Month: May 2020

I weep this morning for our country as I awaken to what happened overnight…

Peaceful protests turned to violence and destruction, and buildings are burning.
Our President posted a tweet promoting violence.
A news crew was arrested for no apparent reason.

There appear to be people fighting violence with violence and retribution on every side. Escalating violence will not bring peace.

I weep for George Floyd and his family.
I weep for so many more whose names are not in the national news.
I weep for the racism in our nation.
I weep for the business owners and employees whose businesses have been destroyed.
I weep for the protesters whose message is being co-opted by looting and destruction.
I weep for the law enforcement officers who are are doing it right and find themselves caught in the middle.
I weep for those in law enforcement who abuse their power.
I weep for the atmosphere of violence and retribution that seems to be everywhere, from Pennsylvania Avenue to Minnehaha Avenue.

Violence is not the answer.

For several years, I spent a week in the inner-city where our group of teens and adults were the only Caucasians there. I will be the first to admit that I have not walked in the shoes of an African-American, but here’s what I learned in those times.

It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, how much money you make, or where you live, we all want respect, compassion, and love. The absence of those reverberates throughout our county and our world. It leads to murders, riots, and wars. It builds up anger and even hatred between groups. So when something like the death of George Floyd happens, all hell breaks loose.

We cannot be silent, but we must speak from a place of peace. That does not mean we are quiet or reserved, but that our efforts should not add to the escalation of violence. It doesn’t matter if you sit in the White House or you’re protesting.

Stand up. Speak out. Support your fellow human beings. Reject injustice. Fight racism or anything else that demeans another human being.

We are better than this. All of us are. I don’t have all the answers, but I don’t believe that violence – from any side – is the right answer.

Fifty.

This number can evoke different feelings depending on the context.

Fifty dollars. If you find it, it’s a blessing. If you lose it, it’s a curse.

Fifty feet. If you’re that far from a bear in the woods, you have a head start. If you’re that far from your car in a rainstorm, you’re likely getting soaked.

Fifty minutes. If you have that long until you have to go to work, the time will fly by. If you have that long until class is over, it feels like an eternity.

Fifty years.

This is the reality I face today.

18,263 days. 438,312 hours. 26,298,720 minutes. At 5:22 PM, on May 14, 2020, that’s how long I have been taking breaths and experiencing this world. That’s a lot of time.

But it’s also not much time at all. Scientists estimate the world is approximately 4.54 billion years old. That makes my 50 years 0.0000011013216% of the history of the world. Man, that’s a small percentage.

I am also one of over seven billion people alive right now on planet Earth. And one glance into the nighttime sky tells me that I am but a dust particle on a dust particle in the universe. This can make me seem fairly insignificant if I dwell on it.

But, as Paul Harvey used to say, this is the rest of the story.

I am significant. I am a child. I am a parent. I am a friend. To a handful of the seven billion people in this world, I am important. My love, my compassion, my life, they have meaning to those people. My choices, good or bad, impact those people’s lives.

After fifty years, I’ve learned I’m less important than I thought I was and more important than I believed I was. Living in this tension is the pathway to peace. I am both inconsequential and essential. I live in the divine and the divine lives in me. That reality grounds me and upholds me.

I don’t know how many minutes, hours, days, or years I have left. I could die tomorrow, or I could live another fifty years. This is the fragility and unpredictability of life. Every breath matters.

That does not mean every moment requires productivity or busyness. There is no reason to hustle to earn your worth. Rather, your value is primarily in your presence, not your productivity.

Be where you are. Be who you are.

This is no small feat. The world demands we earn our worth. The world, and even sometimes religion if we’re honest, teaches us that we must believe the right things, work hard, and be good to achieve value.

It has taken me nearly fifty years to learn this, but we are inherently good. We are loved, even when we are unlovable. We are forgiven, even when we make mistakes. When we can see beyond the flaws and brokenness and look deep inside ourselves, we can see this is the place where the divine dwells.

Our task in this life is not to try to be good enough, it is to uncover and unleash the goodness which already exists and share it with the world.