Let Us Begin

Processing through this reading today from one of my Lent prayer books, Sacred Space. Read this and let's ponder together...

"What you do now, today, in these next few minutes, matters more than I can tell you. It advances the universe two inches. If we are our best selves, there will come a world where children do not weep and war is a memory and violence is a joke no one tells, having forgotten the words. You and I know this is possible. It is what He said could happen if we loved well. He did not mean loving only the people you know. He meant every idiot and liar and thief and blowhard and even your cousin. I do not know how that could be so, but I know it is so. So do you. Let us begin again, you and me, this afternoon. Ready?" -Brian Doyle, The Thorny Grace of It

Now, I love this and immediately sent it to Joe at work. His response: "What's a blowhard?" Lolll. (Apparently a blowhard is 'a person who blusters and boasts in an unpleasant way' and the dictionary references politicians in their example sentence, so that is a perfect challenge for me personally in these challenging politicized days!) 

What I really love about this is that it's a call to action-- action in all the smallest things we do, and that is my heartbeat, always. I am ridiculously and passionately optimistic about the changes we can make in this world by all the little things we do. It's why we use cloth napkins instead of paper and hand towels instead of paper towels and why I share podcasts and books and quotes with friends on the regular. (Pray for my friends. They are often very tired of me.) This is why I read everything I can find on racism and white privilege and black history.... Because I think that every little bit of understanding I can bring to the table will help me raise (all four of my kids, and especially my two black kids) as well as I possibly can. It's also why sometimes I can't sleep, or stop thinking... Because there is always always always more to do and know. 

Conversely, I often hear what I would call a defeatist mentality from many in the church. Christians will say, "Well, nothing's perfect until heaven." Or, "the Bible says we'll always have the poor with us". And Revelation mentions wars at the end of time, so the thinking seems to be if we can't end war then why even try for peace? When you read, "there will come a world where children do not weep and war is a memory and violence is a joke" did you kind of dismiss it as too idealistic? Have you kind of given up on all of these things? 

Now, I know none of us is perfect and no matter what we do, kids will keep falling down and bleeding and there will always be tears. We'll say stupid stuff and hurt each others' feelings and there will be more tears. I cannot even promise not to cry today. I'm a crier. But. What if we said, at least we will not stand for one more child to be taken from their parents. No matter what. The kind of weeping that comes from a child alone in the world is a whole different level of trauma. That's life-altering trauma. We get over our physical little scrapes and cuts, but trauma like that doesn't heal. Ever. Just ask anyone who has adopted or been adopted and they will tell you that this kind of trauma affects children daily, and daily into adulthood. 

Separately, what if we at least believed that we could work together for the end of wars? For peace between countries? What if we decided that we want to be a country that, at the very least, didn't attack and kill others, except in direct and immediate self defense? (That's a concession on my part there, but I'll at least give you self-defense for the sake of argument.) Didn't Jesus himself refute the doctrine of an eye for an eye? Do we take that seriously, or not? 

Finally, what if the violence that poor communities experience every single day was a distant memory? What if black children could walk down the street at night wearing a hoodie and someone would maybe only stop and ask them if they needed a ride home? What if I didn't have to give my black son a "talk" about how to drive right and get pulled over "right" and keep his music down and keep his hands up and never ever talk back because I'm worried he might not make it out alive from that routine traffic stop?

As far as our most current new fears go, what if we did all the little things we can do to protect the most vulnerable from this corona virus? We can all wash our hands and most of us can stay away from crowds. Some of us can work remotely and even go to church remotely. We can cancel non-essential travel plans and protect the elderly and immune-compromised around us. We can flatten that curve by some smart social distancing and protect each other through a few small actions. 

What if?

I'm just going to put this all out there, and the best response I could ask for is, if there is any part of you that disagrees with what I've said, will you sit a little bit with that and pray about it? 

I think we've settled for far too little. Jesus brought us the Kingdom of God and it starts here. Right here on earth, right now. We don't have to wait for heaven to get better at loving each other. It starts with the little things. In the next few minutes, and then the minutes after that. 

Let us begin.