LEADERSHIP AS DOMINION

EACH DAY, THIS FLOCK OF BIRDS BEAUTIFIES THE BOARDWALK.  They skim the water, fishing.  Flying in a beautiful hierarchy, they move in and out between land and sea in a perfectly organized pattern.  On this particular day, one bird seemed to be in the leadership position.  It maintained its outlier position relative to the rest of the flock as they made their circuit of sky, sea, and land.

It got me to thinking:  How did these creatures decide who would lead?  There were no interview criteria; it did not graduate from the 'right' schools, nor did it have a wealthy pater to convince it of its intrinsic, unassailable right to lead.

God did it.  There was no infighting, no electoral college, no back room cliques or colluding to tell that bird "I'm in charge here."  Its dominion is functional, natural, and effective.  This is why it works.  It took on the responsibility, and its flockmates were willing to submit to its authority, simply because it was best for them.

Life in 'The Old Dominion' has been interesting.
 
Just because a form of dominion has existed for a long time does not mean that it is still relevant.  Dominion can become tyranny without too much trouble.

Just live it without nurturing it. Show no appreciation for it.  Become assumptive and entitled over it.  Lose your humility.  Then your Old Dominion could be perceived by other Americans as hidebound, backward, inhospitable and bigoted--and you would not even know it.  Or you would know it and imperiously not care that your collective demeanor has become frigid and stand-offish and very much a respecter of persons or their money.  

The Old Dominion seems very religious.  There are a lot of churches.  However, Neptune is "king" of the Oceanfront.  Jesus is a little guy in a landlocked boat fielded by the Methodists.  The homeless travel and live in packs and clumps of humanity while a third of the housing stock stands empty, and you'd better not ask why this is so.  This beautiful locale can be brutal.  If you don't fit into a certain social strata, you are invisible.  There are pockets of wealth where only one demographic dwells, and you'd better not drive there to have a look and ask why this is so.

 Not long ago, I was gazing out of my kitchen window after a freak rainstorm.  The air was saturated and oppressive.  Something generated a massive electrical charge--there was a full moon, and an eclipse the previous day, as well as a comet passing by.  Whatever it was hit the main transformer for the Mayflower Building with such incredible force that the neon "Mayflower" shorted out three times.  The thing shook like a picture of a building drawn on a sheet of notebook paper, rattled by a giant unseen hand.  The structure righted itself like a stoic who'd been punched between the shoulder blades.  King Neptune did nothing.  In fact, I thought he might have been rent asunder as that bolt from the blue made landfall.  Strangely, I had spent the previous day in prayer.  I hollered out to God as I spent several hellish seconds wondering if that building was going to drop with all those lives in it.  It didn't.  Even an edifice can know dominion.

The next day, twenty Dominion Power crew stood staring in mute stupefaction at the unscathed transformer.

That is how I know that even in the Old Dominion, GOD IS THE ONE IN CHARGE.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.