DC and Me

We've been seeing each other for a few years, but it is now official-- Washington D.C. and I are a couple. While I was a bit sad to find that the Museum of National History is still under construction (so don't plan a day-long visit there any time in September, FYI) and did audibly yell "LI-A" in the direction of the building, DC turned out to be one big museum for me. All the places I went to I've seen before, but I saw them in a different light yesterday (a 100 degree light, that is). Because God and I had a date. 

At every monument and memorial I stopped and gave Him time to show me something interesting or significant or poignant or funny. It really doesn't take much for me to enjoy history in the first place, but something about the company yesterday multiplied my joy. And while I felt a little vain taking these pictures of just me with the self timer, I soon realized that I wasn't the only one in the pictures... God shows up all over the place (also, some of the most random bids!). And that is why, more than ever before, I am in love with DC. And God. 

I've known for a while now what Satan can do with idle time. Fill it with television, gallavanting on facebook, sleep, daydreams, and if I'm not careful just negative thoughts. You name it, he can convince you it's worth your time. And often as the negativity creeps in he takes what God meant to be alone time and makes it a really lonely time. Good thing it is impossible for me to be negative in DC (even if this election doesn't go my way and DC becomes the home of my not so favorite person). I'm pretty sure God knew this about me, so he took me out to my favorite place, a place where I wouldn't normally just be wandering alone because usually I would want to drag whoever I could in the hopes that I could get them to be interested with me. He literally paid for transportation (well, literally literally Noelle did... but I consider her to be a vessel) and coffee and dinner (well, the Modly's did, but again with the vessel theory) and tickets to the best museum I have ever been in. Not too shabby, God. 

Together we walked. And walked. And walked (okay I'll stop there but it was a lot of walking... say 50 some odd blocks). I occasionally listened to my iPod- the American President soundtrack, no less. I chased some ducks. They chased me. I shook a few veterans hands (because of course a whole slew of them would be there, to really make me reflect on the memorials) and watched as Naval Academy cadets or plebes or whatever ran the mall or walked the Vietnam Memorial. Right now those cadets are on duty, and danger will come in the future. Unfortunately I won't get to shake their hands until they are on the other side of that danger, retired and somberly reflecting at a memorial on the war that they fought without particularly agreeing with the politics but with a respect and duty for the country that allows political debate. Even more unfortunately, many of them will not make it to that memorial. Morbid, yes. But I think that concept really engraves in me the respect that these men and women deserve. 

I met complete strangers because I had what seemed to be all the time in the world and I could help them by taking their picture. They afforded me the same kindness (which I'm pretty sure my camera appreciated because I think I was really close to breaking the timer feature). An Obama rally descended upon the Lincoln memorial and I thanked God again for a country where people can yell at the top of their lungs what it is they believe and it be okay (now, you will get strange looks if you start yelling "LI-A" at the National History museum by yourself). Not my particular choice in a candidate, so I appreciate that I can just as easily vote for someone else. And I also love that politics is not an end-all, or a began-all for that matter, in God's love. 

I saw so many things yesterday (and, no, I did not take a picture of it all). Sad images, like the satellite cable from the World Trade Center, a piece of United Flight 93, homeless people along the benches of Pennsylvania Ave., pulitzer prize winning photographs of starving children, territorial divides, grieving parents, oppressed populations, innocent victims of hate crimes, forgotten soldiers, and unpopular revolutionaries of the ordinary kind shot at for questioning a faulty society. Triumphant images, like large pieces of the fallen Berlin wall, photographs of olympic champions, a victorious candidate setting out for an inauguration with his lovely date, a lighthouse championing a larger-than-life storm, the front page of the NY Times declaring WWII ended, etc. Fun images, like a little girl in a skirt and sandals delighted in the city, the shirt I bought at the Newseum gift shop, Noelle's grandfather shocked by his surprise 80th birthday party, McGruff walking down 8th Street, the possibility of a wedding at the Reagan building that houses the Federal Triangle metro stop. Conflicting images, many hard to reconcile. A lot going on beyond my comprehension. 

Still, 

"I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip- 

he who watches over you will not slumber; 

indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 

The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm- he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

-Psalm 121

For some I know it's hard to believe in a God like this. Especially for those people in the "sad" pulitzer pictures, those veterans whose friends were killed right before them and who can't come to terms with the fact that they too killed a man's friend, those homeless people sleeping hungrily. Even so it's not really that easy being on this, the easy side of life-- the life that is constantly surrounded by the triumphant and fun images. Because when the sad meets the joyful and doesn't really jive, there is still a burden. Not one that gives me nightmares each night, or leaves me in the freezing cold until morning, or makes me and my children go hungry. Still, a burden. One that shouldn't be taken lightly-- that others can't afford for me to take lightly. With privilege comes responsibility, right?

 I don't know what that looks like right now, but I know God didn't take me to D.C. solely for sunshine and interesting facts. He showed me just a bit of His burden, as well. I didn't get it right away, as evidenced by the fact that I bypassed a hungry man then went and bought a People magazine. And I still don't really know what to do with this small revelation. It is my prayer that God would keep working with me on it, though. Because more than anything I want to be a doer of the Word so that people will see it isn't just words at all. I want my life to apply to the burdened. Christianity is application. I know it's not all up to me and that every time I go to a store or to dinner with friends I can't let guilt keep me from living. However, I can respond to the joy I've been given-- the paramount of which was yesterday, just DC and me.

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a hight priest who is unable to sympathize with out weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way,just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."  

  -Hebrews 4:14-16