Black and White

You know when he comes in the room.  The lighting completely changes, the shadows deepen, and somehow, the very air of the seems oppressive.  Ominous music plays from nowhere and then you see him.  Black hat, black clothing, and boots.  There are always boots.  All of these things point to him, but you could get rid of all of that and still know him by the eyes.  The eyes say it all.  Squinty.  Shifty.  Dark.   There's no doubt, once you see the eyes.

He is the bad guy.

Years ago, my daughter and I were watching some random kids movie.  If you have kids, you know these movies.  Terrible script.  Bad writing.  Awful acting.  Kid’s love them.  You watch them because your kid loves them.

“Dad, is that the bad man,” my daughter asks in all her innocence. 

“Yes honey, that’s the bad guy,” I answer somewhat offhandedly.  

But wait.  I stopped there.  I realized that perhaps I’ve just taught my beloved child a terrible lesson.

If you’ve spent any time knocking around this world, you learn very quickly that the “bad man” is rarely accompanied by menacing organ music.  The stage lighting doesn’t suddenly change and there is no chorus of gasps when they enter the room.

No, I can tell you as a Pastor, some downright evil people, people so evil that it affects you.  Like an oil slick on the surface of water, you can’t help but get some on you when you touch it.  

Some of the worst people I’ve ever dealt with have had a smile on their face as they stab you in the back.  I’ve seen people lie with so much sincerity that you’re left breathless when they turn on you.  I’ve watched folks who everyone placed on a pedestal turn around and hurt others in the most brutal ways.

It’s the politician who kisses the baby even though he just signed a bill that will leave the baby’s father out of work, and he knows it.  It’s the husband who abuses his family in the most heinous ways, but smiles at church and plays the good Christian.  It’s the teacher that everyone likes who turns out to be molesting kids.  It’s the person at work who schemes and lies for their own benefit, climbing the ladder over the bodies of their coworkers.  It’s the person who brings drama and bile into the lives of everyone she touches, as she plays one person off against another.  

I wish I could continue to tell my daughter that the world is divided nicely and neatly in to categories of good and bad, with the good guys always wearing white hats and the bad guys always wearing black ones.  I wish I could tell her that it was easy to avoid the evil ones.

But no, the truth isn’t in the black and white, but in the grays.

Even an oil spill can be pretty.  Have you ever seen the rainbow of colors on the surface of an oil slick?  Beautiful colors that can hide an appalling evil.

I can’t protect my daughter from the evil people in this world, but I can be honest with her that sometimes bad guys wear masks so good you can’t even tell they are masks. And sometimes the good guy comes out of nowhere and surprises you.

And sometimes, that oil slick of evil is going to stick to you, no matter how hard you try to wash it off.

Life isn’t as easy as a kid’s movie.

I wish that she never would have to learn that lesson.

Integrity

Integrity

That’s what bothers me.  Integrity.

Politics kills people’s integrity.

People I care about.  

People who I otherwise like and trust.

Democrats.  Republicans.  Friends that I like.  I care about them.  I don’t care about their politics.

I have friends on both sides.  Their politics are not a friendship test to me.

I could drop my wallet and know they’d give it back with no money missing.

I know I could leave my child with them and they’d keep her safe.

I  trust their integrity in many things.

But, open the politics door, and integrity flies out the window.

Why can’t my Democrat friends look at the Affordable Health Care Act and say, “It was wrong to use the tactics that were used, it was wrong to pile so much stuff in there, and it was wrong to pass something that wasn’t even read; my side was wrong.”?  No, they hoot and holler, cheering “My side won, screw you Republicans!”

Why can’t my Republican friends say, “There are people in dire need who cannot get insurance and suffer because of that.  We collectively must do something to help, and that may mean some sort of government involvement.”?  No, they stomp and fuss and compare the President to a dictator.

OR,

 

Why do the Republicans who wholeheartedly supported George Bush in all he did, including the war in Iraq, fuss about Barack Obama in Libya and Syria?

And the Democrats who hated all that George Bush was and were angry about Iraq, but have no complaint about Libya and Syria?

OR,

Why do Democrats excoriate the Republicans for balking on raising the debt ceiling and shutting down the government when President Obama voted precisely that way seven years ago during the Bush administration?

Why did the very Republicans who supported raising it in the past, suddenly care about the cost to our children’s future?

Why is it always the other group’s fault for not being willing to give something in compromise when your own side draws similar lines? 

 

Why does party loyalty remove all sense of honesty that your party doesn’t get it all right?

Perhaps this is why each side hates each other so?  A person who has compromised their own principals over politics, recognizes that same character in his opponent.

Where are the people of honor who can call out their own side?

Where are the ones with character enough to call out what’s right on the other side?

Where’s your integrity?

Signed,

A Modern Diogenes

I Can't

I can’t save children from being killed 2500 miles away, but I can comfort those in my community who are scared to go to school.

I can’t feed all the starving and hungry in Asia, but I can donate canned food to feed the hungry students from poor families at the local high school.

I can’t give homes to all the homeless in Appalachia, but I can shelter a few homeless here in Phoenix.

I can’t stop corrupt cops in Chicago, but I can cook Christmas dinner for the police officers here in Mountain View Precinct and build bridges between them and the community.

I can’t counsel every soldier returning from war with PTSD, but I can help get groceries for the soldier’s wife down the street while he is away at war, so he doesn’t have one more stress.

I can’t save the elderly woman who froze to death in her New York apartment last week because she had no heat, but I can visit the shut-in down the street and help her pay her electric bill.

I can’t stop the hurt and anger caused by that Kansas church picketing funerals, but I can build relationships with people who have a different lifestyle than I do.

I can’t stop every abortion, but I can adopt an unwanted child in this city.

I can’t stop racism in Mississippi, but I can ensure that my group of friends have lots of different skin colors and cultural backgrounds.

I can’t fix the political question of illegal immigration, but I can get to know the pastor of the Hispanic church that meets locally.

I can’t save the girl who just committed suicide, but I can befriend the teens in our area who are bullied and teach my kids to do the same.

I can’t fix the partisan politics of our system, but I can educate myself as a voter and actively vote for what is right in each situation and not necessarily what a specific party tells me to vote for.

I can’t medicate everyone dying of HIV/AIDS in Africa, but I can hold the hand of an HIV patient whose friends have abandoned him here at the hospice.

I can’t save the world, but I can live out my faith locally, demonstrating God’s word through meeting the practical needs of those around me.

I can’t waste time waiting for someone else to change the world, but I can get started making a difference by becoming the change in my corner of the world.

I can’t do all these things by myself, but I can invite you to help too.

All solutions are grass roots and must start locally.  The seed is planted in you, now what will you do with it?

Un-Easy Answers

My friends, I am sitting here at my desk in absolute sorrow over the events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  As of the recent reports, at least 18 children are dead this morning along with teachers and staff.  A flow of emotions runs through me as I consider my love for own little girls, my anger at the person who did this, my broken heart for those parents who will never see their little children again.  At the same time, I pray for them and for the other parents and children that now know a terror that will never truly be erased from their minds. 

I wish I had easy answers.  I’d be a liar if I said I did.  

This is a time to take a breath, to step back and hold our loved ones, to stop and take stock of our lives and priorities.  Consider that any day might be your last, that there will eventually come a moment when you lose someone dear to you, and that eventually, you too will face that moment for yourself.  

As a Christian, I believe that humanity is made in the image of God, but that we are inherently broken at our core being, by sin.  Even the best of us are damaged goods.  It is easy to blame the murderer for his choices, to blame the gun manufacturer for creating the tool, to blame the government for too few regulations, to blame friends and family of the murderer for not catching the danger; but, the truth is this, these events are just a byproduct of the evil around us.

You just cannot take away every implement that can be used to kill.  Nor, can you station enough people around with weapons to stop violence.

You just cannot lock away every person who has mental problems, nor can you hope to catch every one who eventually snaps.

You just cannot expect police to be there to stop every crime, nor even hope that every officer of the law is safe from being the perpetrator either. 

You just cannot expect to educate this type of behavior out of society, nor can you pray it out either.

You just cannot pass enough laws to change the fact that evil exists, nor debate it away online.

We may try to pass some knee-jerk laws, but that won’t fix anything.  We may blame someone (Congress, Republicans, the President, the NRA, the murderer, his family, violence on television, the school for not being locked, the police for not responding fast enough), but that isn't going to solve it either. 

 

Safety, in this world, is nothing but an illusion.  This is why it becomes so urgent to figure out your priorities.  This honesty about safety and lack of urgency in our priorities is missing from our society.  In fact, the only urgency we have is in our busy rush to numb our reality with entertainment and amassing money and stuff.

I wish I could be more comforting in a time like this, to be able to say, “It’ll all be OK,”  but we both know that it won’t.  We may forget this incident, but those who are there will not.  Even so, another incident will happen, whether another shooting, a terrorist bomb, a plane crash, or even a tsunami. 

It will never be OK until we recognize the reality of a broken world, and ultimately that that brokenness extends even to ourselves.  

At that point, our only hope is to look for the truth of God in this world, the God who promises salvation from this world, if we but turn to Him.   

Please, I urge you to turn from whatever you are doing now.  

If you are a believer in Jesus, please take stock.  Are you living your life with urgency?  Are you doing the things that God calls you to do in this world, being a comfort to others, serving those in need, being a peacemaker, sharing the hope of Christ?

If you don’t know Jesus or if all you know about him is from the obnoxious actions of a few, let me urge you to take a hard look at your life’s priorities and consider the death that each of us faces.  Pray to God that you might find him.  Seek out a Christian pastor who can help you through this.

All: Fall on your knees and please pray for the families of the victims today.  Pray for the children who have learned the harsh lesson of evil, far too early in life.  Pray for the police, fire, and medical emergency responders, for their lives will be changed by this too.  But then, when you get up, carry this lesson with you.  Do something good in this world.  Be a person of peace.  Stand up for what is right.  Love all people, even those who seem unlovable.  Serve others.  You cannot stop all the evil in the world, but you just might bring some small light of good where you are today.  The smallest candle cast a huge amount of light in the darkest places. 

If you wish to talk through your feelings on this tragedy, if you wish for prayer, or if you want to know more about God, please contact me through this blog or Facebook.

Pastor Rodger