I sat outside in my chair to do some work on my computer while I watched the boys play. There's been some tension in our pack of boys and I wanted to make sure everything stayed even keel. I noticed one of the boys trying to pull another child away from a game; kind of trying to isolate that kiddo away from the one whom he was playing. Anyway, I went over to the little guy to chat. His first instinct: blame someone else. This didn't work out for him too well since the kid he chose to blame was not even there. When I confronted him on accepting that it was he who made the mistake, he completely shut down. It was torturous to admit fault and blame. Calling this boy out on his mistake was more than he could handle. Like many of us, we don't want to admit guilt.
In our culture, we believe there is an innocent race; that we have innocent neighborhoods. This is the root of our problems with one another.
You see, there are no innocent people or innocent neighborhoods. Not one. We can be nice people. We can treat others with respect. But, we are not innocent. We are broken individuals living in broken neighborhoods making up a broken society. This is why Jesus came.
We are broken but we don't want to face it. And because we don't want to face our brokenness, we have led ourselves to believe we are innocent. We convince ourselves that those problems happened ions ago and do not include me in that narrative. We think we are above the brokenness thus making us innocent. And in waltzes pride.
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23
When we deny our brokenness and pick up our innocence, we deny others empathy, love, and grace. We lose our humility.
All this nonsense that is happening in our nation is a disruption to our narrative. It is forcing us to see that maybe, just maybe, we aren't that innocent. And we don't like that. Just like the little boy I had a chat with, we don't like to face our inner demons and admit wrong. I say I like friends who speak truth in my life but reality is, I really don't. I don't like admitting my wrong. I don't like feeling like I have hurt someone or wronged another in some way. That does not feel good. But it's so necessary.
We are all broken but we don't want to face it. Instead, we stand firm in the narratives we have created...
I have the right to...
You cannot be mad about...
You cannot protest in that way because...
I don't treat others that way so they have no merit to their anger...
We create a story to support our innocence ignoring the inequities within ourselves keeping the cycle of discord rapidly firing throughout our communities. This needs to stop. There are no innocent people. There are no innocent neighborhoods.
When Jesus began his ministry, he disrupted narratives, lives, and communities like no other. He flipped the switch on people's stories and excuses as quickly as we push record on our phones today. He exposed hurt. He exposed prejudice. He exposed religious injustice. He flipped the narrative and was murdered because of it.
When we allow disruption to enter our narrative we allow healing, humility, love, and grace. When we allow healing into our lives, we begin to help carry the burdens of others. We are called to carry each other's burdens.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2
Our role is to lessen the burdens of others not compound them with our narrative of innocence.
When we allow ourselves to help carry others' burdens, we see things through their eyes and from their perspective enabling us to love one another that much more deeply and effectively. No longer are we trying to convince each other who is more right or whose hands are clean in all this. Instead, we walk alongside loving on our neighbor gaining truth and perspective in our neighbor's life.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34
Through this act of love, we become humbled by seeing life and all its hurts lived out by another. We can truly see how this life has hurt our neighbor. Humility within ourselves leads to empathy and empathy leads to action; positive action. Our story of innocence should not trump empathy towards another human. Period.
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2
I love how Ephesians talks about being patient with one another. We can't love or bear humility without patience. We have to have grace with one another because we are going to make mistakes. Remember, there are no innocent people and if there are no innocent people than people are going to make mistakes. We have to make room for patience and grace in this space.
One of the things that little boy and I talked about was that if we didn't make mistakes, if we were all perfect people, we would have no need for Jesus. We get so mad at God for the happenings in the Garden of Eden. We like to place blame on Eve and point fingers. We like to say, "Well, if she would've never eaten that fruit" or, "Why did God allow sin to enter the equation in the first place" or even still, "Why are we punished for the sins of people so long ago." Well, if we were perfect people, innocent, we would have no need for a Savior.
We have rescue. We have a rescuer. We just have to change our narratives. We are all broken. There are no innocents. And that's okay. That's the space where Jesus resides in the brokenness and in the mending. We can rise out of these ashes through humility, love, and grace.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
In our culture, we believe there is an innocent race; that we have innocent neighborhoods. This is the root of our problems with one another.
You see, there are no innocent people or innocent neighborhoods. Not one. We can be nice people. We can treat others with respect. But, we are not innocent. We are broken individuals living in broken neighborhoods making up a broken society. This is why Jesus came.
We are broken but we don't want to face it. And because we don't want to face our brokenness, we have led ourselves to believe we are innocent. We convince ourselves that those problems happened ions ago and do not include me in that narrative. We think we are above the brokenness thus making us innocent. And in waltzes pride.
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23
When we deny our brokenness and pick up our innocence, we deny others empathy, love, and grace. We lose our humility.
All this nonsense that is happening in our nation is a disruption to our narrative. It is forcing us to see that maybe, just maybe, we aren't that innocent. And we don't like that. Just like the little boy I had a chat with, we don't like to face our inner demons and admit wrong. I say I like friends who speak truth in my life but reality is, I really don't. I don't like admitting my wrong. I don't like feeling like I have hurt someone or wronged another in some way. That does not feel good. But it's so necessary.
We are all broken but we don't want to face it. Instead, we stand firm in the narratives we have created...
I have the right to...
You cannot be mad about...
You cannot protest in that way because...
I don't treat others that way so they have no merit to their anger...
We create a story to support our innocence ignoring the inequities within ourselves keeping the cycle of discord rapidly firing throughout our communities. This needs to stop. There are no innocent people. There are no innocent neighborhoods.
When Jesus began his ministry, he disrupted narratives, lives, and communities like no other. He flipped the switch on people's stories and excuses as quickly as we push record on our phones today. He exposed hurt. He exposed prejudice. He exposed religious injustice. He flipped the narrative and was murdered because of it.
When we allow disruption to enter our narrative we allow healing, humility, love, and grace. When we allow healing into our lives, we begin to help carry the burdens of others. We are called to carry each other's burdens.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2
Our role is to lessen the burdens of others not compound them with our narrative of innocence.
When we allow ourselves to help carry others' burdens, we see things through their eyes and from their perspective enabling us to love one another that much more deeply and effectively. No longer are we trying to convince each other who is more right or whose hands are clean in all this. Instead, we walk alongside loving on our neighbor gaining truth and perspective in our neighbor's life.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34
Through this act of love, we become humbled by seeing life and all its hurts lived out by another. We can truly see how this life has hurt our neighbor. Humility within ourselves leads to empathy and empathy leads to action; positive action. Our story of innocence should not trump empathy towards another human. Period.
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2
I love how Ephesians talks about being patient with one another. We can't love or bear humility without patience. We have to have grace with one another because we are going to make mistakes. Remember, there are no innocent people and if there are no innocent people than people are going to make mistakes. We have to make room for patience and grace in this space.
One of the things that little boy and I talked about was that if we didn't make mistakes, if we were all perfect people, we would have no need for Jesus. We get so mad at God for the happenings in the Garden of Eden. We like to place blame on Eve and point fingers. We like to say, "Well, if she would've never eaten that fruit" or, "Why did God allow sin to enter the equation in the first place" or even still, "Why are we punished for the sins of people so long ago." Well, if we were perfect people, innocent, we would have no need for a Savior.
We have rescue. We have a rescuer. We just have to change our narratives. We are all broken. There are no innocents. And that's okay. That's the space where Jesus resides in the brokenness and in the mending. We can rise out of these ashes through humility, love, and grace.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
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