11.06.2009

Hope

For whatever reason, I find hope to be the most precious commodity I know. I realize Paul proclaims love to be the greatest of those three - faith, hope, love - but I guess I feel that since the 60s, we're all aware of love. Burt Bacharach keeps spinning in our collective head spaces, reminding us that the world needs love, and until musicians find a way to not cash in on love songs, I think we'll have more than enough audio fodder for our hearts.

But hope? Where are all the songs infused with hope, with inspiration, with something stubborn that not only rejects the status quo but offers something better? Where are the hearts that not only dare to dream, but dare to dream big and then LIVE big?

When I watch films, I usually watch them allegorically - that is, in the processing of what is transpiring on screen, I usually interpret the message in terms of how it relates to the big picture. What does William Wallace's fight against the English have to say about oppression and freedom to the world? How is Neo's fight in the Matrix synonymous with spiritual warfare? How does Forrest Gump remind us that no life is wasted when it is lived fully and deeply and innocently?

The character who has most captured my imagination, however, is Guido. Life really IS beautiful :) The lengths he goes to in order to keep his son's hope alive pulled at my heartstrings . . . and made me think that perhaps this is my great call in life. We all know this world is messed up. Last week, a crowd of people watched a 15 year old girl get raped for over two hours. There were 4 police officers at this homecoming dance. Joseph Kony and his men are still active in forcing children to fight for their Lord's Resistance Army, which includes the rape of many of the young girls. You can buy girls in SE Asia, some as young as 5 years old.

I don't say these things because I enjoy hearing about them. It makes me sick - and not metaphorically. My stomach churns, my blood boils. I'm angry. But the cure for violence is never more violence. It wouldn't do anyone any good to kill everyone who has taken advantage of another person (which is what violence is) . . . at least, that's not the cure God offers.

See, I'm not just angry. Or, at the least, this anger leads somewhere. Redemptive violence is shit - Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer are dead, but there are still serial killers. The 9/11 terrorists died in New York, but terrorism still exists. If you were to kill every single one of your enemies, you would still have enemies. Violence does not lead to peace.

There has to be a deeper change, one that no single person could hope to bring about, but that everyone is desperately needed for if it is to work. It won't take place on a national level, so forget about pleading with congress or parliament to change laws to protect "Christian culture". It's a grassroots movement that begins right here, right now, with the way we treat people every single day. Jesus didn't head to Jerusalem and stay there the majority of his time on earth. HE went out and lived among people, talked with them, laughed and cried with them. It was a personal ministry. We are not called to topple governments, to kill Muslims, to hate gays, to ban music, to bomb abortion clinics, or to harp on and on on our radio shows about how wrong other Christians are. None of these are mentioned in the gospel at all. No, we're told to make disciples, and you can't disciple those you hate, and you can't disciple ANYONE without a vision to leave them with.

I have this crazy vision of a world united in praise, striving to live lives that bring glory to God and are marked by concern and care for others, not because I think Christianity is so great, but because I think Christ is.

I don't want to be a part of a nationalized religion, or a group of dusty old academics fighting centuries old battles while the world slowly dies around them.

I want to be a part of this change that Jesus started and we are asked to continue.

Will you join me? Can I join you?

2 comments:

  1. you are a brilliant writer.
    you have a brilliant mind.

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  2. Well thank you :) Some of the inspiration for all this comes from the reckless way you love the people around you, the way you see everyone as a precious child of God - thank you for opening my eyes to that.

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