A Better Way

  Yesterday, I was able to pour my heart and tears out on the phone with my mama, lamenting the racist shootings that occurred in our country last week. After getting off the phone, I turned and was shocked to see my own child looking up at me with teary wide-eyes. He had been playing in the other room where he couldn't hear, but at some point during the conversation came silently near.

 "Mommy, I heard you say people are killing people and shooting people," his voiced quivered. "Is that true? Is that really happening here?"

 My heart sunk. The sweet child knows mommy often reads the news and gets "sad", but up to this point I've sheltered him from the reasons. I knew that day wouldn't always last, but as I looked at his aching, wet eyes I wanted to do anything but truthfully answer him.

 "Yes, sweetie, it's true. It happened in Kentucky and Pennsylvania."  I pulled him close so we could talk about it.

  "But here, in North America??" he continued in disbelief as his tears came.

 "Yes, baby," it stung to answer him. But unlike the lions, volcanoes, and monsters in closets, I couldn't tell him this was across the oceans or unreal.

 No, instead, last week, our nation saw a white man try to get into a predominately black church; but unable, went into the nearby Kroger instead- where he killed two black people but told a white person "whites don't shoot whites."

 Another white man went into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and slaughtered 11 people. "I just want to kill Jews," he told a SWAT officer.

 While shock hits with the news stories, it's sadly not difficult to see the symptoms before we got here. 

 A little over a year ago, white nationalist hate groups put on a rally in Charlottesville, with the clear message of wanting to eradicate people of color and Jewish people. While many of us gave an outcry against this, we were often met with resistance in the forms of "freedom of speech", "it takes both sides", and "they just wanted a peaceful rally" excuses.

 Our country elected a president who also dismissed the "rally", and often encourages fear, violence, and hatred.

 We are becoming more and more a nation of violence, even relishing horror as a form of entertainment.

 And too often we hide our heads in the sand so deep that we don't even know the bigoted, violent nonsense coming out of the White House, spread across social media, and happening on our own streets. 

 And so as the gun smoke settles yet again, I'm left wondering- at what point do we lose the credibility in our outrage?  Do we really get to do this- elect a leader who leads us in hate, take pleasure in pretend atrocities, excuse hate groups who make clear their destructive intentions... and then what, act shocked and outraged when the trigger is actually pulled? Is this how we think it works?

 There's another way. A way that recognizes the sinful rhetoric from our President for what it is; that calls it out and stands against it. That recognizes that one of the greatest threats to our country isn't immigration, it isn't across the oceans, it isn't what we're told to fear; no, one of the greatest threats to our nation is the terrorism of nationalism and racism.

 We can post all the proud pictures of voting stickers we want, but until we even recognize what is happening in our country, that our own filthy hate is destroying us, that we are divided by red and blue; until we stop the tribalism and looking away when it's "our guy" in the wrong, and until we decide prejudice must not be tolerated- then the stickers will lose their value. As will our country. 

 But there's a better way. A way that requires a different posture. Heads up, ears listening, mouths speaking truth and love. Prayers sent, gospel proclaimed, citizenship in heaven. There is a better way.

 I don't hold out hope of not having these conversations with my son. Hope that I someday won't be saddened by the news. That hate crimes will somehow earth-side cease.

 But I do hold out hope that I could tell my son about the Jesus followers who stood brave, refusing to be swayed right or left, refusing to be complicit, refusing to simply just feel. I want to tell him about the brothers and sisters in Christ who put on the full armor of God, who loved fiercely, who shone brightly, who gazed at God with such fervency that the tide of hate and lies and destruction stained them not.  I will have to tell him of battles, yes, but I want to tell him of faith-filled heroes whose eternal visions captivated their view and kept them from distraction.

 Brothers and sisters, don't let this hate-saturated culture suck you in. Don't let your itching ears be scratched by those who have lost site of the Jesus way. Or who never even saw it. I don't care what platform or party they claim, measure all things by the Word of God, and let His truth be the voice that speaks to you. May we be lights in the darkness. Until the perfect King reigns and these former things are no more.

 There is a better way.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16