i will never be the person to stand in front of you and argue politics. i will never be the person to tell you why you shouldn’t vote for your candidate, or even why you should vote for the other guy {or girl}.i will never debate the hot button issues either. it is not a topic feel confident debating, arguing or frankly just discussing. the whole thing just has me riddled with anxiety.
i will however debate, argue and discuss loving people. that IS something that i am confident in. it IS a subject i have chosen to invest my time and energy into because it’s something that i feel very strongly about and am good at.
i read this interview with the lovely and amazing Jen Hatmaker. a woman i have come to truly admire for her honesty, humor, openness and love for Jesus. she spoke very frankly about her believes. her believes.
i read the article and thought “yes! this is it! she helped put words to a lot of things i’ve been struggling with in this time of chaos our world is in.” but you read the comments, and you start to hear the words coming from OTHER christians mouths about what she had to say and i’m just taken a back. when did loving other people FIRST become an issue? when did disagreeing with others become hate? when did loving people become hate?
you know loved people first? Jesus. and damn he did it well. he gave us the best example of how, why and who. and now christians are attacking christians because Jen decided to love people first? i also want to be so bold to say there has become a distinction that needs some calling out. i believe there has become a difference between christians and Jesus followers. christians are the ones spewing the hate to a woman who was standing up for her fellow person {believers or not}. Jesus followers are the ones actively trying to love people like Jesus did. i almost cringe to call myself a christian in this time. my husband and i strive to be Jesus followers and it doesn’t always look the way it should, it’s not always pretty and not always the best reflection of Christ but we are humans in a broken world striving daily, hourly, minute by minute to love people in all of it.
there is something to be said about speaking God’s truth. but i don’t believe you have any right to speak ANY truth to another person if you haven’t taken the time to speak in love FIRST. the world knows what christians are against, but have we taken the time to tell {and show} the world what we are for. Jesus didn’t go around saying “hey there tax collector, i love you, truly i do…BUT you know you are big fat sinner and here is an itemized list in alphabetically order of why you aren’t worthy of God’s grace, and I just really hate they way you live your life, but i’m saying this in love.” NO WAY! he showed up and invited them to have dinner with him. no talk of how flawed they were, or how much he disagreed with their life, he feed them and loved them. the end.
i think what is so appealing to me about Jesus is that he loved people through their struggles. he went to weddings of sinners. he cried with the hurt, broken and grieving. he found a way to love us through all of that. and then commanded us to all do the same. where are we doing that right now? where are we stepping out and saying simply, “i love you…i love every part of you, and you know what…i’m pretty broken too. i’m struggling too. i’m grieving too.” we are losing the idea that people are people. facebook, media, social media have made it easy for us to throw our hateful words around without any thought of the people that it might pierce, that it might cut down, that it might exclude. we say what we want because “it’s our right”…well i’m here to tell you just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
my aim in all this is not to tell you how terrible christians are, how terrible you are or even how great i am. it’s to shake you… {literally if i could} and ask you to just stop. and think.
i learned a phrase from a wonderful mentor of mine that we’ve implemented in our marriage. when a situation arises and we are weighing the pros and cons of saying or doing something that could effect the other… we stop and think “is this marriage building?”
so i ask you friends, christians, Jesus followers, non-believers, believers, the broken, the weary, the hurt, the grieving or whatever other name you are wearing right now…is this “marriage building?” are the words you say, or type, lifting and loving another person, group of people, minority, ethnic group? no? then stop. and think. “how can i show this person love and not judgement, not hate, not hurt?” sometimes it’s just listening without an opinion or agenda, it’s a kind act, it’s showing up when it’s assumed you’d never, and sometimes it’s simply smiling at another.
let’s love each other well friend… the world needs each and every one of us uniquely.