Can You See It?

November 1, 2023TheMIghtyLCUCC

In the midst of yet another senseless bombing and kidnapping of innocent people and the ensuing war, we are all aghast as we watch the killing and displacement of innocent families and children.

This is not unique to the people of Israel and Palestine. We have seen this play out many times during the history of humankind. Each time the loss is human life, and nothing is gained.

In every instance war is a failure of humanity. Each time we witness the killing of innocent people, the loss of life and home, and the displacement of families and children, we are witnessing a break down and a breaking apart of our shared humanity. What we witness is the dehumanization of our neighbors who we are called to love as ourselves. Dehumanization does not just happen in times of war.

Dehumanization happens every day. All we must do is tune in to our social feeds or most 24 hr. news channels. Or simply click on any headline. It seems that all the forces of nature and our world are aligned with the singular agenda of winning at any cost and doing it with hateful rhetoric. I wrestle with this behavior myself. Allowing my frustration to become anger in me. Even if I direct that anger in hateful behavior or words towards an injustice, I allow that anger to live in me and ruin who I am in the world.

You see I believe that I am called to be love in the world. In my Christian tradition my template for how that happens is the person of Jesus. Who, guided by the Christ within, did stand up in moments of anger. But it did not overtake him to the point of revenge. Instead, his devotion to all of humanity cost Him his life. Jesus, led by God’s spirit within his soul, the Christ, did not allow the ways of the world to ruin His spirit.

That’s a pretty good template for life.

But it can be difficult.

I refuse!

I refuse to allow the world to ruin who I am, what I am called to be and do in this lifetime.

I refuse to believe that war, death, hate, anger, and rage are the ways of the world.

Or more to the point…. the ways of God.

If we see and live the Way of Jesus, we see that the realm of God, the heart of the Divine is not anger and rage. I realize that differing interpretations of our sacred text, which we call the bible, may hold other beliefs. Even the people who shared the stories had differing views of God.

If we take Jesus seriously as our guide along this new Way of being and doing in the world, we see someone who expresses his frustration towards the empire of greed and power yet lifts not one single finger towards revenge. As a matter of fact, some of Jesus’s last utterances; “forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”, Luke 23:34, is a radical way to live free of a vengeful heart, even in death.

In today’s world it may seem difficult to see the goodness of humanity. We are witnessing senseless killing and dehumanization of others as a way of communication, not just war. This way of being in the world is ruinous to our collective soul.

We can all do our part to be the goodness of God and to put God’s goodness back into a hurting world. We can all do our own little part to take a stand on the moral arc of the universe and bend it towards justice.

If we look around we can see the goodness of God alive and thriving in our time and place in history.

Take a look around.

When we can see and feel the goodness of God within all there is, within us, within all of humanity, then we can express that innate goodness in all that we do so that the current disfunction, war, and dehumanization don’t take over our soul. So that our spirit is one of goodness for all the world to witness.

There are millions of little moments of goodness happening every day, all around us. If we look for them, we can see them when we turn the eyes of our heart towards the goodness that exists.