We're Fighting the Wrong Battle

You’re wrong, you know?  But they are too.  In fact we all have it wrong and we’re fighting the wrong battle.  There’s a clear division among our people, a spirit of hostility and arrogance.  One that insists on being right and has no tolerance for anything but his or her own personal view. We are a country divided by a line in the sand that has quickly escalated to a ditch that has proved itself ridden with the dead, dry bones of what once was our sense of dignity and respect for human life.   

This isn’t about “Pro-life” or “Pro-choice” human life either.  This is about each other. 

We’ve all seen endless feeds of marching, protests, riots and political, spiritual, personal views.  We’ve been bombarded with every emotion and forced to face the condition of a war being waged on each and every one of our hearts. It seems we’re all walking around raw, with walls built, ready to defend our stance as we expect to be criticized or judged without a moment’s notice. 

Whether or not you believe in your Creator, He was gracious enough to afford us the gift of choice.  Since the garden we’ve been making our own choices.  At times those choices have given us life and other times they have cost us our lives.  Those choices have had resulted in promises fulfilled and other times caused us to reap the consequences of our fallen-ness.   At no time in history or now has our Creator forced us into a decision or a certain way of life.  He offers us His best, and He honors those who are obedient and faithful, but He has never taken away their freedom to choose their path. 

Over the past few days I, just like all of us, have seen the endless flood of destruction we are causing ourselves as we drown in a sea of division.  Friends and family on both sides of the line: politically, morally, socially, in every way.  And neither side is entirely right.  But neither side is entirely wrong either. 

The beauty of our diversity is that when we peacefully disagree, we allow ourselves to grow.  We allow ourselves to learn from one another, from others who have walked a path that is unknown to us and afford each other the ultimate gift of grace.  I believe we each have a right to our own opinion, our own beliefs, our own religions and our own differences.  We should all believe in this for it is what makes us individuals and united within our differences. 

Unfortunately we’re fighting the wrong battle as we fight against one another:

Tearing down each other to get ahead.

Slandering each other to better our own name.

Screaming at each other to prove our own way is the only way.

Tearing off our dignity to flaunt ourselves into power.

Leaving our own trailed mess as we insist on others seeing our so-called beauty. 

We’ve seen in history many times when people have protested, in a peaceful manner, and had their voices heard which resulted in beneficial changes to our country.  We celebrate a woman who sat down in a single protest for her own right and now that moment marked in time as a shift in our views. Yet she got on that bus and quietly, courageously, boldly took her position.  She didn’t strip down, she didn’t tear apart every other seat and she certainly didn’t set the whole thing ablaze.  We have an entire day in honor of a man who had a dream. He stood and stated his words, his beliefs and his vision with humble pride in a people he truly believed could be inspired to be better and do better.  We can all do better. 

We need to find it within ourselves to breathe life into the ditch of dry bones that we’ve seemingly forgotten.  We need to find the courage to not fight for our views to be the same, they never will be, but instead to restore the decency in human nature.  No matter where we live, what religion we are, what background we come from.  No matter what our race, our social standing, our age… 

We are all CAPABLE of being decent to one another. 

We are all CAPABLE of being respectful of one another’s differences.

We are all CAPABLE of extending grace to those who we may not agree with.

We are all CAPABLE of finding it within our hearts to forgive those we feel wronged us. 

We are all CAPABLE of standing up in protest without defaming anyone else in the process.

We are all CAPABLE of raising our signs and then carrying those signs with us as we go. 

We are all CAPABLE of letting our voices be heard without screaming so loud our voices are drowned. 

We are all CAPABLE of allowing our lives to be our testimony of what we believe in and not forcing our views on every passing person.

We are all CAPABLE of restoring dignity, respect, honor and morality among our people.

….but are we WILLING? 

Are we WILLING to set aside our differences to see human souls, hurting, broken, crying out for help and a place to belong?

Are we WILLING to take a lesser role so that someone more qualified, more able, can fulfill a position needed?

Are we WILLING to humble ourselves and allow the rubbing of elbows, the differences we so beautifully carry to be a beacon of light for positive change in our world?

Are we WILLING to recognize the sacrifices made and honor those deserving of our utmost respect, giving credit where it is due?

It’s time that we consider our ability to restore unity in our people.  We must be willing to take shovelful’s of grace, compassion, consideration, empathy, gentleness, kindness, goodness and genuine love and fill in the ditch that we’ve created.  It’s our choice whether we erase the line in the sand or if we continue downward and allow the ditch to fill with the remains of our broken dreams, promises and lives. 

We’ve all been wrong.  But it’s not too late. 

Our dreams can be revisited, our promises can be reinstated and our lives can be redeemed.

We are capable.  But are we willing?

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  Ephesians 4:2-3

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

Wedding Day Letter from God

I created each of you,

Even before you were formed, I knew you and I set you apart.  Then I placed each of you in your mother’s womb, with a plan and purpose, to give you hope and a future.  Your hearts have prayed, have sought and have found.  And today, you will become one.
                                                               One life, one love, one journey Home.

Never underestimate my power through your lives.  Your strength comes with unity - alone you were once easily overpowered, now together you will be able to defend yourselves, but a cord of three strands is not easily broken.  Keep Me at the center of your marriage and all that you do.  I will be your strong shield, your protector.  I, myself, will go before you and will be with.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Keep in mind that just as you are human, so is the one at your side.  Today your love for one another is welling up within you, but there will be times when each of you will fall short.  When discouragement and disappointment come, when it is hard to find the love that you feel so abundantly today - look to Me.  I am the Unchanging One, the One who will not fail you, my mercies never come to an end.  I am the Source and Provider of the love that you have.  I have instilled it as a gift into your heart when you found one another, I have grown it and made it what it is today.  And I have much more for you - a storehouse, an abundance of riches.  It is because I first loved you, so much as to give my only Son, that you are able and will continue to be able to love one another with the same sacrificial love.

The love you have found, when rooted in Me is a safe place.  You should keep no record of wrongs but always extend forgiveness and grace just as I have lavished it upon you.  Freely give as I have freely given to you.  If one of you should stray, may the other humbly and gently bring you back into my embrace.  In doing so, you will save each other from destruction and cover over a multitude of sins.

When troubles and hard times come, when your stretched thin and when my heart breaks at the sight of most others walking out, may you allow those times to bring you all the more closer - closer to one another and to Me.  I will be faithful to light your path.  I am the Creator of the wind and the waves, they obey my Voice and at my command I can calm any raging storm that you face.  Should I allow you to go through it, I will sustain you, I will comfort you and provide for you so long as you remain in Me.  There will also be temptations ahead, I am already there and I promise you that I have already provided a way out of each one.
I want you to understand fully that it does not take a house of gold to build a home.  It takes a strong, and firm foundation, one only I can help you build.  If you choose to build it any other way, it will blow like a tumbleweed in the wind or come crashing to the ground the moment it faces danger.  But build your home and your love upon Me and my teaching, a solid rock, then through the torrents of rain and floodwaters you will stand.  When others enter your home, be an extension of my hand toward them.  This will allow all who enter to experience My love overflowing from your hospitality into their very own lives.  Those who need me and that I send you way, can find Me through you.  Keep the doors of your home and your hearts open and I will have an open door ahead of you that no man can close.

Follow the path that leads to my eternal riches, there are inheritantly yours, they have been handed down from the generations before you.  From the fathers and mothers, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the pastors, the friends and the family that have loved you, have shed tears over you, have sacrificed their own wants for you and have stormed my gates in prayer over your lives and who will continue to do so.  May your life together be a life that outlives you both, one that takes on the likeness of Christ and hands the treasures you will find down to the next generation to come.

Remember this day that you are no longer two but now made one, a sacred union that has been bestowed upon you.  Do not take this miraculous occurrence for granted.  Do not compare this gift to others around you, instead keep your eyes steadily fixed on Me, embracing the unique love that I have so abundantly blessed you with.  Every step you take forward together should be a choice to lay yourselves down for the sake of love.  To set aside you own wants and desires to walk along the narrow path, leading to life, hand in hand.  May your love be one that stays right where it began, at the altar.  Never giving up on one another, always keeping your hearts tender toward each other and toward Me.

When you seek Me, you will find Me, when you seek Me will all your heart.  I will teach you My ways and keep your hearts undivided - bound together and also bound to Mine.  May your love be simple: simply grounded and rooted in My love, simple given and simply shared.

A love that soaks it in, every blessed moment, for better or worse until the day you’re called Home.

Be one another’s best friend.  Never give up.  Always look for the best.

Trust Me steadily, hope unswervingly and love extravagantly,
                                                                             God.

Gen 1:27, Psalm 129:13, Jere 29:11, Mark 10:8, Col 3:14, Ecc 4:12, Psalm 18:2, Deut 31:8, Rom 3:23, Psalm 136, Deut 31:8, Rom 3:23, Lam 3:22, John 15:9-16, 1 John 4:10-11, 1 John 4:16, Psalm 46:1 MSG, Col 2:7, Eph 3:17-18, 1 Cor 13:4-8, Eph 1:7-9 ESV, Matt 10:8, James 5:19-20, Psalm 119:105,  Matt 8:27, Psalm 18:35, 1 Cor 10:13, Luke 6:42, Psalm 127:1, 1 Th 3:12, Phil 1:9-11, Rev 3:8, Matt 6:20,  Eph 1:11, Psalm 100:5, Ex 20:6, Deut 6:6-9, Heb 12:2, John 15:13, Mark 8:34, Matt 7:14, Jere 29:12, Ez 11:19, Psalm 86:11, 1 Cor 13:13 MSG