This week I experienced a co-worker and good friend lose her 23 year old son. Let me stop right there... 23 years old...passed away in his sleep... The grief and pain that I feel for her is so difficult. I felt a sadness that is indescribable and while tears ran down my face during the memorial I watched and listened this family raise up their son with amazing memories of with a son filled with kindness, love, and intelligence.
I experience two birthdays. One of my big sister. The sister that I so wish I could be and wish nothing but good things for. I got to take her out to lunch and treat her to a delicious meal. I celebrated with with brother in law and one of my favorite nephews.
Another of a new good friend to which I baked and frosted a chocolate cake to help her celebrate. With a handful of good friends, we laughed and made jokes.
I expressed gratitude to my husband and our armed services for their service in protecting this
country. "This is the good holiday" my husband said to me. Yes, this is the good one. This one thanks all our veterans for their service... My husband struggles with memorial day. Having lost friends in the service.
I witnessed a country divided and watched an election that took a turn that no one could have predicted. I watched my friends and co-workers cry and I was filled with sadness and fear for me and others. I talked with a friend and though we had a difference of opinion we still expressed our love for one another, which made my heart flow with love.
I witnessed a city that I have come to love respond with a peaceful protest and lost their voice due to other people who are intent on driving the wedge even deeper. I was disappointed to learn of the destruction of our city and the lives that were injured.
I learned that I got an A+ on my second paper for my masters program and I am glowing with pride and accomplishment from the professors specifically telling me that I have a good grasp of what we are suppose to be learning and have applied it in ways that many of her doctrine students have not yet done.
And in all of this I look to Christ and am reminded that in all of these scenarios he is at the center of it all. That none of this happens by chance. Through all of these I am reminded by him to respond in love. And not just simple love that is often use to explain how we feel about a good dinner, but a deep and unwaveringly love. The love that Christ commands us to have daily. An unwavering love that has no expectations ,but is freely given. I am reminded that regardless of what is happening at the country level we still have neighbors and friends and family that we can love, and serve. Doing good to silence evil, loving the brotherhood and other believers regardless of who is in office. I am directed to 1 timothy 2:1-5, which urges us to to have prayers and gives thanks to be made for all people and even those who are in a high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. In all that has happened this week I have to respond in prayer and love. I have to, because I have to have hope that God is in control. That the loving God in his sovereignty is not frantically pacing up in heaven, Because he really does have our best interest in mind. And in my fear and anxiety I find rest in that.
All people are created in the image of God and deserves to be respected, because when someone feels marginalized fear and anxiety are real! I can't not pretend to know how my friends or family feel because I am not them but I can say that when someone feels marginalized their emotions are real! I can't stress that enough. We live in a country with such differences that it would be disgraceful to not validate how someone else feels when we have NO IDEA what it is like to be them. Just like some of my friends have no idea what its like to be a Taiwanese-American or what it really means to walk with Christ or what that looks like. Now I do not respond in anger when I have a friend say he disagrees with everything I say about Christ and love. Why should I respond in anger? They have no idea what that means because they are not me and they don't know what the life is like. I pray that we remember to respond in love and patiences with others because no one has the right to minimize how someone else feels. We all deserve to be respected and as a follower of Jesus I must posture myself as a servant and in love towards those that are marginalized in our society and I will pray for them while serving them in what capacity I can.
As a follower of Jesus, politics does not excuse me from following the ways of Jesus. And those ways are in fact loving. First to love one another and that is my identify to the world, and love each other. Daily I will be trying to express what I know Jesus would produce in me and that is Love, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Joy, Kindness and Self-control. And I would pray that we all do the same to one another. Because Jesus loved me so much that he died for me, not because he agreed with me but selflessly gave himself to me because he disagreed! And I am praying that I can follow in his ways daily.
I pray that we would love rise up and love one another. Not "defriending" those that have walked beside us for years, or fight and argue with co-workers but to rise up and show love. Emotions are running high and I can see the divide happening. I, for one, refused to let this divide happen in my life. My friends have not changed, I just get to see another side of them. Another side that requires me to love them regardless of how they feel, or say or do, because Jesus loves me unwaveringly. And isn't that the biggest hurdle, to love one another. Lets conquer that hurdle together...
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