We have drawn too many...

Lines in the Sand

“Matthew once said to me, after one of my more finely worded rants about stupid people who have wrong opinions, ‘Nadia, the thing that sucks is that every time we draw a line between ourselves and others, Jesus is always on the other side of it.’ Damn!”

Nadia Bolz-Weber

          There are so many angry, exceptionally crass words flying out of my mouth these days regarding our current president, that they surprise even me. I can absolutely go into a rage over the injustices and inequities and say stuff that is every bit as stupid as the words that come out of his mouth. Then, I saw that iconic photo of the man with the long red beard screaming at the police officers guarding the state house in Michigan. He looked to my eyes like a 10^th century barbarian raging into battle; the only thing missing was an ax. But at that thought a little light turned on inside my head. “Do I look like him when I’m mad as hell?” That is not a happy thought, y'all,.

          Nadia Bolz-Weber said this: “The life changing seems always bracketed by the mundane. The quotidian wrapped around the profound, like plain brown paper concealing the emotional version of an improvised explosive device. Then, in a single interminable moment, when we discover the bomb, absolutely everything changes…” We humans go along for ages thinking our thoughts and saying our words without a single consideration of how they frame us, how they define us, much less of what the karmic backlash from them will be. Now, when I feel myself heading toward rage, I remember that barbarian-man-image, which cannot now be wiped from my brain, and I know I truly don’t want to be like him.

          The other thing I have thought about since then is that he may actually be a nice guy. Maybe that image represents the passion he feels about his cause, or perhaps the desperation he feels about his job. Who knows? Who can say? Maybe Jesus stands with him on the other side of that line I’ve drawn between us. In fact, there are so many lines we have drawn in the sand between us that one can hardly take a step without tripping over one.

          For me, the pandemic has brought a greater understanding of what the problems in the world seem to be—too many lines. All around the world, people are getting sick, people are dying, people are losing their loved ones, and all we can do is fight among ourselves. Us and them, we’re right, they’re wrong, democrat, republican, Christian and any other religion—all lines drawn in the sand with Jesus (and probably Mohammad and Krishna) on the other side. Let us unwrap this improvised explosive device and defuse it. That would help us to heal.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane