The Reconstructed

I have at previous times been noted in my competitive spirit to vocalize my frustration when playing games or sports of any kind. I have been noted to do this in life in general. If you know me well, you probably have a memory that comes immediately to mind. Hopefully, a memory would come immediately to mind if I started this blog off with “I have in previous times been noted in my compassionate spirit to express kindness in the most inconvenient of situations.” But that’s not what this blog is about.

One notable instance in which I expressed my frustration was during a game a friend stated that sunflowers grow in spring. I worked on a farm for 4 years, we grew sunflowers, but more generally sunflowers never grow in spring at least in New Jersey. They probably are the latest blooming flower. Because of their sturdiness, they also take a long time to grow and bloom. Rather than ignore the answer and move on like a normal human being, I likely blamed that answer on why the game was a wash and no answers can be taken seriously and why there will never be peace in the middle east.

Regardless, if that is true or hyperbole, I read something online that I immediately hoped was true and then immediately fact checked because it didn’t make sense.

It read, “When the sun is out, sunflowers face the sun, when they can’t find the sun they face each other.” The sentiment is beautiful and probably should be applied to humans which is why people I think want to believe it. But at the end of the day sunflowers always follow the sun with the exception that at a certain stage they just always face east for pollination sake. Which I think is equally as beautiful a sentiment.

When you mature you face and follow the direction that is most beneficial for everyone, for your environment for further growth. Maturation is when you recognize that multiplication of everything around you in some ways is dependent on your ability or your grace to stay on course in the direction the Lord called you. A revelation that the nation of Israel in the Old Testament struggled (maybe still struggles) to learn.

The reason the “face each other” piece has so much appeal is we live in a world and a church world where people are following the sun so often for their own individual growth, expansion, and aggrandizement that it is hard to even comprehend communal prosperity. Sunflowers are pretty selfish for most of their lives. They are chasing and even waiting for the sun. At night they slowly move back toward east, intuitively knowing that the sun will rise again. They aren’t concerned or toiling for anyone else’s expense other than their own.

That is what separates humanity from being a sunflower. You can have eyes beyond yourself. Don’t be a sunflower.

If ever by chance a sunflower is facing another sunflower it is because a mature sunflower is always facing east and the other not fully mature sunflower is doing its thing and following the sun. Where does that leave us? What good is the metaphor or the sentiment?

It is good in so far as it causes us to reflect on what in the world does my humanness call me to do and to be. Where in God’s creation and redemption do I fall into place? In some sense Jesus calls us to shine, to be the light, so in a sense don’t be the flower, be the thing that is bringing light to the that which needs it. And the only way you can possibly do that is if you and I face the One who brings us into the light. That could very well mean we shine our light on others instead of seeking to be under the spotlight. It could very well mean facing the direction no one else is going other than God because His heart is compelled to bring light to dark places so that we would make them brighter and not they make us darker.

“How great is the darkness” in us? There is a Scripture that talks about the eye being the lamp of the body and if the eye is bad than our whole body is full of darkness and if that light in us is dark how great is the darkness? You would think that this verse would be placed after the portion of scripture that talks about looking lustfully is the equivalent of adultery, but that’s not where it is. That’s not to say that looking lustfully is less dark. It is curious though that this statement is sandwiched between where our treasure is and serving money. What Jesus is actually addressing here is human greed and where we store our wealth and how we cherish material things over people, how we cherish our own prosperity over people, how we cherish financial stability over people. All of which Jesus looks at and says, How great is that darkness?

I don’t think He says this in an angry way, even though translators put an exclamation point. I think He is in a way caught by surprise, a questioning surprise, one that is in awe that humanity thought this was the better way. He is in shock how easily humanity can succumb to a dilapidated vision of wealth and success and how communal solidarity could be disregarded for the sake of individual gain.

At the end of the day, I would pose the question, do you really want to be a sunflower? They all kind of look the same. They are however fruitful pollinators. They enhance the ecosystem. A sunflower is generous. It might stand out if you cut it and give it to someone, but a field of sunflowers is pretty uniform, yet beautiful.

In short sunflowers very rarely face each other but perhaps more importantly they never deface each other and perhaps beloved, that’s even better.