I'm Still Here
I awoke with gratitude for waking yet again. It means my mission isn't over yet. So, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." And so I am glad. I do rejoice. I give thanks for all my fellow Christians who are working so very hard at survival with integrity, with honor. That word seems to inspire contempt these days. Honor to me means not adherence to a rigid set of black and white rules even if it costs me my life. To me, honor as the beloved of God means seeking to meet everyone with an open heart and an open mind. Seeking to put the last first. Seeking to be peaceful within and without, so that those God may send me feel peaceful and safe.
Love, as they say, is a verb. Don't tell me that you love your God. Show me. Do godly things. Love unconditionally. Love inclusively. Love the unlovely, especially if they get on your nerves and make you want to shake them silly.
Thus we are called to a most difficult ministry. Walking the line between calling out evil wherever we see it, and hating the sin rather than the sinner is so very hard. We are called to honesty, but not to violence. Not to brutality, physical or emotional or mental. If we fight the darkness with its own seductive weapons, we become dark within ourselves. We lose touch with that which makes us who we truly are...a holy, beautiful people who deserve safety and love and shelter and food and all the good things that some are unable to share.
I say unable because they are wounded in a way that makes them incapable of living with open hands. They don't ever feel safe or enough or beloved. How heartbreaking that sounds. How devastating not to ever feel as if there is enough to share. How horrible to be so convinced that everyone in the world is out to take everything they can get their hands on, even if they have to hurt you to do it.
Yesterday, I was reading Jim Wright's column about toleration, and how far we can take that before we have to stand our ground or lose a world where tolerance exists. How do we tolerate others' shortcomings while not permitting them to roll over everyone in their path? I don't have the answers, except in any given moment...I am advised that the Spirit who is holy will give me an answer at the time I need it. I have learned (when I am spiritually fit) that sometimes I will have to withdraw for a while so I don't damage someone God loves and would heal if that person were open instead of clenched shut on entrenched positions of heart or mind. I have learned that sometimes I can listen with love and speak to whatever fear or pain I hear, or ask calmly for clarification or examples. If it is the right time, I may be given some peace or love to share in a way that can get through.
I must never focus on the speck in my brother's eye when I have enough planks of my own to build a hermitage. Or a hotel. And then put my name on it. Or maybe to build seven barns to hold my entire harvest and keep it to myself, except for pricing it out of the range of the poor and helpless. I have no reason to crow over anyone. I can only plead that I am here right now, and love you now, and hope that you understand that you are loved beyond belief.
To quote a certain musical, "Sing me your songs, but not for me alone. Sing out for yourselves, for you are blessed. There is not one of you who cannot win the kingdom, the slow, the suffering, the quick, the dead!"
Love and peace to each and all. In His Love. In His Peace. (Or Hers -- I use the male pronoun because it doesn't throw me out of the story of God.) Be holy. Be well.
MadrePat
Love, as they say, is a verb. Don't tell me that you love your God. Show me. Do godly things. Love unconditionally. Love inclusively. Love the unlovely, especially if they get on your nerves and make you want to shake them silly.
Thus we are called to a most difficult ministry. Walking the line between calling out evil wherever we see it, and hating the sin rather than the sinner is so very hard. We are called to honesty, but not to violence. Not to brutality, physical or emotional or mental. If we fight the darkness with its own seductive weapons, we become dark within ourselves. We lose touch with that which makes us who we truly are...a holy, beautiful people who deserve safety and love and shelter and food and all the good things that some are unable to share.
I say unable because they are wounded in a way that makes them incapable of living with open hands. They don't ever feel safe or enough or beloved. How heartbreaking that sounds. How devastating not to ever feel as if there is enough to share. How horrible to be so convinced that everyone in the world is out to take everything they can get their hands on, even if they have to hurt you to do it.
Yesterday, I was reading Jim Wright's column about toleration, and how far we can take that before we have to stand our ground or lose a world where tolerance exists. How do we tolerate others' shortcomings while not permitting them to roll over everyone in their path? I don't have the answers, except in any given moment...I am advised that the Spirit who is holy will give me an answer at the time I need it. I have learned (when I am spiritually fit) that sometimes I will have to withdraw for a while so I don't damage someone God loves and would heal if that person were open instead of clenched shut on entrenched positions of heart or mind. I have learned that sometimes I can listen with love and speak to whatever fear or pain I hear, or ask calmly for clarification or examples. If it is the right time, I may be given some peace or love to share in a way that can get through.
I must never focus on the speck in my brother's eye when I have enough planks of my own to build a hermitage. Or a hotel. And then put my name on it. Or maybe to build seven barns to hold my entire harvest and keep it to myself, except for pricing it out of the range of the poor and helpless. I have no reason to crow over anyone. I can only plead that I am here right now, and love you now, and hope that you understand that you are loved beyond belief.
To quote a certain musical, "Sing me your songs, but not for me alone. Sing out for yourselves, for you are blessed. There is not one of you who cannot win the kingdom, the slow, the suffering, the quick, the dead!"
Love and peace to each and all. In His Love. In His Peace. (Or Hers -- I use the male pronoun because it doesn't throw me out of the story of God.) Be holy. Be well.
MadrePat
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