panes to warm up my legs under the table I write on, I smile. Because it’s days like today when the world feels right and feels easy, and on hard days, it’s hard to remember that days like today exist.

Some days suck the life and the rest out of you.
The stress builds up from your career, from relationships and from the rest of the world.
Sleep avoids you, just like you avoid the work that needs to be done.
And it’s hard - life, that is.

But the sun sets, life resets, and that same sun rises again.
But this time, when it rises, it warms your legs,
and it melts the stress away.

-Cliff

Cliff’s Notes: Enjoy the good days, and let the sun set on the bad ones.

Small Steps

Today, unity feels like reaching out to a friend who’s different than me, who doesn’t hear from me very often and asking how they are, what they’re doing and when I can see them again.

Today, that friend may or may not answer my call, but as the rising and the setting of the sun can only control today, I can only control what’s in my hands. God has given me tools for communication, a heart that longs to know my friends and ears to listen to those friends, so today, I will take what God has given me.

What does unity feel like today for you?

- Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Unity is small steps. We must crawl before we can walk and walk before we can run.

Writers

We are writers - all we do is write.

We are creators - all we do is create.

We write our texts.
We write our emails.

We create our photos.
We created content for the world.

We don’t stop. We don’t rest.
We perform all the day long -
on every communication channel
with the chance to be judged
as our work hangs in front of the critics -
the world.

If we stopped,
Would we be better writers?
Could we be better communicators?

-Cliff

Cliff’s Note: Focus in. Slow down. Be honest. Write. Create.