Dec 1st. Monday: Week 1 of Advent.

"Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." - Matthew 11:29

I don't think I have ever read this verse before, but it really makes Jesus personal. It makes his essence and mission clear: to be gentle and humble in all interactions, both when people are watching, and when they are not. Christ came to bring the world together, and peace comes from being humble and gentle with our neighbors. We sing a song at the end of service at church that reflects this.

"Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on,
The peace that was meant to be.
To take each moment,
And live each moment,
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me."

The peace that Jesus embodies through humility and gentleness starts with me. And you. One person at a time, being peace to those around them. May we always remember the humility of Christ, and may we share in the work of that humility.

Thanksgiving Hope

Thankful. Thanksgiving.
Full of thanks. Giving thanks.
Grateful. Humbled.
I am thankful that You never give up
On this place. On these people. On me.
I am thankful for Your vision of restoration.
In the big pieces. In the small pieces.
Big Peace. Small Peace. All Peace.
All pieces. All parts.
One part. One People.
One God. In love. With a People.
In love with a potential for Peace.
A potential for people to love
Beyond the surface.
Beyond the arguments.
Beyond religion and politics.
To a love between human and human.
Reflecting a love between God and humans.
I am thankful that You never give up.

ANYWAY

Anyway

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered,
LOVE THEM ANYWAY
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
DO GOOD ANYWAY
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies,
SUCCEED ANYWAY
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
DO GOOD ANYWAY
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight,
BUILD ANYWAY
People really need help but may attack you if you help them,
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth,
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU’VE GOT ANYWAY.

author unkown

This was taken from a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, Mother Teresa's children’s home in Calcutta.

A (good) anger.

I'm not sure exactly how to put my thoughts out there sometimes, but I cannot keep them inside anymore, even if they come out unorganized.

I almost cried today because some people that are close to me have shown themselves (conscious or not) to be sexist, racist and demeaning towards homosexuals at some level, even small. They are oppressive, and I don't even think they know it. 

I sat with them, eating lunch, and politics came up. I never talk to them about politics. All they know is that I'm voting for Obama and they are voting for McCain. One person says to us, "I just get a bad feeling, that Obama's name is one letter away from a known terrorist, Osama's name." All I could think was, 'Are you serious?!" A last name dictates a whole individual? A last name makes someone a terrorist? Makes you WORRIED because it SOUNDS like someone elses' name? All I could say was, "That's just silly. It's like when they said Reagan was the anti-christ because his first middle and last name all had 6 letters in it." And another person just said, "Well....he was the anti-christ."

Then the conversation went to Palin. The people I was with obviously love her, but one person said, "I hope McCain doesn't die, because I don't think a woman should be president." WHAT?! It wasn't even a matter of whether she was qualified, it was the fact that she was a WOMAN. She continued, "I just don't think women are stable enough...unless she was actually a man. Maybe she's a transvestite!" And then began the talk about homosexuality...

"I can't wait to see if the next one to run is going to be gay," another person said. "Yeah, can you image it? "Here's the president and his first man!" A younger friend added as they all laughed. "Yeah, and next an animal could run for president!" Really? The next step from someone being gay is someone being an animal. And this isn't the first time one of these close people has demeaned homosexuality to animal level. Just the other night we watched an add for a Prop about gay marriage, and someone said, "Yeah, and next they'll let people marry their pets." These are two PEOPLE who think and feel as PEOPLE. They are NOT animals. And it is oppressive and rude to put they at the same level as animals. It makes me very upset that Christians could even think this. But they do! AND SO MANY OF THEM DO. It breaks my heart. And some day when my son or daughter asks me if I was apart of oppressing homosexuals and imposing my religious belief system on them to say that they can't get married because my particular God says they can't, I will say "No, baby. No I didn't."

Missing the Magic

I sat with my family as we watched Criss Angel tonight. It wasn't very enjoyable, not only because Criss Angel is just weird, but because everyone in my family room would pause the show and nitpick the entire illusion, trying to figure it out. "There's no way he could be walking on water, because why are those girls not swimming in front of him. There's glass under him, there has to be," my mom kept repeating. And then it wasn't magic anymore. There is something very beautiful about just enjoying a magic trick. Of course Criss Angel didn't really walk on water, but that isn't the point. The point is to enjoy a great artist doing something he's very good at. Enjoying the magic of "seeing" a man walk on water.

And then I was reminded of how as Christians, we can do something similar. We can take something as beautiful as the story of God and His people and instead of just enjoying the simplicity and complexity of this story, we try to analyze every sentence and every word, and we end up missing the magic.

Straight to hell...

I walked into the doctors office with my mom for her appointment and sat down while she checked in. There was a big television with CNN showing clips of Clinton and Obama, showing their stand on gay marriage.

"Both Obama and Clinton support civil union" the newscaster said. Within seconds I was interrupted by another woman in the waiting room who loudly said to her elderly mother, "Oh my gosh. Our nations going to hell!!" I was confused and saddened. Who knows, maybe our nation is going to hell...but I'm pretty sure it won't be because of our stand on gay marriage.

The sinner at the well?

"And Jesus was trying to tell the Samaritan woman that she needed to get rid of her sin before she could drink the water that would never make her thirsty again. That's the point of what he was doing. Jesus points out our sin, and we have to deal with it first!"

These were only some of the words I heard while listening to the preacher on the radio last night. I was not angry at the words, but I was deeply saddened. They are missing the point. They are missing the beautiful encounter that this woman and Jesus shared. A moment that shouldn't have even happened, by their cultures standards. This encounter was much, much deeper than getting rid of your sins before you can come to God. In fact, I don't see that at all. I see the oposite. I don't have many other thoughts on this, as I am not educated in the story of the woman at the well, but I do know that it just felt wrong.