Saturday, November 12, 2016

WWJD?

This question is like an extension that's been installed in my brain and is always running in the background of whatever application my consciousness is running.  As I've been processing the election, the results and the reactions to the results, I've been having a sense that I need to put words to the program that's running in my brain.  While I measure my words and actions according to the guidance Jesus gave during his lifetime, I rarely identify myself as a Christian publicly because so many others who call themselves Christian seem to be following someone I don't know or recognize.

I remember red letter bibles from my childhood.  These were bibles where the words of Jesus were printed in red.  While I don't have one in front of me, here's the jist:

  1. The law says an eye for an eye, but I say turn the other cheek
  2. Love your enemies, bless those who curse you.
  3. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
  4. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, render unto God that which is God's
  5. Love your neighbor as yourself
  6. Love God with all your heart
  7. Blessed are the peacemakers
  8. Forgive Seventy times Seven
  9. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked because when you do this to others you do this to me
  10. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.
These words send a clear message:  Kindness, forgiveness, peacefulness - Love.  He doesn't say Judge one another.  He doesn't say reject those you don't understand or feel threatened by.  He doesn't say protect your freedom by taking away the freedom of others.  

I'm writing this not for the people who think like I do, but for the people who don't understand why MANY of us are in distress.  I'm distressed because so many other people seem to have abandoned this message, while at the same time saying that they voted their conscience, their faith, their values.  I know that many who voted like I did, did so for a whole variety of other reasons.  I don't think being a Christian is any better or worse than being anything else.  I believe that their is one truth, and no one has a monopoly on it, that truth is love.  

To me Love looks like wanting the same thing for strangers that you want for your family.  If you want your family to feel safe, you want EVERYONE's family to feel safe.  (If you don't understand the protests and outrage at the election result, it's because many people don't feel safe right now; women, anyone not white, immigrants, LGBT.  The election rhetoric directed towards us and the voting record of those being considered for positions in a Trump administration cause us GREAT fear for what might be to come.)  If you want your rights protected, you want all rights protected.  (Since that might be too vague - if you don't want your right to bear arms taken away, don't take away my right to marry.)  I don't know how to say this another way; Treat people the way you want to be treated.  

I don't believe there will be some wild transformation and that the Electoral College process will be overturned before January.  So we have to make peace.  If you do nothing else, try to understand why we are concerned.  Try to walk a mile in our shoes.  Try to imagine waking up to a swastika painted on the wall and walking by that as you walk to work.  Try to imagine being a child in a school cafeteria surrounded by other children chanting "Go back where you came from".  Try to imagine being told you can make medical decisions for your dying spouse because you are not recognized as a married couple.  Try to imagine being judged as a threat based on the color of your skin, and not based on your own individual actions.  Try to imagine that you listen to others call you rapists and murders because of your country of origin.  Try to imagine that you never get to see your children again because your effort to make a better life for them has failed and you've been deported.  This trying to imagine is all I'm asking.  Try to imagine what is is that we are so upset about.  Try to imagine why as we try to stay above the line and not sink below our values and resort to name calling and negativity that we feel paralyzed to figure out how to move forward in the midst of so much vitriol.  

You can make a difference.  Reach across the "aisle" in whatever symbolic way you can and offer a sign of peace.  Bring comfort to those who are terrified right now by being reassuring.  Be loving, be understanding, be forgiving, be open and be willing to listen.  Be good, be kind, make somebody smile.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Free to soar!

Today I got the opportunity to tell a piece of my story.  I was reminded of how this blog was a venue for me to express what was happening on my journey.  I was learning and needed some place to process what I was thinking about, share my new found understanding, and make permanent what I needed to keep reminding myself - that I could change my life by changing my thoughts about my life.  I am still learning and growing, but I feel free now in a way I didn't back then.  I am so grateful for this journey and know without question, that all the experiences I have had up until this point were necessary for me to be where I am - where I need to be.  There were not mistakes or bad decisions.  They were the decisions that led to this moment.  It is.  There are no right or wrong decisions.  There is only what you do and what you don't do.  Either way leads you to the next moment, the next decision, and it all leads to NOW.  Now is all there ever is.