Month: September 2021

Our people

My Grandma told me once how she loved the people from her home community. No matter what they did she loved them. She told me of a neighbour who was a horse thief. Everyone in the area knew it. If your horse went missing, the first stop was always to his farm to see if he had it. Usually he did have the stolen horse. The community folk would go collect their horse and be on their way.

She laughed as she recalled this. Then she paused and looking at me with her beautiful pale blue eyes, she clasped her hands and leaned forward, as though to drive the point home. “You see, they are my people.”

We all need people. We need to love our people and walk with our people.

Have we lost this? Perhaps we lost it before the dreaded virus landed in our world.

Love is not a feeling or an instinct. Love is a job. A job with easy days and tough days. But a job nonetheless.

Together lets love our people.

1 Peter 4: 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers
over a multitude of sins.

After the storm

Imagine we are on a voyage. We are sailing on the ocean. There is a great storm, and we are blown off course. When the rain and wind die down, and we stop trying to keep the ship from going down, we become aware that our tools have all been damaged. Our radio, computers and usual charting devices have been destroyed by the storm.

What should we do at this point? I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts – but here is what I think we should do.

We should find a safe harbour, never mind where it is or how familiar it is to us. Find a calm place to stop and drop anchor. Most important thing to have when sailing – an anchor. Find this anchor and use it now. Stop and pause, and let go of the fear from the night before. Let go of the anxiety of saving your life and those of your shipmates. You are here now – alive. Release the negative emotions and pause.

Get out the maps. Get out the compass and try to figure out where we are. This is the only way forward. We have to stop and take stock. We can’t start sailing without figuring out how far off course we now are. We have to establish where we are and how best to get to our destination.

God is the anchor. The Bible is the map. Our inner conscience is the compass. Pause and pull out what tools we have left.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Alone. Together.

You’ve likely heard the line, “We are all in this together.” But we aren’t. We’ve been distanced from community. We’ve been isolated and shut down. We are alone. Maybe together we are all alone, but that is just word trickery.

No one I know is doing ok. Everyone is struggling. For different reasons, yes, but we are all experiencing trauma. I used to wonder what it was like for my Grandmother, at home with her kids while the war raged across the channel. It has filled my imagination for years.

While I wouldn’t presume to understand her exact feeling, I do feel closer to her now than ever. All we can do is wait and survive.

What we do need is courage. The courage to sit in the sun. The courage to sing. The courage to make a nice meal. The courage to love. The courage to love people, even if they aren’t loving in return.

Claim the freedom to love.

2 Timothy 1: 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power,
of love and of self-discipline.

The noise deafens

Turn it all off. Turn off the noise, the tv, the voices that invade our minds. How is anyone expected to stay sane with all this noise?

Christ lived in a time so foreign to our own. We have great challenges that Christians have never faced before. The distractions and ever present media. It is almost impossible to navigate and move forward. I can turn off the noise, but if no one else does how does that help?

I am looking down the barrel of some pretty ugly days. People have allowed the voices to fill them with fear and anger. I watch as our society is covered by a cloak of virtue but the fruit is hate and distrust.

I have no confidence in mankind today. NONE.

We have to find a path back to God. We have to learn to love others, even if they are wrong, even if they do us harm, even if they wield power, even if they are the underdog, even if they protest what we value. All of us! Not one of us is free of sin. We all hang in the balance.

I honestly don’t even have the words to pray any more. I just pray that God will know and do what is best. I have no ideas, no thoughts.

I am completely empty and I have to put myself fully in his hands.

Do I need to have faith in humanity to be a Christian? Can I be cynical and dejected and still follow him? Is there a different way?

What is forgiveness? What does it look like?

Maybe it looks like a man beaten, bleeding, dying on a cross asking the God of Heaven to forgive the people who put him there. That is a high bar.

Luke 23: 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what
they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Lessons from life

I got a call last week from someone, I haven’t seen or talked to in years. She was ‘concerned’ about my political stance. Not sure how she knows what it is, as she never actually asked me about it. She just knew. The worst part was a subtle disapproval of me as a Christian. My politics are different, therefore I wasn’t understanding Jesus, and I am not really a Christian.

This was upsetting to say the least. I know many people with whom I have different politics, but I have never done anyone the disservice of presuming they are not a member of His kingdom.

Then I started to think of my Grandmother. She befriended the people no one else valued. She stayed connected to the woman whose extramarital affair broke up more than her own family. She stayed friends with the person who let alcohol drag her from the centre of polite society. She loved the unlovable. She may not have approved of their life choices, but she loved them anyhow.

Why? That wasn’t her job. Just as it isn’t my job to rank others on the ‘Christian’ scale. It is not my job to condemn others over disagreements in policy. Or to judge people who make different life choices.

Let us not let our fervor for God or what we think as the ‘right’ way tempt us. We have no right to assume the position of judge. When we do so, we are claiming the position of God – something that even Jesus was unwilling to do.

James 4: 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

One of two commandments

I was looking for something to listen to and I cranked up the YouTube to see if I could find a speaker or video about this topic. I began to type – Love… lots of love songs pop up. Love your… yourself lots of self-love. Love your n… oddly enough love nature came next. Love your neighb… finally love your neighbour.

That took a lot of letters.

It says something about our society though.

Jesus said, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Note we don’t need to be instructed in how to love ourselves. Contrary to public opinion we do that a lot. Are we always loving ourselves in a productive and useful way, that is another story. But we are naturally absorbed in our own world and point of view. That is inevitable and we all do it. No we are told to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Are we told to love them when they agree with us or do the things we want them to do? No.

Are we told to love them when they are nice and worthy of our love and respect? No.

Love is work. People are messy. Loving people can be hard to do. But don’t pat yourself on the back and think, well I’ve done my best, I’ve tried, they are just unlovable. No. Jesus didn’t say ‘do this if you can, if it works out for you.’ It is one of two commandments he gives.

Love God with your whole self is the first, love your neighbor as yourself is the second.

As I listen to friends who are struggling with hurt and misunderstanding and anger even in their own families, I wonder: Are we getting this wrong? Do we know how to do this?

As I searched this morning I found this video on YouTube. It’s long, but listen to it. There is nothing I could say that he doesn’t say better. It is old – like 150 years old. Maybe Solomon was right – maybe there is really nothing new under the sun.

Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”