You Cannot Love God and Hate Others

Y’all, I am done. I am done with those who I know who are Christians denying and flat out ignoring the mandate which God gave us.  #1.  Love God.  Which is sometimes kind of hard let’s face it. Especially when “Christians” are HATING on those who are different.  And #2.  Love God’s kids. And by God’s kids, I mean- if they’re breathing and have a heartbeat, God’s kids.

If you love God- you don’t say:  If a dude pretends to be a woman, you’re required to pretend with him.  Nope.  If you love God, you say:  I may not understand, but GOD loves you.  God told me to love you.  I will LOVE you.  It may be hard. I may not get there yet. But I am going to WORK to it.  Because God made you, I will love you.

If you love God, you do not, DO NOT call COVID-19 the China Virus.  Come on y’all.  I am going to call it what it is.  This is classless and trashy.  What happened to let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (reference, Matthew 5:16)  What about calling something with a scientific name, which has affected every single corner of the Earth the China Virus?  By doing this, not only is it being associated with one part of the world, inaccurately, it is causing acts of harassment against people from Asia.  Don’t cause others to stumble? I’ve done it. It sucks. Don’t.

We are not to judge. We are to leave that work to God- why?  Because He alone can see the hearts and minds of all of us and is the only one who can do so accurately.  What we are able to do is to look at the fruit of someone’s life and be able to determine if this person should be in charge, be in power, lead people. So let me ask you this:  Do you see the fruit of the Spirit in our president?  Do you see love?  How?  Where? I don’t.  Do you see joy? Nope. Do you see peace? Absolutely not.  The most divisive person to walk into that office, ever.  Hands down, no peace.  Do you see patience? No, I see haste and hastiness usually means poor decisions.  Kindness? Kids in cages at the border definitely is kind, right?  Goodness? Once again, kids in cages.  Dying Americans because wearing a mask does nothing, contrary to pretty much every reputable scientist and doctor.  Gentleness?  I can’t even.  Self-control? Right.  Self-control?  “I moved on her…” I won’t go on.

For those of my brothers and sisters in Christ who support DT, HOW on earth? I do not track.  He claims to be pro-life.  Being pro-life is more than a stance on abortion, it is about capital punishment, it’s about doing everything necessary to save one life of one man or woman who has COVID-19 by providing the necessary equipment, getting information to the CDC (those who are equipped to sort through a gargantuan amount of data), and working your tail off to get this figured out instead of brushing it off, saying that it’ll disappear one day. 

The Republican party doesn’t look like Jesus y’all.  It just doesn’t. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to be a voice for the marginalized and love those who aren’t loved by society.  He also challenged the religious “leaders”- aka, Pharisees and Sauducees. 

This is brash.  This is bold and I am sure I will lose friends over this. But someone has to ask the hard questions and God will not let me rest without asking these.  Step back and look at this. Imagine if you showed up in 2020 from 1996 for instance, and saw this?  What if you saw nameless mercenaries taking people off the street for quietly standing with a candle in support of Black Lives Matter?  What if you showed up with a president who supports white supremacy?  How would you feel if you showed up, saw a nation amidst a pandemic, and saw the president ignoring the science? What if you saw the kids in the cages as you do now?

Heavenly Father, awaken us, open our eyes to see the truth and give us the boldness to step outside of our comfort zone and truly be the hands and feet of Jesus here.  Let us love without abandon.  Let us support those who need us.  Let us stand up to the tyranny of those who claim to follow you who show no evidence of a changed heart.

An Army of Lights

I love being a mama.  Man, do I love my kid. He is bright and energetic; compassionate and kind; thoughtful and silly.  Yes, I am completely biased.  I remember hearing my friends who had kids when I didn’t, repeat things their kids would say and think how profound it was.  Since becoming Mama I have heard my fair share of these pop out of my child’s mouth, but this week it sent chills up my arms.

I had read Genesis 1 recently and God had given it new light, reminding me that He makes beauty out of chaos and that even in the longest, most restless of nights, He is still working.  That’s been churning in my heart ever since.  Verse 3 however, continued to roll around in my heart as well.  “Then God said, ‘Let there be light; and there was light.’” It just kept sitting with me.

Yesterday, my son, almost 8, started a new devotional book called Indescribable. Day 1 is entitled “A Blank Page” and quotes Genesis 1:1-3.  This same day I had read Matthew 5:14 where Jesus tells us “You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”  My son’s response: “So God created an army of lights.” 

An army of lights is exactly what He created and called us to be. He called us to be light in a dark world. He has called us to love, unconditionally, those around us.  He called us to let our light shine. 

So here is my question to myself and to us:  Are we being the light we’re made to be?  Or are we too caught up in what things are supposed to look like, fitting in neat little boxes, to be that light?  Are we too concerned with being comfortable to do what is better for all of us?

We are called to be exactly what my observant little man said: an army of lights.  This light is driven by love.  From a song I sang in a choir over 20 years ago: “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is humble, all of the time; not easily angered.  Enduring the test.  So never forget: Love is the more excellent way.” (Babbie Mason, “Love is the More Excellent Way”).  If our actions can’t be tied to loving others, something is missing, and maybe we need to rethink it all.  Afterall, God created an army of lights.

Longest. Night. Ever.

During this, let’s face it, insane time in not only our nation’s history but in the history of our world and of mankind, I have felt out of control.  I can’t control COVID-19.  I can’t control what the school district decides to offer for Fall 2020 for my son.  I can’t control the void of leadership our country is facing amidst a pandemic.  I can’t control the economy.  But we’re not supposed to, and that’s hard.

Yes, we can influence it- meaning I can wear a mask, take necessary precautions about who my family is around, where we travel, how we show up when we go to a store or generally out in public.  I can influence the school district by using my voice and logic, paired with science.  Well, let’s hope people are listening to science.  I can influence the leadership of our government by voting.  I can shop wisely.  So while I cannot control it, I have control over my involvement in it.

Even still, after reasoning that out, I still have felt ungrounded.  The world is quite literally spinning out of control.  I held on to anything I could with ferocity.  Unfortunately, this wore me out.  For the last several weeks I’ve been listening, reading, searching, questioning in an attempt to find grounding.  I found it where I left it; in my faith.

To be honest, I’ve been somewhat hesitant to dive into my faith lately.  In full transparency, the Christian “right” has become rather distasteful.  Pro-life, but only regarding abortion, never mind capital punishment, children dying on our borders, thousands of people dying because of a pandemic our leadership still blames on China instead of doing something about it.  Loving unconditionally, but only if the lifestyle or who someone loves suits your definition.  Supportive of women, as long as they’re still subordinate to men.  Supportive of a leader who evidences none of the Fruit of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.  I can completely say, yuck.  That’s not something I want to be a part of.

I’ve been gobbling up Jen Hatmaker, Brene Brown, Sue Monk Kidd, and Beth Moore podcasts.  I am grateful for these bold women who have made it abundantly clear- no matter what the church has become, it’s not about the church, it is about Jesus and He is LOVE. So back I ran.  But where do I start?  I’ve been to ministry school. I’ve torn through hundreds of Bible studies over the years, mostly by Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, and Kay Arthur.  A yearly Bible reading plan is overwhelming at this time in life.  It just seems like forever.  I decided to start at the beginning: Genesis 1, Psalms 1, Proverbs 1 and Matthew 1.  I’ll march through that way for now.  I asked God for something new this time.  New eyes for today, for where I am now, in this turmoil.  And in perfect God, delivery.

Genesis 1, the story of creation.  As I began reading rather rapidly, thinking I’d skim it, but I got caught on verse 2 instantly.  “And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep…”  Chaos.  Emptiness.  Void.  I can think of no better descriptors of where we are right now.  We are a hot mess y’all.  Our nation is a mess.  Divided to the point of disagreement meaning hatred and that one person is less than another because you share differing opinions.  It is ugly.  And I saw it:  He takes CHAOS and makes something BEAUTIFUL.

Grounded-instantly.

In verse 5, “And God called the light day and the darkness He called night.”  I saw the second point:   There is day and night to every struggle.  He is still working in the night, when I can’t see it.  Like my brain is being renewed while I sleep, He is still working.  The day is when we can see what He’s been doing, and there’s a light.

I can only think that we have been really damaging ourselves and our fellow human beings.  Before we can really be renewed, we’ve got to be refined.  Malachi 3:3 (NLT) “He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross.”  I truly believe we’re at a place where we are being tested.  His refining fire will reveal those who genuinely LOVE God and LOVE His people (meaning those He created, so if it is a person, that person is His).  I believe we’re being tested because the churchy-church has veered so far off course, being more concerned about who fits the mold that it isn’t remembered and respected that we are ALL made in image of God, male and female; black, white, yellow, brown.  He loves us ALL, REGARDLESS of sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, political affiliation.

Longest. Night. Ever.  Doesn’t it feel that way?  But grounding- He’s working.  Even when we can’t see it.  Even when all we can see is division, hatred, sickness, evil, jealousy, destruction.  Even when it makes me grieve on the inside to see where we are as a nation, to see hatred because of color, gender identity, sexual orientation, gender or political affiliation.  Even when I feel like we are spiraling out of control, He is STILL working.

And while this night is excruciatingly long, I will hang on to the knowledge that He is still working.  Renewal is taking place, and that one day, light and it will be beautiful.  But it's going to take a long time.  Hold on.  Grounded. He makes beauty out of dark, ugly chaos.