Not Observers

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We are not the observers of history, but participants

As close to home as the love we share,

As far as the most distant village, our choices count.

We make hope happen.  We turn the wheel of time.

          Steven Charleston

___________________________

 

We make history

We make and re-make

The world around us

 

Sometimes I doubt that

It all feels so hopeless

And I feel so powerless

 

I watch toxic people escape justice

I see the rich use the existing systems to exploit the poor

I see racism ooze out of people’s souls

I read comments that are nothing but hate

Vomited on a Facebook post or page

 

And it seems inevitable

As if evil wins, and wins, and wins

 

I have a friend

A black person

Who when he was six

Saw his father violently pulled from his car by the police

For driving in the “wrong” neighborhood

 

He says it has always been this way

This world

Full of racism and hate

Full of people who want to dominate

Get even

Humiliate

Oppress

Exclude

Eradicate

 

It has always been this way in American

For him, for his people,

 

But he functions from hope!

Because?

Because?

 

God!

God is

God is love

God is love incarnate

 

And with God in us

And God in us

God working through us

Can do more than we can even ask or imagine (Eph 3)

 

We can hit the streets

We can feed the hungry

We can welcome the unwelcome

We can clothe the naked

We can be a cup of cool water for the thirsty

We can

 

Make hope happen

 

It is easy to despair

Despair is where we are at

The answer?

God’s people living as God’s people

Being God’s people

 

It is time for hope