How we heal

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But you’ve got to believe in love,

So your heart can melt away.

And I know you’ll have it all someday…

 

You’ve got to believe in love.

When you’ve got to rise above.

You’ve got to believe in love…

          From "Believe In Love" by Enuff Z'nuff.

____________________________

 

The air is filled with talk of war

The faithful are called to be warriors!

 

Warriors for God

Warriors who faithfully battle

Against the forces of darkness

Who stand firm for God

Who refused to be seduced by science and liberal ideology

 

The air is filled with talk of trial and tribulation

And the faithful are exhorted to overcome evil

 

With good, yes!

But what does good look like when the air is filled

With the vapors of domination

And when evil is inclusive and good is exclusive?

 

When enemies are plentiful and the elect are few?

 

Does it look like books banned?

People demonized? Judged? Minimized?

Does it look like the elect dominating and controlling?

Does it look like a slashed tire, outside a small rural library where a Queer librarian seeks to provide resources to youth struggling with where they land on the gender spectrum?

 

Does winning look like people minimized?

Demonized?

Cowed? Frightened? Threatened? Harmed? Killed?

 

I am called to believe

I am called to believe there is a power woven into this world.

A power woven into the fabric of my being, and every person’s being

 

And that this power is Love

Personified in Jesus

Personified too in people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter

And by my beautiful friends in the LGBTQI+ community

Who are kind, caring, generous, and precious

 

A power expressed through our humanity, not perfectly,

But still

Clear

 

I believe the world is a hurting place

I believe it needs healing

I believe we do get seduced by “the way of the world”

 

But the way of the world is not personified

By people who believe in science

Or people who are queer

Or by people who believe we must protect the planet

Or by those with a “liberal” ideology

 

But by arrogance.  And a desire to dominate, intimidate, and control

The way of the world is seen in authoritarianism and the way of intimidation

And retribution

 

There is a lovely Christmas carol

That says “Love has come, a light in the darkness…

Love is God now asleep in the hay.”

 

When I think of God’s love, my heart needs to melt, not harden

I need to become a peacemaker, not a warrior

And no, peace does NOT come through subjugation

(that is the true distortion of the Gospel)

But through service

Kindness

Acceptance

Welcome

 

I have got to believe

But I have to believe in Love

 

And I do believe

I do believe in Love, and in the fact

That if we come together, united, in love

We can heal the world

Or maybe just our small little piece of this beautiful planet

which is one incarnation of Love

 

We can only heal love with love