The Ugly In Us All

Well, in the face of several things that have really hit home this week, I have been thinking a lot about nonviolence. I find that when I see something really violent happen I have two thoughts:
1-How could anyone hurt someone else like that.
2-If I got my hands on that person, I would hurt him worse than he hurt anyone else.
No matter what I want to think, I am just as capable of violence as anyone else. Now don't go and call some sort of therapist and get me locked up. I'm not saying I enjoy violence. What I am saying is that most of us, in the right circumstance, would be capable of amazing things. If my wife was held for ransom, I would do most anything to get her out. Where I to have a family member killed, I probably could do some pretty nasty things to the guy who killed them. I can say all I want that I believe in "turning the other cheek," but when it comes down to it, in certain emotional situations I don't know how much Christ has really changed me. My gut emotions remain the same. In fact, I still like watching good guys kill bad guys on TV. I can try to kid myself and say "But that is different," but it is still me desiring the death of someone else, fictional or real.
That is about all I'm going to try to explain. I just want to leave you with some lyrics from Derek Webb's Mockingbird album that have really been shaping my thoughts.

My Enemies Are Men Like Me-
i have come to give you life
and to show you how to live it
i have come to make things right
to heal their ears and show you how to forgive them
because i would rather die
i would rather die
i would rather die
than to take your life
how can i kill the ones i’m supposed to love
my enemies are men like me
i will protest the sword if it’s not wielded well
my enemies are men like me
peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication
it’s like telling someone murder is wrong
and then showing them by way of execution

King and a Kingdom-
but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think

In God We Trust-
in God we trust
so we fight for peace and He fights for us
in God we trust
even when He fights us for someone else
in God we trust
even when He looks like the enemy

Love Is Not Against The Law-
and it’s giving up your life
for the ones you hate the most
it’s giving them your gown
when they’ve taken your clothes
are we defending life
when we just pick and choose
lives acceptable to lose
and which ones to defend
‘cause you cannot choose your friends
but you choose your enemies
and what if they were one
one and the same
could you find a way
to love them both the same
to give them your name

How Grapes Got Me To Grow Up

I might have been the biggest kid to ever sit in a preschool and kindergarten class. I was well into first grade, and I had no desire to move on. Yeah, the chairs in the class were a little small, but I didn't care. I wasn't ready for the big time. Some of the older kids, who I thought were mean, were in that class and I just wasn't interested in spending any more time with them than I had to. Besides, at this point I had pretty much mastered the curriculum for the younger class, having been through it a time or two. I was always the smartest in the class.
My mom begged and pleaded with me to move on. Frankly, I think it was a little embarrassing. I wasn't as bad as the kid that threw a fit every time his mom took him to class (and that happened through like middle school), but I was still not advancing as I was supposed to.
I remember the 1st and 2nd grade teacher and my mom trying to convince me. I was pretty sure that I had made the right choice and they were going to get nowhere. And then the teacher said, "Next week we are going to talk about Caleb and Joshua." Suddenly, my interest was tweaked. That sounded good. My next door neighbor was named Joshua. We played together. I felt a little incentive to at least give it a try. (Besides, she gave them in the proper order. Caleb should go first, he stood up first.)
Now this may have seem like a boring, needless story to pass on to you. The reason I wanted to write about it comes from our chapel speaker yesterday. He was asking what is different about believers that grew up in church and unbelievers that did as well. He suggested that it was a matter of those certain experiences that made you feel like you belong and God wanted to use you.
For me that class was probably the first of those moments. Maybe it is silly to feel empowered just because you and your buddy have the same names as some OT spies, but for a first grader that was important. If a Caleb long ago could spy out a land, see giants, and then be such a leader for God, there is no reason I couldn't do the same. (Since then I have become far less interested in spying and giants.) What I'm saying is that for the first time it ceased to be a story time and became a suggestion that I could be involved with God's work. This was a big thing that I could be a part of. I guess you could say that it was my first taste of the Kingdom of God.