Beyond the headline

Reuters

I sit here staring at an empty screen, fingers hovering above the keys hoping the words will come. I close my eyes as the images I’ve seen this past week fill my brain and churn my gut. The scenes coming to us from the other side of the world are heartbreaking, with Afghan citizens so desperate to flee to safety they will literally do anything and risk everything for the chance to escape. What can I even say? The fear, oppression, and devastation those people are facing is unimaginable. Last week, I wrote a post called Around and Around, in which I challenged myself, and the reader, to look past the headlines to see the humanity within the story. As I’ve attempted to do just that with the stories coming out of Afghanistan, my heart weeps for the people living there in uncertainty and chaos and I wonder what I would say to them if given the opportunity.

Come. Come, all you who are weary, come. If you’re tired and thirsty, come and be filled. Come and find rest. Experience the freedom and respect you deserve as one made in the image of God. Come and know that you are loved. You who were once without a home, you are welcome here. All who have been ravaged by war, tattered and worn by the hell of this fallen world, come find safety and refuge.

Unfortunately I can’t say that. We don’t have the ability even to extend that invitation due to complex immigration policy and red tape, but I think there’s something deeper than politics. Just like culture, politics is just people. Without people, there is no culture and there are no politics. So we can’t just blame nebulous politics. The deeper issue lies in the heart of humanity that has become calloused toward our neighbor, and we’ve forgotten how to love. True sacrificial love can’t be only for those who look, speak, and believe the same as us. It blows apart anything that stands in it’s way. Nothing can separate when love is the driving force of our lives. If I desire to live a life of love, kindness, and peace with my neighbors and the world around me, I have to lay aside any political ideology that says “me first”, and lean into the suffering to offer healing and hope, freedom and joy. How do we do that? Honestly I have no idea. I just know that we get up every day and look for the opportunities that come our way to spread joy, to fight for the oppressed, and give love the best we can. Beyond that, I’d love to hear your ideas of how you’re reaching out to love those around you. Drop a comment or message me on the Contact page.

#Lucha

Since our kids were young, at the start of every new year we sit together and celebrate personal victories and/or lessons learned from the past year, as well as set intentions and goals for the next. Part of that tradition is to select a “word for the year” that will serve as somewhat a theme for the next season of life. One year, I jokingly told the family my word for the year was lottery, and I planned on winning big. Later that year we were searching for a home to buy and found a really cool place that we could afford, had room for our daughter’s horse, and happened to be on Casino Rd. We had a good laugh when we were moving in and realized the correlation of my word. I don’t know how you feel about God, but I think he sure has a great sense of humor sometimes. This year, I chose the word “Lucha”. I have a shirt that says #Lucha, which is a Spanish word that means to fight or struggle, and I think in this world that desperately needs love, we also need to remember to fight.

I’m somewhat of a pacifist. I hate conflict and will usually avoid it like the Rona. This year has been interesting, as I’ve found myself engaged in conversations that can sometimes be controversial to say the least. I don’t like it, and yet I believe it’s good. It’s good because it challenges both parties to love beyond our comfortability. If I only love those I agree with, what good is that really doing but just causing deep divisions between people who have different views or beliefs than me. It’s so important to remember, and this is a constant struggle, that the fight is not against the person, but the fight is for them. I have to be willing to engage in the difficult things, to fight to really know and understand their view, and to show them love and respect whether I agree or not. That, my friends, is where the real struggle lies. Anyone can fight with someone they don’t like or they disagree with. The real strength is in the struggle, to fight through temptation to hate, and choose to show compassion, understanding, grace, forgiveness, and love instead.

When we look for ways to fight for people rather than against them, I think we’ll discover that loving and fighting are equally vital if we want to have have authentic relationships with other humans. As I’ve said before, I certainly don’t write these things because I’ve mastered this at all. Not by a long shot! I struggle with this on a daily basis. Life is hard and sometimes my humanity can be a real beast to tame. I’m impatient, judgmental, and quite honestly the exact opposite of what I desire to be. But that’s ok. That’s all part of the human experience. We fail and we learn. We hurt and we forgive. We fall and we get back up. We love and we fight. So be a lover and a fighter. #Lucha

Around and Around

Probably one of my all-time favorite movie scenes is in the classic, small-town American baseball movie, The Sandlot. A group of pre-adolescent boys spend their summer days playing baseball, but in this scene they all go to a carnival together. One of the boys pulls out a big pouch of chew, they all shove a huge wad in their mouth, and get on one of the rides. Shortly into the ride, you start to see their faces change from laughter and joy to nausea and panic. Pretty soon every single one of them is puking on the ride, which ends up flying all over the other passengers as well. If you have a weak stomach, you might feel a little nauseous just hearing about it. I have to admit, that feels all-to-familiar right now as we look around the world and wonder when this chaos is going to end. Seeing all the tragedy, horror, hatred, and heartache is enough to make us all puke if we’re paying attention. Sadly, rather than look at it and be moved to action, I often turn the other way, puke a little, and just swallow it back down.

Families are literally running for their lives in Afghanistan. Entire villages slaughtered and burned in Ethiopia. Thousands of migrants starving for food and a better life stuck at the border. Tibet, Hong Kong, Greece. Fires, floods, Covid. The list goes on and on, Every corner of the globe is facing enormous difficulty of some kind or another, and we all wonder when is this going to end? Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question. Maybe, just maybe, we need to stop yelling at each other, put down our guns, and ask ourselves, “How are we going to get through this together?” Instead of “when will this end?”, we can be asking how we can love better and what we can do to help each other get through this. It really doesn’t matter what my, or your, opinions are about climate change, politics, vaccines, or anything else. What really matters is how we are loving one other.

There is plenty of room for us to have differences of opinion and have open, respectful discussion and dialogue if we first start with love. If our primary concern is to show love and kindness to someone, then we can talk together, share ideas, and be united as one human race that is working for the good of all mankind. Next time you read the news or hear about some tragic suffering across the globe, take a moment to think about those families. The children and grandmas, moms and dads. See the humanity behind the story, allow it to stir in your gut, and move you to act in compassion, kindness, and love. That’s how we’re going to get off this ride.

Right or Left

Chocolate or Vanilla? Rap or Country? Pizza or Sushi? These may (or may not) be easy decisions when there are only two options. But what if we start adding in hamburgers, tacos, cookies and cream, coffee, or a million different other things? Some you might love and others not so much, but it’s much more difficult to declare an absolute best when you realize just how many options there are. We all have our personal preferences when it comes to food, style, music, etc., but it’s hard to deny that countless other good options exist that may be someone else’s favorite, and that doesn’t make them wrong.

This got me thinking about something called a binary system. A binary system is a system that involves only two specifics options, like a “yes or no” question. You can only answer yes, or no. There is no in-between, no third option, and no room for compromise. It’s a simple yes, or no. Some things in life function really well in a binary system of thinking. For example, is it ok to mistreat someone because of their race, or make fun of their ethnicity? I hope we all agree that’s a hard “No”. It’s not ok. In case you’re not really aware, that’s active racism and it’s hurtful and terribly wrong. Is it good to feed and care for the needs of your children? Probably a unanimous yes on that one. When we start talking politics, philosophy, religious denominations, or even football, things can get a bit more complicated, and it’s in these areas that we need to be careful of a binary system of thinking.

When we draw hard lines in the sand with people, we force them to choose one of the limited options we give them, which often leads to arguments, division, and sometimes all-out war. In case you haven’t noticed, God is very creative. Like snowflakes, each of us is uniquely created, but we are all created in the image of God. That means that even the co-worker you can’t stand and that sister-in-law that bugs the crap out of you are made in the image of God. They are reflecting a part of him that may be totally different than you. And that’s a good thing. We aren’t all alike and we don’t have to act, think, speak, and believe all the same things. We are created in the image of love, so let’s spend less time dividing over things we don’t agree on, and look for the beauty and goodness in each other. You just may start to see love in places you never thought to look.

Rooted in love

A big, beautiful tree in front of City Hall was toppled Sunday afternoon when a crazy storm blew through our little town. It was one of several trees that had fallen, and countless broken branches. We even saw a trampoline perched on top of huge tree that was lying across the road. In some regions, storms like this are as common as rain in Oregon, but we don’t typically have wind like that here.

One of our favorite things about our hometown is that it is tucked at the base of some beautiful hills and trails that we’ve been hiking together since our kids were barely able to walk. After the storm we were anxious to get on the trails and see what damage may have been done, assuming there would be dozens of fallen trees and branches blocking the path. To our surprise, after about 4 miles of hiking we only saw one newly fallen tree on the ground. Thousands of trees make up the landscape of those hills and we only saw one tree that fell victim to the storm. It made us wonder why. Why are there so many trees down in town, but these were still standing? I think the answer is community.

In town, the trees stand on their own. You may see one isolated tree in the middle of a manicured lawn or lining the sidewalk. Their roots are often shallow with nothing to hold onto but dirt and grass. In the hills is a much different story. Hundreds of trees have their roots tangled together, embracing each other like family. They guard each other from the wind, holding fast no matter what comes their way. Family. Community. Don’t we all kind of wish we had more of that. Not the petty arguments and rivalry that sometimes define family, but the deep true love that you know will be there for you when the chips are down. I know I want that, and I want to be that for the people in my life. We can’t get that by being isolated. As a card-carrying introvert this can be difficult for me, but it is reality. We were made for community, for family, friendship, and love. I’m going to try to get out of my comfort zone more and get tangled up in relational community. When the winds come, we’ll have a better chance of weathering the storm if we’re holding onto each other.