In the Proximity of Love!
September 11th, 2001 while holding my 7 day old son and watching the towers burn, and as the grizzly stories became a stark reality and we began the collective finger pointing and the name and blame game I made myself and my son a promise. I promised that I would not teach my son to hate. I had to promise myself that I would not hate so that I could be the father then my son needed, and that God required of me. Many times, more times then I want to admit I have failed. I have fallen victim to the thinking that narrows and degrades a person of a different faith, a different perspective, as a non Christian and therefore an infidel and it is OK to “slay the infidel”. God help me.
As members of the Christian community we partake of the love of Christ and have that love at our disposal. We receive his love freely, but we are miserly in where and when we parse it out. When we do share it we do so with caveats and with conditions. You must “look, feel, talk, believe, behave as I do or as my faith group says is the way to act and behave.” Only by holding to a set of externals can you then receive the love of God. Only then can we talk with you, help you, enlighten you. I am very glad that God did not require those things of me because I would have never made it to the doorstep. Why are we so guarded in sharing the love of a savior that came and died so that all may have life, and have it eternally?
The call of God upon his believers is not to engage politically at all costs. It is not a call to propagate hate speech and divide the nation further. When Christians engage it should be in love. It should be to share the love of Christ for people all over, of all faiths. We need to speak of unification of the church. In John 17 Jesus makes an impassioned prayer to God for the unity of the church. He did not pray that they would have pure doctrine, pure hearts and a pure theology that was beyond reproach. He prayed “they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. (John 17:21) His hope and prayer is for unity in the body, not division.
I am asking you my Christian friends, those of you who are so free with your opinions and political positions to cool your jets and listen to the Love of the creator. Take a month, take 3 months, take a year. Quiet your mind, turn aside from those things that divide your mind and supplant the voices of others in your heart and mind. Listen, listen intently. Set aside bias and judgment as much as you can. Ask God for the strength to do so. Pray, pray often. Pray for Obama, pray for Congress, pray for Rush and Hannity. Pray for those in the public eye. Ask for wisdom; ask for discernment for yourself, but for them as well. See to it that you live peacefully in your mind and heart as the Apostle Paul says. Fast, do so for a few hours, a few days, a week even. Be bold, ask God for strength. Seek understanding from God. Seek peace with God and those around you. Do you have a grudge or a concern with a neighbor, seek them out and seek peace. Do you fear? Give it to God. Fear of the future paralyzes our ability to live in the moment and to see God in the everyday around us. Seek him in this moment, not tomorrow, not in what you did yesterday, but in the now. All you are guaranteed of is what you are doing now. Someday your tomorrow will not come. Tomorrow is for the people of tomorrow to worry about. Today is your day, live it for Christ and live it as a man or woman who is free of the woes and anxieties that so easily entangle us.
This is a tall order I admit. But we grow in doing our best. When we do it we may just find ourselves in the Proximity of love. It is when we are there that we can see the love of Christ and we can both give and partake of the love of Christ, and that love is the balm that will calm the stormiest seas, heal the deepest of wound and sooth the most anxious of heart.
