Let Us Not Grow Weary...

I am exasperated, weary and alarmed.  I am sure many of us are.  We are on Day 11 and even now I am horrified at what I am seeing and hearing.  I am horrified at how people are treating each other.  I am horrified that we've lost respect for each other so much so that some find it acceptable to judge people based on who they voted for.  I am horrified that people consider it acceptable to break the law in violent fashion in order to protest.  I am horrified that the man sitting in the Oval Office believes it is acceptable to attempt to rule instead of lead.

I am at a loss as to what could come next.  Will our great nation fall apart at the seams?  Will an elected official be the undoing of a nation that has withstood two World Wars, a Civil War, slavery, segregation, planes flying into buildings and the senseless murder of innocent children?  How can one man wield that much power?

I am an optimist.  I look for the silver lining.  I look for, and hope for, the good in someone, and if I can't find it, I try to view their lives in whole and find some good somewhere on their behalf.  It's who I am at my core and it is how my parents raised me.  It is part of who I am as a Christian.  I set out to mentally find the good:  he's a daddy; he's a grandpa; he is someone's son and someone's husband.  At some point in his life, he likely played with Legos as my little boy does.  Maybe he learned to snow ski like my son.  He likely climbed into the lap of his mother when he was tired or didn't feel good.  He learned to ride a bike.  He went to kindergarten.  At some point in his life, he was just a little boy.  But somewhere along the lines someone ratified his misconceptions that it is acceptable to treat people as second class citizens:  women, people who look differently than he does, those who hold different religious beliefs, individuals with disabilities.  I don't know who it was but it makes me sad for him.  Like so many of those who came before me in the South, the culture said it was alright for a black woman to sit at the back of the bus, while the little girl she was accompanying to the ice cream parlor, sat in front.  Somewhere along the lines, the line between what is right and wrong at the core became blurred.

I believe as a country we are dangerously close to losing that distinction ourselves.

I believe now is the the time to resist the urge to scream and yell and call people names.  I may want to rant and rave at the lack of leadership he is exhibiting, and point out that he is ruling instead of leading; something our President is not called to do.  But then again, when did yelling get us anywhere?

I think now is the time to do good. Now is the time to show acceptance where we are told not to.  I believe now is the time to gently ask open ended questions to our brothers and sisters who disagree with us instead of unilaterally determining they are uneducated or stupid.  Now is the time to persevere even more in loving one another.

Honestly, I'm not to the point of accepting him as President.  I would like to say I can support him even though I didn't vote for him.  But I cannot.  So I will continue to look at him and try to see the little boy he once was; to look at him through the eyes of his mama, and maybe I'll be able to have a little more patience.  I will not agree with him.  I will not accept this as normal.  I will not ratify an "order" that broadly bans people who are in need (and have been vetted and granted green cards, visas, or refugee status after a 2 year process) from coming to our country.  I will not say it's okay that the person who is supposed to be the spokesman for our country, speaks with disdain, disrespect and poor grammar.  I will tell my son it is perfectly fine to disagree with him, to not like him, and to resist the implications that it is okay to discriminate against others.  I will also however, encourage my son to look for the good in him, regardless of how long it takes to find.  He is after all, a grandpa and my son knows what a grandpa is.

"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary." (Galatians 6:9)

Maybe if we can walk through this above reproach, our great nation will come out on the other side of the tumult in a better place.  Maybe.