Keep it Alive

I was reading in history about the Lady Liberty statue from France.  The people of France raised all the money needed to create the statue, but they just needed a pedestal to rest it on.  Could the American people at least provide that?

There was little interest to support this project.

So the French took drastic measures and started shipping it over, piece by piece.  Sympathetic fund-raising individuals would place the pieces of the statue at "strategic" points to rally people's interest.  Can you imagine seeing a giant hand plopped down in the middle of your neighborhood? Well, that is just what they did.  And guess what happened...

They got used to it. It because "just what was there" and ceased to exist, to a large degree, in the minds of those who walked by it daily.

Obviously, they eventually raised enough money for the pedestal but this story made me stop and think about the posters and pictures we have hanging around the house from months past.  We don't even notice them any more, but I love them so much I don't take them down, hoping the wisdom and beauty of their truths will keep penetrating.

But they don't...or at least, they are not as effective as they once were.

Now, I am not saying we need to shake everything up nor am I down-playing the significance of artwork or sayings displayed perpetually and their impact on those in the home.  However, it served a a great reminder to me that sometimes all that a poster or saying needs to "re-awaken" its power is a new mounting, a new location, or (maybe) just to be replaced.

We should do the same thing with classes and routines.  If they are routines that we want to become second-nature (jobs) maybe we don't have to keep "shaking it up."  We want the ideas of stewardship to become as natural as breathing...at least I do for my family.

Consider...what things do we have up or do we engage in that are worth keeping and what things are losing their effectiveness?   Valuable questions!