If you marched this weekend, but don't know anyone who didn't,
If you didn't march, and don't know anyone who did,
If you voted for Hillary and don't know anyone who voted for Trump,
If you voted for Trump and don't know anyone who voted for Hillary,
If you are against abortion and have never talked with someone who had one,
If you are pro-choice and have never spoken with someone who isn't,
If you want to force all the illegal immigrants out of America, but you have never looked one of those people in the eye,
If you think America should open it's doors wide, but haven't spoken to a victim of terror,
If you have no idea what started the conflict in Syria,
If you have never considered how it must feel to be a refugee,
If you are a strong supporter of marriage equality and haven't talked with someone who disagrees with you,
If you believe there should only be heterosexual relationships, but have no friends who are homosexuals,
If you are Muslim, or Christian, or Jewish, or an Atheist, or any other belief or non belief, but have no meaningful conversations with a person of a differing view,
If you don't like judgmental Christians, but realize you don't actually know a believer,
If you think only Christians know the way and you have spoken to no one who challenges that,
If you only read articles from The Huffington Post,
If you only watch Fox News,
If your only source of news is friends on your Facebook feed,
Then I must simply tell you this:
You are the problem.
Not the government, not the church, not religions, not extremist, not liberals, not conservatives.
It's you.
And some days it's me.
When we take a side and cling to it so tightly that we don't engage in conversations with people on the other side, we become the extremist.
When we can't even think of one friend who would sit at the table with us and eat dinner, even though we disagree, we become the terrorist.
When we make grand statements, without so much as a thought as to how it feels to someone else, we become the clanging cymbal that no one hears.
If you will allow me to speak about Jesus; He shattered all preexisting stereotypes. He was so radical because He went to the table, He found the people in the margins, He included the world, and He spoke to people on the other side.
We are given the beautiful story of the woman caught in adultery being drug to Jesus, we know all of those who brought her left. Why? Because Jesus asked them to throw that rock, if they have never sinned. One by one they left. Don't forget the next part. When Jesus did correct her, no one else was around to hear it. Jesus loved her too much to leave her as she was. He called her out, to a better life, to a life filled with Him. He did so, after all her accusers left.
So no matter what side of any debate you are on, just know that if you are the one dragging people around in the dirt, you won't get to see any outcomes.
If you love those on the other side of any debate, it is a win for everyone. Do you know what Jesus saw when He sat down at Zaccheaus' table? He saw a person. A person who He valued because He valued lives. All lives.
Get to the table. Get to someone on the other side. Have coffee. Hear their stories. Allow both of you to be challenged.
Here is what I have been challenged with lately. And here is my question for all of us.
What belief do I currently have that I am wrong about?
No one can be right about everything.
Therefore, I currently believe something that is wrong.
What is it?
"If we agree on everything, one of us is unnecessary" (I don't know where this quote is from, but it's a favorite in our marriage).
If we all think much harder about the ways in which we could be wrong, instead of clinging to all the ways in which we believe we are right, it could be the game changer.
No matter which side of all the many debates you have found yourself a part of; rest assured that each of us are wrong somewhere.
How blessed are we? How can we possibly bless others?
What change starts inside of you today?
~If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (I Corinthians 13)
Use your voice. Don't be an echo...
Just Love.
