Tag: peace

Beatitudes and Bias

The past year in the U.S. has been hard to watch. The people we’ve elected, the decisions we’ve supported, the direction we’re heading. It all makes me mad.

Although I haven’t always succeeded, I’ve tried not to add to the noise because things already feel so divided. But I keep coming back to this: when we see actions that lack compassion, elevate power over people, or divide rather than reconcile, we have to ask whether that reflects the way of Jesus. And that question led me to the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes were written in a time of political instability, economic inequality, and high taxation. So many people were hurting, hungry, marginalized, and attacked under Roman rule. Wealth was concentrated among elites. There was tension between collaborators and resistors, and people faced violence when they dissented.

Rome’s political leaders sent their men in armor throughout the empire to make sure their authority was visible and feared. Leaders said it wasn’t about control, but instead about order and stability, with protection and trade. Stability would enable prosperity, and prosperity would enable taxation that would continue to support the stability. (Somewhere my middle school Latin teacher is so proud!)

At the same time, the religious leaders who set the parameters for faithfulness and worship made laws that were near impossible for ordinary people to consistently follow. The laws weren’t a path to God but a standard that was impossible to meet.

People no longer believed political or religious systems could deliver what they promised. Because people couldn’t trust the political system that kept them in a cycle of oppression. And because people couldn’t trust the religious system that was constantly judging them.

What all the systems lacked was compassion.

What all the systems lacked was grace.

What all the systems lacked was humanity.

The more I read about the context of the Beatitudes the more I see our modern-day America, with people searching for something trustworthy in a world where both power and religion can feel (and maybe are?) unreliable.

In Jesus’ time, the specific issues were different but the labeling was the same – people were grouped together based on things like cleanliness and obeying guidelines. Today, issues like abortion or voting habits are moral shorthand for how we evaluate and include/exclude people.

At a time when people need the church most, what they see from “Christians” can feel inconsistent, and I think it’s because we’ve let our politics shape our faith instead of letting our faith shape everything else. If we as Christians can’t agree on something so simple like God’s love extending to all people, how can those who already feel unloved or ashamed ever encounter the love of Jesus through us?

It’s into worlds of unreliable systems that Jesus speaks about why and how we are blessed.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We don’t have to have it all together to be blessed, and we don’t earn our way in.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God’s with us in the good and the bad.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. I don’t have to win or control or be famous.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. I’m supposed to care deeply about right and wrongs in the world, and about what God cares deeply about.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. I’m supposed to have compassion and offer forgiveness, even when it’s hard.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. I’m supposed to be the same person at home and at work and at church and at the grocery store and everywhere.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Peace takes work, and does not mean avoiding conflict or hard discussions.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I need to do what’s right even if it costs me something, including the approval of others.

The Beatitudes are for the ordinary moments of our lives. All the days of all the lives of all the people who’ve lived since the time of Jesus. Even and especially when they are mad and frustrated. And maybe today, they’re an invitation – to love more like Jesus.

March 19, 2026
All Saints Day

All Saints Day always scared me as a child. The sound of each bell tolling as names were solemnly read aloud.

Death was scarier then, in the fire and brimstone of 1980s end-of-the-world preaching about the wide path that leads to destruction and billboards that asked me where I would go if I died tonight. As a teenager and young adult it sometimes felt like I would never be good enough to get into heaven.

Today I’m thankful for age and life experience, which bring understanding and perspective. And also peace. God loves us. Nothing we do can change that, no matter how badly we might behave. We all sin, and we can’t let ourselves be tricked into thinking God doesn’t love us. And we can’t let those things convince us we aren’t good enough – good enough to be saved, good enough to be a light for Him, good enough to fulfill a purpose.

As a child I thought the 12 disciples and all the Bible greats were super holy people. What a relief to realize that they were ordinary people. People with jobs and families. People who did some sketchy things. People like us.

One of my favorite scriptures is in Hebrews, describing the great cloud of witnesses – the saints – that surrounds us. The New English Translation is my favorite: Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us.

In the last couple of years, this scripture has started meaning more as I think about those who’ve gone on to heaven. Who are in my great cloud of witnesses. All Saints Day is about remembering those who have passed, but also those who have influenced our faith. Like my Dad who prayed with us and for us every day. My grandparents and Aunt and Uncles who set examples for me, encouraging love for church and service and learning. Cameron, an unexpected blessing who loved so big and felt things so deeply.

They’ve shaped my faith, my laughter, my forgiveness, my politics, my love. My hope, my will, my strength, my courage, my empathy. My eternity.

The Saints corner in my sitting room. Hats, uniforms and pictures of some of my saints, some in heaven now and some still here in this life.

November 2, 2025
Land of Confusion

My thoughts right now are a little all over the place – kind of like the world we currently live in, I guess.

What is the appropriate Christian response to all that is happening, and what is the acceptable human response? What would an angry Old Testament God do and what would a forgiving New Testament Jesus do?

Even the people who (supposedly) read the Bible, pray, and worship on Sundays can’t agree on this.

Over 70 years ago, Orwell told us Ignorance is strength in the Ministry of Truth…and if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’

Who and where is the Winston Churchill of our time? Please stand up.

So many neighbors hung Ukrainian flags a couple years ago. Many of those same folks posted Trump signs in their yard last fall. Are they suddenly convinced that Russia did not invade Ukraine or are they the kind of humans that can easily just abandon oppressed people? Our righteous anger must need a new and exciting target.

Fox Christianity has taken over the country – a version more about people who are bad or wrong instead of neighbors we need to love. If 90 people are getting aid so they can live and feed children, why are we so focused on the 10 who “gamed the system?” Do not preach to me your stories of the 10 if you cannot tell me even one story of the 90. You are the problem in the Land of Confusion. There’s too many men, too many people Making too many problems
And there’s not much love to go around.

Social Security and Medicare decisions should not be made in a room of only wealthy people. The vast majority of people who have paid into those benefits need them for survival, and they need representation in those discussions. It doesn’t matter who is to blame for why we are here right now. To move forward in any way, we must agree that millionaires (and billionaires) cannot possibly understand the impact on those lives while driving around in their Teslas or flying to warm weather for the weekend.

All Presidents are thoughtful about their first 100 days and the story it will tell the American public. Administrations throw darts hoping maybe 25 percent will stick. While the goal of blitzkrieg is to defeat an enemy before they can mobilize, the risk of blitzkrieg is that the aggressor on the march is exposed and his troops tire quickly. Blitzkrieg worked in Europe, but not against the better prepared culture of the Soviet Union.

Long Live the King? I hope we’re talking about LeBron James.

I have to limit social media and news consumption right now. It’s just too much. You need to calm down. You’re being too loud. Please, Taylor Swift. Write a part 2.

Why are our ugly old Washington guys targeting the countries with the hot leaders? Jealousy is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

Photo from NDTV

We’re two months past Christmas, but I still put Matt Maher’s Let There Be Peace on a lot these days.

One voice speaks for the voiceless
Hope for the hopeless, Emmanuel
One love brings us together
Now and forever, Emmanuel…Do not be afraid, His love is strong
Enough to save us
Nothing stands in the way
His love is strong enough to lead us.

February 23, 2025
Freedom Documentation

One of my greatest treasures is dozens of little pieces of paper from my Dad. Cartoons he cut out from the newspaper. Thoughts he wrote down and stuck in my purse or laptop bag. Notes from sermons that he wanted to focus on and that he tucked into the bibles he eventually gave us. Little messages from him that I saved over the years and recently went back through as I mentally prepared for Father’s Day.

A three-time Vietnam Vet’s commentary on my date’s attire: “Last time I saw someone wearing something like this I bushwhacked him in the jungle.”

Some were funnies or just hearts expressing love and some were reminders that I could always, always come home. But most are lessons – lessons that are fundamental and yet have different meanings at each life stage and event. Lessons that grow with you, as you grow. I’ve started thinking about them as his constitution. The Constitution of Dad.

Pray every day. Eeeeeeeevery day, he’d say, making sure I knew that the frequency is important. Pray Psalms 91. Pray the prayers in Ephesians. If you don’t know what to pray, just say the name of Jesus over and over. Praying allows God to work. And praying doesn’t change God’s mind, it changes ours.

The longer you wait before making a u-turn, the more costly it is in every way. Sometimes we get on the wrong path. We’re certain it’s right until we know it’s not. It happens to literally everyone. And most importantly, it’s not a disaster. Even if it costs you money or you lose a little time to go back or hop over onto another path, this is money and time well spent.

Let everyone be wrong. About you, about situations, about anything. Your peace is what’s most important and it’s your job to hold on to it. Good humans will admit when they are wrong and reach out to you. You need to admit when you’re wrong and reach out to people.

Be honest, with everyone but most importantly with yourself. See things as they are and not as you want them to be or as you wish others would see them. If you cheat on that test, you did not earn an A or finish first – you behaved in a way to gain something. If you do something halfway, you deserve the C. Cheating and short-cutting will always hurt you more than anyone else.

What you refuse to surrender, you will eventually surrender to. Anger. Addiction. Unforgiveness. Fear. Insecurity. Expecting anything other than what God has promised.

You gotta clean out your mind regularly. Think about what you are thinking about. Just like you tell your hand what to do, you tell your brain what to do. You choose what thoughts to keep and what thoughts to toss. About yourself and about others. If you allow your mind to focus on negative thoughts, you will feel and speak that way. And if you fill your mind with thoughts only about yourself, you won’t be of any use to anyone for anything – especially God.

Do not limit God. With your words, your deeds or your thoughts. And our words have power, so always be mindful of what words come out of your mouth.

Looking at his notes that most spoke to me, all spread out on my living room floor, I realized the common theme is they are paths to or instructions for living freely. There’s even a note on the inside cover of one of his bibles that says Get On With Life.

Like Thomas Jefferson’s reference to our country’s living and breathing document to help guide a nation to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” the Constitution of Dad is my guide to living in freedom.

My Dad and baby Ella. A girl Dad and a girl Papa.

June 20, 2023
Trust in June

I don’t love the month of June. It always brings the chaotic last two weeks of school, which seems fun but really means standardized tests, World War III because of a dwindling supply of the good lunch box treats, and someone telling me at 4:46 pm that by 6 we have to be dressed and at a very important ceremony I’ve never heard of.

June also is a month of anniversaries, and while most of them are good the ones that aren’t good are so overwhelmingly not good that my body and mind still have a physical reaction every time I turn the calendar and see June 1. I struggle to sleep, I struggle to concentrate, and my heart races or I break out in a sweat at the slightest disruption in schedule or routine. Eleven years ago in June, the world just exploded when one doctor appointment after another revealed that Audrey would be born with cancer, then needed surgery, and then and then and then. And even though I know that the story has a happy ending, June is filled with trepidation for me. A minefield I have to carefully navigate each year.

This morning I got dressed up for church even though I really wanted to wear black joggers and my Nikes. I was hoping the perpetual pit in my stomach might wane if I could feel “together” and be in a place of worship. I have been reminding myself that it’s National Cancer Survivors Day and I should be celebrating the miracle of Audrey, but I didn’t remember that it’s Pentecost until I arrived at church.

On Pentecost we remember the day the disciples received the Holy Spirit. It’s a day for tongues of fire and baptisms and new experiences. In children’s church today, the kids all blew on their hands to experience and be able to easily remember that you while can’t see the spirit you can know it’s there because you feel it or felt it. And it struck me that my experience with a voice and a feeling over a decade ago is what I really need to remember as I go through this month.

When Audrey was just three months old, some of her test results came back with concerning indicators. Her oncologist asked that she come in the next day for full scans and bone marrow testing, and the pit in my stomach seemed bigger than it had ever been. That night, after she’d received her injection in preparation for the next day’s scans, I was sitting in my favorite chair in the family room and I heard a quiet male voice say you can trust me. I looked up expecting to see my Dad – I thought maybe he was still at our house and had not left to go home. But no one was there. I wondered for a minute about what had just happened and if I really was losing it, but I also realized in the moment that I was suddenly and unexplainably completely calm and at peace.

I remember the voice vividly in really hard moments, when I need it most I guess. But day to day as life happens, with all sorts of little frustrating moments or anxieties, I don’t think about it as much. I guess the truth is I rely on myself for as long as I can possibly stand it and then I really only rely on God when I fail miserably. Not good.

At the time, I told just a couple of people – in part because I didn’t want to seem crazy (she’s hearing voices now!), in part because not everyone around me believed in the God who I thought might be sending me a message, and in part – mostly – because I just couldn’t believe that someone as awful as me was worthy of a message. When the chips are really down, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what’s happening is your punishment or that God only loves and communicates with perfect people.

This June is a bit of an additional challenge because a couple weeks ago in my frustration with myself for still feeling unease about June, I decided that the way to cure that was to overexpose myself to scary things all month. For the first time in over a decade, I threw superstitious caution to the wind and scheduled doctor appointments and even my regular mammogram for this month. My Dad would call that ignorance gone to seed, but I’m calling it a long overdue and necessary trial by fire. (I’m only calling it that because I still don’t like it when my Dad is right and I am wrong.)

I loved every minute of this weekend’s Jubilee coverage. These are my faces when I realize I should have made different choices.

Perhaps if I rely on Him more, in all things whether big or small, I wouldn’t spend June in such a state of unease each year. Perhaps if I firmly resolve to focus on the outcome instead of the obstacle, I wouldn’t spend June in such a state of unease each year. Perhaps if I stop hiding pieces of me and just embrace that I am a mix of good and bad and all sorts of contradictions but God loves me anyway, I wouldn’t suffer in silence and spend June in such a state of unease each year.

I think one of the lessons of Pentecost is that the church is filled with believers that are human, people who’ve lied or doubted or panicked. People with imperfections. None of us is a surprise to God – He knows exactly who we are. It’s we that don’t fully understand who He is and how He works. As lights, as the church, perhaps we are at our best and most effective when we are honest with God and others about all the things that make us human and about all the experiences we have that are just unbelievable.

Pentecost headbands with firelights!

June 5, 2022