Let's Come Together

[It has long been a tradition of mine to share an experience from the past year that reminded me most of the Spirit of Christmas. Here is this year’s.]

As I write this, it is the early days of the Christmas Season with the first lights up in the neighborhoods of Temecula, and I see strangers smiling and saying “hello” with just a little more feeling than usual. Yesterday, I saw one store clerk hugging an older lady, and I jokingly said, “What about me?” Without hesitation she laughed, opened her arms and said, “Oh yes dear, you too!”

It’s a warm, wonderful time, and I revel in it as the years pass.

But my “Christmas Story” this year happens to come from the heat of this past summer. Many of you know that I like words and their meanings, and most of all, where they come from and what they originally meant! And that’s what makes this Christmas Story so special. It began simply and ended even more beautifully simple.

“Hello. We’d like to meet with you to study the Bible and talk about Salvation!"

It was a hot Saturday afternoon this past summer and I squinted to look down into a small car where sat two young men who had been making small talk with me outside my home. “Sure”, I replied.

They looked a bit surprised and to be honest, I surprised myself. I’m not exactly trying to figure out my eternal destiny at this point in my life, BUT I do have this one belief: I can always learn something. AND I like helping young people. Maybe I could be a part of their journey. Maybe.

The next Saturday there they were. Right on time. And as we sat down in my private office, I spoke first. “A couple things first guys. #1, I have 30 minutes, and #2 I have a special request; any word we come across that I don’t know the meaning of-we clear it up on the spot. Agreed?”

“Sure, no problem!” and they both smiled and nodded their heads enthusiastically.

“Oh, one other thing…you get 15 minutes for your religion and I get 15 minutes for mine.” They froze a bit, looking understandably confused.

“Relax guys, my religion is helping you communicate your religion’s message.”

“You can practice on me!”, I added.

They nodded their heads cautiously, “Well, I guess that’s OK”, the older one that seemed to be the leader, replied. He asked me to turn to and read a chapter and so I began. After several verses I stopped and asked, “What does ‘atonement’ mean?” He replied, “well that’s confession and then making-up for your sins.”

“That sounds right to me”, I responded back, “but I wonder what the word originally means?”

"A-TONE-MENT”, I spoke it out loud. They looked blank. (Heck, I felt blank!) Where DID that word come from?

Atone….A tone…..music maybe? That didn’t make sense.

So, we looked it up on our phones. I read the answer and then Truth struck. I felt a sense of wonderment and looked over at their faces and saw the same...

“AT ONE”………..with God and Man”

AT-ONE-MENT?????

Holy Smokes! We looked at each other for a few moments speechless. I spoke first. “You know guys, I think this explains a lot of things.”

“We need more AT ONENESS going on!”

“What do you mean?”, one asked. “Well”, I paused to think, “you just said it means confessing and making-up for one’s sins! Wouldn’t that do it?”

“Actually, you both have done this yes? With your parents, friends, God?”

“That’s why you are here, yes?” They nodded as if in a trance.

“What if everyone did this?”, I continued. Marriages, families, friends, fellow workers (hey boss, I screwed that one up!), strangers (“hey man, sorry I cut you off!”). A special quiet settled over us.

And then we prayed. Arms around each other’s shoulders, we thanked God for that brief moment in eternity that we shared “as one”.

I looked up, gave them one last hug, and they slowly floated out the door murmuring words of thanks.

I sat down and took a deep breath, and looked far out my window taking in a new simpler view of the world.

I saw the Good, the Bad; and the Really Ugly…………………The Division.

Clearly, there was way too much division and not enough “At Oneness”. We all know that we need to “Come Together” and “Be As One” as the old hit songs went.*

A thought struck me. None of this division is accidental. All this chaos, confusion, and division is an actual Manufacturing Industry. This Fear, Anger, and Hate surrounding us is artificially created  with one goal only……. Money for the Merchants of Chaos, and Sellers of Social Conflict and War. They SELL it hard every day. Their very livelihoods would disappear from the face of the earth if we CAME TOGETHER. It seems there is nothing they will NOT do to keep the dangerousness of the environment going. Economic worries, climate worries, crime worries, health scares, racial strife, war, political hatred, religious conflicts, death, disease, unfaithfulness and immorality, gender and family destruction……..all to one end. Money and Power.

BUT.

There is one thing they fear the most. AT ONE-NESS. It’s their Kryptonite.**

They CRAVE and must have to survive anything that divides us. They work full-time to spew it out in their media and in our classrooms. AT ONE-NESS? They HATE it. Fear it. Yes, we have our problems getting along. But they take every bad situation and pour gasoline on it and blow it up in our faces. Who are they? My new name for them is the DIVIDERS. They are plain to see. 

LOOK AROUND.

When you do you will see something remarkable. Most people are good and decent, and working hard to make their communities a better place not just for their families, but also OTHERS. Most people feel a deep kindred spirit with other people. Most people feel the purpose of living is to help one another.

LOOK AROUND.

It is a small minority that think the opposite. BUT GOOD NEWS!!!! I really believe their time is coming to an end. More and more are waking-up to their game. We can see who they are. And the best thing we can do is just not participate in their game and simply refuse to watch them and therefore pay them.

While calling them out. And that takes courage.

You and I get what we put our attention on. Let’s put our attention on the goodness in our fellow man.

Is that not the original Christmas message?

“Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Men?”

So, my friends, what if we come together?

What if we raise our children and grandchildren well, embrace friend and stranger alike, see the good all around, smile and hug often, and above all...

Flourish and Prosper!!

Warmest Regards,

Dr. Dave Cutts

*John Lennon and Paul McCartney in “Come Together and Imagine”

**Kryptonite-something that can seriously weaken or harm a person. From the Superman story of a mineral from the planet Krypton that could take his powers away.