What’s Your Platform?

Last autumn, I visited a friend in Denver. I took some walks through the Denver University campus while I was there and came across these interesting lotus leaves that each look like a miniature platform.

Turns out these plants originate in Asia and are called king lotus. Some of them grow large enough to support adults weighing as much as 170 pounds! The ones in this Colorado garden were smaller, but probably still capable of supporting more significant weight than their seeming fragility would indicate.

As I’ve been pondering our individual and collective responses to the onslaught of destructive decisions being handed down by the US government, these lotus leaves came to mind. We might imagine that we don’t have a platform from which to make a meaningful difference, but I would beg to disagree. As I noted a couple weeks ago, Bishop Budde probably didn’t imagine a year ago that she would have such an unprecedented opportunity to address the president from a prominent platform on the national stage.

We also might struggle to imagine what’s possible, but we can still prepare ourselves. It begins by paying attention. This doesn’t mean immersing ourselves in the news and having it overwhelm or embitter us. Instead, it’s about right sizing our sips to what we can safely ingest. Then, once we have prayed and pondered and discussed what is ours to do, we need to be willing to stand tall on whatever platform (plantform?!) God provides and speak as the Spirit dictates.

I also realize, from prayerfully pondering the photo above, that if each of us stood, carefully and attentively, on one of these plantforms, we could fill the lake with our voices. If we stand steady on our plantforms, we can reach out hands to help others balance as they take their places. Soon, each lake would be filled with people bearing witness, each in our own way—yet also together as a community, networked and supported.

I’ll continue these reflections next week. Meanwhile, I ask you: What plantforms do you see emerging around you? What platform could God be inviting you to stand on today?