My heart hurts today. In the past four days, I have seen anger, bitterness and hatred run rampant. I have heard words thrown as daggers at those we call friends, but who see the world differently from us. I have watched as our country begins once more to take sides and wonder how after fighting a Civil War which was bloody and ugly have we come to this place once more as friends turn on one another in the aftermath of tragedy.
My heart goes out to the families who even now sit in hospital rooms with their loved one's, who were injured. My heart breaks for the families that must make funeral preparations for a life cut short. But the truth is that these figures are mere names to me. I know nothing of their story. I have no idea about what their favorite food was, whether they loved movies or a good book better. What were their dreams? What was their most embarrassing moment? All of the things that make us human are things that I do not know about any of these people that I have read about over the weekend no matter what side with which they were aligned.
After college I visited Washington D.C. the Vietnam Memorial was one of the "must see" places. I remember visiting the wall and wanting so badly to experience emotion, but I felt a detached sadness. I could appreciate the sacrifice of all of the lives represented on its long length, but I had no one represented in the letters carved onto the face of the stone. It impacted how I experienced something that creates such an emotional experience for some.
Events like those our country has experienced in the past few days is similar to my experience in Washington D.C. They happen someplace separate of ourselves and they can have the impact of a detached sadness or outrage because of the very same reason, we do not know the stories that go with the names. This detachment allows us to label those faceless names and masses. We lose sight of the very real fact that each and every one of them is someones father, brother, mothers, sister, son, daughter or friend. They each have a story in the same way we have a story.
It takes an intentional attempt to be self-aware to view any of these people as more than faceless names on a paper. It takes intentional effort to slow down one's reaction enough to act and speak in love rather than expressing anger brought on by our fear at those things out of our control.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
~1 Corinthians 13:13
Paul reminds us in I Corinthians that love does not dishonor, nor is it self-seeking or quick to anger. Rather it is patient and kind. It loves and protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.
The Gospel of John reminds us that God sent His Son out of love, not to condemn humankind, but to offer a means of reconciliation with Him (John 3:16-17).
Reconciliation... Sounds hard doesn't it? Reconciling with people who don't see things the same way we do...
Mother Teresa once said, "I have found the paradox, if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love"
What happens if each of us as individuals begin to love unconditionally like that? What if when we experience hurt we make the intentional decision to love more?
The more I study Scripture the more I become convinced that the lasting power of Jesus ministry is not his miracles. It is not his dynamic parables or even his resistance to the legalistic model of religion practiced by the Pharisees.
It was the strength of the love he practiced and taught.
My husband shares a piece of wisdom from his counselor
"Anger is fear trying to control something".
I think we see that in full display in moments such as those we experienced as a nation this weekend.
We see it in our own reaction to these events. It can be a little disheartening... How are we suppose to deal with the anger that we experience from the varied perspectives that run rampant in the aftermath? It can be so easy to become fearful and then to watch that quickly morphs into anger as we try to control the opinions of others, who think differently than we do.
There is no fear in love;
but perfect love casts out fear:
because fear has torment.
~1 John 4:15
The only true response to these events is love. By all means hold your family and friends a little closer, but stretch out your arms to those who see the world differently from you. The most effective way to defeat the anger that surrounds us is to overcome our fear with love. When we learn to love people who see the world through a different lens, truly love them without the caveat of "maybe they'll come to see it my way", we embrace the love that Christ emulated for us.
The funny thing in Scripture is that we never really find out whether the woman Jesus saved from being stoned to death really left her life of adultery. We do not see the full story of those that Jesus cast demons out of, but we seem to just assume that they walked away from their encounter with him changed. That is the power of the strength of the love He demonstrated. Even centuries later we feel the love in the pages of their stories and cannot help, but believe that they were forever changed by that encounter.
So who can you intentionally choose to love this week?
Today?
This moment?
No comments:
Post a Comment