Sometimes I sit down to pen a post and then all of a sudden I just can\u2019t. I can\u2019t go forward with my pre-thought-out idea. Something has happened that changes my perspective. Sometimes I don\u2019t like that. But the reality is that most of the time when my perspective is changed, it\u2019s for the better and wiser. Such is true today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I first began to ponder the content of today\u2019s post, awakening to the early morning news, my first visual was a view of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, tragically collapsing in Baltimore, Maryland. I read the immediate, shortened accounts\u2026 of it happening around 1:30 in the morning\u2026 the cargo ship hitting the bridge\u2026 the bridge spanning the lower Patapsco River\u2026 and the rescue urgently underway, believing this to be a \u201cmass casualty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s horrendous. It\u2019s unfathomable. It makes me stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple people have lost or are in process of losing their lives as I write this. I know we all have hard stuff in our lives \u2014 stuff that\u2019s hurtful, hard to deal with, things that have the potential to totally rattle us because we don\u2019t want them to happen. But we aren\u2019t those people who were on that bridge. We aren\u2019t the people who were routinely coming or going to\/fro work that night. We aren\u2019t the families who were waiting at home nor the sleeping kids who awaited a final kiss on the forehead when their parent finally arrived. We weren\u2019t part of the missing construction crew. And while I don\u2019t believe in dismissing any individual via the comparison of suffering, it is still reality that we aren\u2019t the people who all of a sudden most had to deal with the horror. The horror puts life in perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We live in a broken world, friends \u2014 in a world that\u2019s not as it should be. And I would respectfully argue that such is a feeling even the non-religious adherent are aware of. There is too much death, disease and destruction\u2026 there is too much fighting and seeking of power over others\u2026 there is too much condescension and conceit. There is too much lesser than honoring God by learning to love all whom he created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we\u2019re all created in the same image, it doesn\u2019t matter any more or any less who it was on that bridge the other night\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 black, white, Latino, Asian\u2026 gay, straight, something else\u2026 old, young\u2026 Republican, Democrat\u2026 bright, disabled, rich, poor\u2026 it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Friends, we fight about too many things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We justify too many fights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We fight because we don\u2019t understand. We don\u2019t understand because we don\u2019t sit with the different. We don\u2019t sit with the different because it takes patience, time and a genuine willingness to hear the heart of others. That\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we avoid the hard that\u2019s constantly present in a broken world, acting instead as if the fight is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friends, most of the time when we deem the fight to be necessary, it’s unfair to conclude the lack of virtue is solely with another person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sit with the one you do not understand. Be curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In current day, we routinely hear from many of those in the political realm who have no idea how someone can be a supporter of Donald Trump and all his accompanying, disrespectful bravado. We hear a surfeit of others aghast at those who turn a blind eye to Joe Biden\u2019s lack of lucidity. We see the demonization continue downline\u2026 even in sporting events, of those who root differently, who feel differently. It\u2019s sad to juxtapose sports and politics, but the reality is that in a broken world, we aren\u2019t all that good at respecting those unlike us; we’re instantly opposed to the other team, whatever arena we enter. We thus judge others in what we don\u2019t understand. And we aren\u2019t taking the time to understand them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a hard truth, friends. There are good people who support Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There are good people who sit on the other side of the sporting event, rooting for the other team. But when we aren\u2019t patient, when we aren\u2019t curious and when we don\u2019t take the time, we will never realize that. Instead, we will justify the fight, further fueling the prevailing brokenness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s Easter week. That\u2019s hard to dismiss. It’s a week all about love, sacrifice, and suffering. And I want to ensure in that love, we learn to honor both the skeptic and the faithful, each of whom was created in God\u2019s amazing image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some were on that bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes me think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes me think of how we treat one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That also makes me keenly aware of the broken world we live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes I sit down to pen a post and then all of a sudden I just can\u2019t. I can\u2019t go forward with my pre-thought-out idea. Something has happened that changes my perspective. Sometimes I don\u2019t like that. But the reality is that most of the time when my perspective is changed, it\u2019s for the better … <\/p>\n