I had a colleague ask me late last week how I was going to address the events in Washington D.C. during Sunday morning worship. I told her I wasn’t. My sermon on kindness was done. Got a baptism scheduled. Going to pray for a group of women fighting cancer. But those were just excuses. I don’t know enough to make any statement that is informed enough to be helpful to anybody. I do know this:
Jesus believed it is wrong for men to treat women poorly…verbally, emotionally, and physically. I believe that. Jesus believed it is wrong for women to treat men poorly…verbally, emotionally, and physically. I believe that too. I recognize many people are suffering from a painful past and I believe God can heal those hurts.
Watching any event happening in Washington D.C. is pretty tough for me to stomach these days. I was a political junkie for twenty years. Maybe I will be again someday. Probably not. I once believed good government can change the world. I don’t anymore. But I believe God can and God does change the world.
I believe good teachers can change the world. So can good coaches, nurses, students, carpenters, police officers, stay-at-home moms, and social workers. Servants can change the world too. Which means anybody can change the world because everybody can serve.
I don’t know exactly what it looks like for you. Here is what I’m thinking it looks like for me.
I’m going to do my best to be a praying, volunteering, donating, resource sharing, encouraging guy who plays with the kids in the neighborhood and then visits somebody’s grandma in the nursing home after which I will write a few thank you notes because I believe being thankful is one of the coolest things a person can do and so is taking food to some homeless people and the neighbor I don’t know yet and speaking of cool I’m going to try to avoid gossip and avoid judging others and avoid complaining because gratitude is better than complaining, empathy is better than evaluating, letting a fellow driver cut-in during heavy traffic is better than arriving five seconds earlier to my destination where I will do my best to find goodness in the person I don’t understand and I will do the tasks nobody else wants to do and I will do kind things that nobody will ever see and I will rest my tongue unless the words ready to exit my mouth are affirming and life-giving because words have hurt me before so I’m going to be compassionate to myself and let those hurts go and forgive others and give to others too like tipping more when I go out to eat or paying for the mom and her kids behind me in the drive-thru at Sonic and giving compliments to others in front of others and giving grace and peddling hope and offering help and being kind because Jesus tells us to be light in a dark world and our world seems pretty darn dark right now.
May God inspire me to try, forgive me when I fail, and empower me to shine.
