Well, okay, two months. And really, DC and I have been going out for a long time, remember? It's just that now we're getting serious. Each of my seven visits this semester have challenged my heart in some way. I wish I'd known that while these things were difficult to confront at the time, they'd be at least 3x harder to process and reflect on from here.
What to do with what I've seen?
It's not that the sights were that offensive. Matter of a fact, the most troubling part is that I am so numb to them. So prone to push past the mom and her raggedy four-year-old. Ready to laugh off Malcolm X boulevard as a ghetto filled with bums who won't go get jobs. Sit right next to a rained-on (drunk) homeless woman at Au Bon Pain and not speak a word to her about hope. Roll my eyes at Chinatown and internally say "learn English."
Where is the hope in this?
And aren't I supposed to be it?
So it concerns me about myself that I go about life acting like other people owe something to me. When I'm honestly much better off than at least half of the world and I'm not even owed that much.
Do the people with "issues" really owe it to me stay away, or do I owe it to them to "go and do likewise?"
I said at lunch yesterday that the more I'm around politics the less interested I am in them. Quite honestly, it's because I'm tired of having to defend republicans and hate democrats at all cost. Mostly because I am called to love at all cost. So that is where my money and my mouth and my prayers will go. I am, by no means, for the new health care bill. But do you know the most disturbing part of the whole debacle was for me? The greatest critics of it continually spouted "the government is going to take my money and give more of it to people who won't work for themselves."
I get that it is a sub-par system. Not good health care and truly a rip off. I get that it is upsetting for the government to up and take hard-earned money, and I don't think it should be done.
But.
What would this country look like if people gave from their check because of heart and not because of government? Out of mercy, not obligation. Government handouts are most unnerving, I understand, because it is believed to foster a sense of entitlement among recipients. But if it came from private hands, wouldn't it foster gratitude and personal responsibility to spend well? Maybe I'm just dreaming.
But I'm not the only one. Jesus himself says a man is a fool who stores up treasure for himself.
I don't agree with the health care bill. But when the number one defense against it is that it's going to require something of us to attempt to help others, I think we may have lost our way a bit. Of course it will require something of us, government intervention or not. So perhaps in the private sphere I should get a little less attached to my own resources before it is federally required of me, and the mandate might not be as shocking to me as before.
Then my defense against the bill could be that, as a Christian, I'd rather give out of mercy than obligation and more than anything I resent that the government is taking away that option from my paycheck.
But then that begs of me-- were you giving in the first place? If no, I can't really get all up in arms. So I choose to let this time in politics be a reminder to give of my own will before it is willed for me by legislation.
Truthfully, I believe it was willed for me long before the man named Obama came to supposedly ruin the world.
(How dare I insult the Savior of the world, Jesus, by telling Him and his people any chance I get that one man not only can but is using comparable power to thwart the hope and joy of salvation?)
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. -Jeremiah 29:7
So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. -Joshua 24: 13-14
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." -Luke 10:33-37
Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. -Matthew 18: 32-35
1 comment:
I like this.
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