Hope Out of Hatred

Today, I have a lot more hope than I had yesterday.  Though it was fun watching Oakland from my balcony as its citizens set off more fireworks than I have ever seen, and while it was amazing to watch the enormous explosives my neighbors set off over my garage, these weren't the cause of my increasing hope.  The cause was actually something horrific that happened before any fireworks hit the sky.

One of my neighbors fireworks

I had run down to the local drug store to pick up some last minute items for our little bbq.  As I got out of the car, I heard a man on a megaphone yelling something.  Being very familiar with the street corner evangelists around our city, I expected to hear words like, "Repent", "Salvation", "Sin", etc.  But as I turned my head, I saw the man with the megaphone marching across the parking lot, carrying a hat full of bagged cookies and the men following him were doing the same.  I realized that they must be having a fundraiser of sorts.  As he neared, the man with the megaphone said, "Black babies and brown babies shouldn't be hung out in the streets."

Now, my initial thoughts on this man and his cookie-carrying followers had shifted.  As disturbing as his words were, I began to think that he was trying to raise support to stop violence against brown & black children.  (Because why else would someone be marching through a parking lot, carrying cookies and shouting in a megaphone?!)  If he tried to stop me, I began for formulate my out... "Sorry, I can't financially give today, but I do believe that all people are loved by God and I pray against harm to any children in the world."

As I turned to walk into the store, the man walked right toward me and shouted in his megaphone, "It should be the white babies hung out in the streets instead!"

Yeah, it was like getting the wind knocked out of me and being too shocked to even process how evil, how racist and how hateful those words actually were.

I made it through the store, bravely walked to my car and drove toward home.  As I was driving, emotions started welling up.  Who talks about any babies like that?  It doesn't matter what color someone is - you NEVER talk about hanging a baby out in the street!  It doesn't matter what you have been through in your life or any hatred or injustice you have experienced.  It really doesn't.

I pulled into my driveway to see the miraculous job my husband did cleaning out our garage and tried to put on an excited face to let him know how amazing of a job he had done.  But it didn't last that long - I broke down.  I just sobbed.  SOBBED.  And through my tears, I relived the story.

After talking it through, I think God began the healing in my heart.  What that man said, whether it was to me because I am a white girl that crossed his path, or whether he was going to say it anyway, he was just a glimpse of the hurt in this world.  He is a symptom-bearer of the evil in the world.

Our view of the citizens of Oakland's free fireworks show

But the good news is this: God is at work redeeming His people!  This man, and his evil words are not too far from the redeeming hand of God.  I have HOPE that God is at work in the world!  God invites me to be a part of this work - to not live into the hatred that was shown to me - but to live into the HOPE of a loving God who is turning the world upside down with his Love.

July 4, 2012

Can I be real with you today?  I'm feeling a bit anti-celebratory on this festive day.  I've been thinking about the state our country is in and the similarities we have to the state it was in 236 years ago.  I'm pretty certain that although on paper some men declared freedom, it wasn't all that celebratory.  Let's face it, we were in the middle of a war.  And if we are being real, there were people living on American soil who weren't intended recipients of the freedom that was declared.  I do have to give these founding fathers some credit... I believe they were honestly trying to establish something bigger than themselves.  From their perspective of the world, they wrote a decree, a demand, an establishment of our independence.

This one is for my fellow scarcastic friends out there! Source

I've been avoiding the obligatory, "God Bless America/Proud to be an American" Facebook status, because I don't really feel this way right now.  I'm genuinely grateful to live in this country.  I am learning to accept its faults and claim them as my own.  But I believe that God is bigger than just blessing America.  America was never established as an ambassador of God's kingdom.  It was established as a place where no one could inhibit your freedom to practice your religion or lack thereof.  Christians, on the other hand, you are called to be ambassadors of God's kingdom.

{Begin soapbox rant here:} If you believe the government shouldn't allow unborn babies to be killed because it is wrong, tell them so! Don't tell them it is wrong because we used to be a country established on the Bible.  And don't tie this issue to whether or not you think affordable healthcare is socialism!  Politics is not the way to move forward the kingdom of God! {End soapbox rant}

I'm not an economist, a politician nor an historian, but I feel pretty safe to say that we are not too far from where we were 236 years ago.  We still have a lot to learn about war and freedom.  And we still have leaders who are trying to do something bigger than themselves.

Here's my new Facebook status: Happy 236th Birthday America! May you [and the rest of the world] experience the undeserved blessings of God!