creating hell

Hell is not a place you suffer

Hell is a place where no one sees your suffering

                                    Mansur Al Hallaj

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There are many ways to create hell

Far too many

Sexual abuse

Sexual assault

Neglect

Verbal abuse

Hate

Anger

Greed

Abuse of power

Lies

Bullying

These are the tools we use to inflict

A sort of hell on earth

We take women and minimize and marginalize them

We take vulnerable little children and use them as pawns

Putting them in cages

We build walls to keep out those in need

Physical walls

Emotional walls

Behavioral walls

But perhaps the most pervasive way we create hell

I by failing to see the person in front of us

Failing to see their pain, and struggle yes

But also failing to see their glory

Failing to see that this one is a child of God

Infinitely love, infinitely valuable,

A carrier of the Sacred

There are also many ways to bring in the Kingdom

(Which is that place (or perhaps even that moment when Sacred dominates and defines)

Forgiveness

Generosity

Compassion

Caring

Humility

Calm

Love

These are the tools we use to build sanctuaries

Safe and calm places

Hospitable spaces

Where people can be who they truly are

Seen

Beloved

Glorious

Sacred Children

Hell may be the place where not one sees your suffering

The Kingdom is where your suffering is seen

Respected

And shared

Perhaps the cause of the suffering is healed

But if not healed, then, as something share and touched with love

turned

From suffering into simply pain

(for there is always pain)

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Hell or Kingdom

The kingdom does not emerge (as some like our Vice President claim)

Creating enough hell to destroy the earth

But by creating enough love to reclaim the earth

O Lord, thy Kingdom Come.