We need to come together

Someone once said that an “enemy is someone whose story you have not heard”

cool

I love that!

but I also know that listening, and coming to a deeper understanding of the other

is not always enough

I believe in listening!

I believe it is important to seek understanding!

it has been my experience that the more I understand

where another person is coming from, the easier it is for me to see them

differently

attentive compassion is a thing

if I can listen

if I can listen with an open heart

I can see the other person differently

I can see that they are afraid

or tired

I can see their vulnerability

I can see past the hurt they cause me

to the ways they hurt themselves

to the pain they carry

but still, I am far, in some cases from loving them

or perhaps it is better to say I am far from liking them

that person willing to put others at risk for their personal freedom

that person who is willing to sacrifice the planet for wealth

that person who believes that it is alright to hurt others to get ahead

(there have to be winners and losers, right?)

that person who is racist

who is hateful

who is authoritarian

who is cruel

who is abusive

sometimes the story gives no relief

just unrelenting pain

and yet I am told to love that enemy

even though I have heard what terrifies me

even my understanding still does not release me from those feelings

that divide

and yet I am told to love

and so I suffer

and I make others suffer with my anger and rejection

and so I sit here

struggling with those who would destroy our democracy for power

with those who will not protect their neighbor from this virus

with those who think guns are more important than people’s lives

with those who lie

with those who follow a liar down the path toward tyranny

and I can think of only two antidotes

one is the understanding (thank you, Rachel Held Evans)

that my worst enemy is myself

and as, sometimes, I must let go of those things about myself

that are terrible, in order to find the things that are beautiful

so also I must let go of things about others

this does not mean giving my worst self a freed ride

it does not mean I give that self-power over me

that self must be loved, but must also be challenged (and helped) to change

so too with those I struggle with

I cannot give them power over me, or the freedom to go on their way unchallenged

but how I challenge them matters

the other antidote is doing what it takes to create small

if only incremental change

if only I could stop for a moment

take a breathe

buy some time

say a little prayer

and then respond

and then, find a way to transform what seems unbearable

Rachel Held Evans turned her hate mail into origami

Shane Claiborne turns guns into gardening tools

how can I transform objects of hate?

words of hate

ideologies of hate?

I start by changing how I receive them

what I let them do to me

I turn them into tools for shalom

(still working on that)

what can I do, to change the trajectory of the maskless people

in the grocery store?

how can I challenge them but also accept them and help them transform

how can I do that with the Trump follower

the politician who is destroying the right to vote

the liar

alas

this is not easy

but I believe that we are called to come together

heal together

forgive together

work together

gather together (at the table of God)

eat together

and somehow

together

birth the Kingdom of Love

God help us all