Don't send forth stones

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

                                                              Robert F. Kennedy

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How do we effect change?

How do we bend history?

It is a question I often ask myself

Because frankly

I feel pretty damn powerless most of the time!

I want to be one of those people who

Stands up when it is time to stand up,

Who advocates for the vulnerable,

Who strikes out against injustice.

I want to be a person who “sends for a tiny ripple of hope”

But most of the time I feel like

I am just spitting into the wind

Actually it’s worse than that!

I feel like I just get sucked into the hurricane

Sucked into the vortex of hate and anger

I talk with someone who steadfastly disagrees with me

And I react

To all those things I believe are problematic

I read a response to an article or a post

That to me seems just dead wrong

And I react

I see the other as closed

And full of prejudice and bias

I see what I considered twisted priorities

And warped beliefs

I see hate, and greed

Shaping their words, attitudes and actions

And I react

Becoming, all too often

Closed

Unable to see my own prejudices and biases

And I want to throw stones

I want to batter

To win

All too often

I send out the very energy I am reacting against!

As I thought about this I could not help but remember

The story of the woman in the hands of an angry mob

Her story was not a good one

And she was being judged

And there were all too many there ready to cast stones

To throw out judgment and destruction

To hurt, to punish

And then Jesus came in

And was just…

Quiet

Calm

Peaceful

Loving

Jesus came into that atmosphere of retribution, even cruelty,

And sent forth something else, grace, forgiveness, hope, possibilities, love?

And bent that moment of history

In this time

As I seek to be one of those people who

Stands up when it is time to stand up,

Who advocates for the vulnerable,

Who strikes out against injustice.

As I seek to create change

To bend history

Toward Sacred, toward love

I understand that I will really only do that

when what comes forth from me

is not stones

not anger, or harsh words, or hate

is not domination

but calm, compassion

generosity, love

yes I can confront

just as Jesus, in that moment

stood in front of a retributive crowd

(he could have been killed)

but I’ve got to do it

by sending out what I want to create

not what I want to counter

By being a person who sends forth

Not hard stones of rhetoric and passion

Not hard stones of anger and arrogance

But something else

Let’s just call it love

(Do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good – Romans 12:21)