Getting Over It & Getting On With It

I really couldn't care less how you, or anyone else voted. I promise you... One single daylight act like any of these will say more than all the indignant Facebook memes and social media denials in the history of the Internet.

What are the answers to our nation's woes...? I don't pretend to know. But I know what isn't--Allowing ourselves to be gaslit... Expressing our opinions rather than seeking understanding... Preaching at others instead of listening to them... Building walls instead of bridges... In other words, venomous narcissism.

It's been said that the extent to which we believe our ideology and values are what make us human is the extent to which we will deny the humanity of those who do not share them. Whatever the answers are, this I know... they must begin with me, not someone else. It is I who must get up every morning and walk that path to a different tree, even if I have to do it under the hot, noonday sun... It is I who must see the humanity in others, especially when they don't see things my way... It is I who must remind myself that the face of Christ is most visible in those who are least like me, not those in my own camp. It's what I choose to do with these people that will determine our children's future. Not keeping a safe distance but walking beside them, doing whatever I can to help shoulder their burdens and bind their wounds... including the ones I will inevitably cause because I too am a fallen sinner. If there's a better definition of discipleship I have no idea what it is.

At the height of the Cold War during the 80's Jim Wallis of the Sojourners community once spoke with an anti-nuclear activist. How was it, he asked him, that he could continue protesting, being arrested, enduring insults, physical abuse, and more with no sign of progress? "Well," the man replied, "I guess I never really thought about whether I was being successful, only whether I was being faithful."

In the end, we haven't been called to change the world. That's way above our pay grade. What we've been called to do is be faithful. To get out of bed every day and present ourselves as living sacrifices, wholly acceptable to God, which is our reasonable worship (Rom. 12:1). To show up... not on social media, but out there in the Valley of the Shadow of Death... where wounds bleed and tears flow, where friends, loved ones, and strangers alike are despairing, where hungry demons roam but angels can be found as well... and do whatever we can in that angry and austere landscape to be one of the angels. If every one of us would only commit to that much, no matter what our "deplorable" or "elitist" neighbors do, our faithfulness will change the world...

And therein lies our hope.

References

Anti Defamation League (ADL). 2016. "Rash of vandalism, swastikas and harassment reported following Election Day." ADL Blog, Nov. 11, 2016. Available online at http://blog.adl.org/anti-semitism/rash-of-vandalism-and-swastikas-reported-following-election-day. Accessed Nov. 15, 2016.

BBC. 2015. "Donald Trump under fire for mocking disabled reporter." BBC News, Nov. 25, 2015. Available online at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34930042. Accessed Jan. 17, 2017.

Emery, D. 2016. "La-Z-Girl." Snopes, Oct 27, 2016. Available online at http://www.snopes.com/biden-blames-lazy-american-women/. Accessed Dec. 9, 2016.