This is War America

It’s so easy for me to get sucked into my teeny corner of America.  I live in a small town with a husband and three kids- I’m in an itty bitty homeschool group and a church of just a couple hundred people.  That’s my community.  My days consist of teaching my kids- writing- going to the grocery store like every other day (seriously now, if you’ve figured out how to remember ALL the things from the store at once, I don’t even want to know!)- and sneaking out the house for a really good cup of coffee with friends.

I can keep my head down most days and forget that there’s a real live world outside of my own, with tragedy and triumph separated yet unavoidably related to mine.

But the upcoming election is jolting me awake.  I’m appalled by the negative comments made by Trump towards racial minorities, women and those who seem “weak”.  (Though I’m more afraid of the mindset that goes along with those comments than the words themselves.)  And Lord knows I’m skeptical of Clinton’s track record.  I’ll spare you all the stats.

People have called this election a vote for the “lesser evil”.

And I’m not going to sit here and tell you how to vote, but I will tell you this: the voting is the easy part.

Fear and anger have a funny way of revealing our hearts.  They reveal my selfishness like nothing else, because the things I’m afraid of or angry about are usually for myself- for MY family.  As a result, when I take a stand to CHANGE something I’m afraid of, it usually has to do with me.  When my insurance told me they didn’t cover my insulin pump, I was angry and jumped right up to advocate for…me.  When the IRS accidentally recorded my wages as double and said I owed them money, I freaked out and advocated for…me.  When my kid was waiting patiently in line at a museum and another kid started to cut ahead, I (passive aggressively) advocated for…MY kid.

Here in this election, I’m sure you’re feeling fear or anger on one side or another.  I am.  I mean, am I going to be treated radically differently as a woman?  Am I going to be lied to?  Is my family even going to be safe anymore in this country?   I. Me.  There it is again.

And I have to be honest, my reaction to worry about how I may be treated differently makes me stop and realize that other. people. are. already. being. treated. differently.  People in other countries are dying, often with barely a headline in “my world”.  Children are trafficked- used and abused- every minute.  (You CAN help!) Many are still denied the right to vote, disproportionate numbers of racial minorities in my country are caught in the oppression of a cycle of poverty…and why is that?

Well friends.  It has a lot to do with I. Me. It’s because I’m so busy standing up for the things that affect me, that I’m not willing to take a stand to defend the rights of someone else.  I’m not willing to take up the cause of the less fortunate until I AM the less fortunate.  Until I realize, for instance, that female equality isn’t going to happen without the help of…men.  Now I’m the vulnerable party and hope someone will reach down and help me…but I’m not reaching down very often to see who needs my hand.

And that is simply not OK.  Something has to give, and I confess I need a God bigger than my selfishness to work that love in me.

Here is what I’ll say.  Yes, Vote.  Because standing up for the most valuable rights of each person begins with standing up for the people you believe can best defend those rights for EVERYONE.

But then, boy, get ready.  Because when the dust settles in this election, like it or not, there’s going to be a winner.  And guess what?  No matter who wins, there will still be brokenness.  No matter which party prevails, there will be a mess of broken humanity to pick up in the aftermath…and that is where I come in.  You come in.

Are we willing to come together in the end, and roll up our sleeves, and do more than just talk politics?  Am I willing to set aside the things that make me afraid to notice how someone else is living in fear?  Am I willing to sacrifice a bit of my privilege on the altar of equality?  That is always what must happen for change to occur:  Are you a guy?  Are you willing to stand up for women’s rights when it doesn’t affect you at all?  Do you live with white privilege?  What are you willing to give up so someone else can breathe as freely as you do?

I’ve heard multiple times this week the idea of “loving our neighbor as ourselves”…can we at least be willing to start there?

I ask these questions as much or more of myself- I’m not where I should be, and you can hold me accountable.

Isaiah 1:16-18New International Version (NIV)

16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.[a]
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.

Defend.  Take up.

Let’s just call this what it is…this is war.  And I don’t mean a war between Republican and Democrat, I mean a war for justice, for equality, for LOVE.  This world is hurting and it will take more than government to put a dent in it.  You can shut your eyes to it like I do so often, but it isn’t going away.  If we’re going to see love change anything we’re going to have to allow ourselves to be afraid FOR someone else- to be angry FOR someone else- and then to harness that emotion into actually standing up for those who can’t stand up themselves.

For Christians, that’s not just a nice thought.  It’s a command.  And it’s also the Gospel in a nutshell- God left His throne, His rights, His comfort- to give us what we could never reach by ourselves…perfection. Holiness. He made us perfect by dying for us in love- and that is what He asks us to do….die to ourselves that we may live for Him and love others.  We are completely unable to do that ourselves, but when we watch Jesus, we can become more like love too.  Are you willing to be a work in progress with me?

Imitating Christ’s Humility (NIV)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!