A recently seen bumper sticker – “Got Empathy?”
Those two words were probably the best “sermon” or “Bible lesson” I have experienced in some time. After a good chuckle, the best response I could come up with (it didn’t feel rhetorical) was a halfhearted “sometimes.” Onward.
This from the story of Jacob in Genesis 28:11-12:
“When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching into heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it…. When Jacob awoke from his sleep he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’”
In An Altar In the World , Barbara Brown Taylor writes of this passage and relates it to us thousands of years later. She asks: “What if God can drop a ladder absolutely anywhere, with no regard or religious standards developed by those who have made it their business to know the way of God?” Or in my way of thinking: What if the angels God sent down the ladder don’t look or think or act like me, or like I expected angels to look, think, act?
Those are, of course, both rhetorical questions. Based on my experience, God can “drop a ladder absolutely anywhere” and the people he sends down the ladder often, quite often, don’t look, think, or act like me. Still, they are angels of God ascending and descending the ladder. The issue, then, is whether I recognize them as such.
Okay, admit it. Haven’t you looked around for a set of keys you had in your pocket, for a hat you had on your head, for glasses you were wearing, for a phone in your hand or pocket? I have. And that being the case, isn’t it quite possible that in the quest for enough we are already there?
Which brings to mind this from Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar To The World “No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.”
Those last part is worth repeating. “…we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.
In an August 11 New York Times column, Frank Bruni comments on hate – “Its sprawl is as demoralizing as its staying power.” Bruni notes elsewhere in the article: “In movies, songs, and greeting cards, I’m always hearing or seeing that love is forever and that it conquers all. Well, hate may be even more durable, and it has the muscle to fight love to a draw.”
I understand Bruni’s frustration, and in the short term maybe a draw is the best one can hope for in the battle between love and hate. Still, it seems clear that returning hate for hate is a lose/lose proposition. In this I am reminded of a couple of quotes. From David Wilcox’s song, Show the Way: “If someone wrote the play, just to glorify what’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage, to look as if the hero came to late?” And from Martin Luther King, Jr.: ““Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
It is already plenty dark. Be a star.
I was listening to the Revisionist History podcast by Malcom Gladwell recently. In Dr. Rock’s Taxonomy he tells of the story of Dr. John Rock, the physician who developed the birth control pill. Rock was, throughout his life, a devout Catholic who attended mass every day. When interviewed back in the 1970s he told the story of a woman who wrote to him to tell him that given his development of The Pill he “nauseated” her. She admonished him and noted that he had to “meet his God and account for your work here on earth.” His response in a letter back is classic:
“I am sorry I upset your stomach. You may be very sure that I have gone through some inner pains myself over this problem that you are now concerned with. As far as meeting my God, I have been taught and believe that He is with me here all the time. As I have to meet Him every day, I really try to conform to what He tells me to do. Perhaps I am a little hard of hearing at times, but I do my best.”
I so like that, and it occurs to me to be a valid aspiration for each day – “I really try to conform to what He tells me to do. Perhaps I am a little hard of hearing at times, but I do my best.”
Hatred seems to beget hatred. Claims of hatred seem to beget claims of hatred. When claims of hatred are tossed back and forth it seems people quickly forget the source of the hatred. Soon the A’s hate the B’s because they are B’s and the B’s hate the A’s because they are A’s – as if that were reason enough. In time the hatred just becomes ingrained, almost reflexive, and gets bogged down in ancillary arguments like “who hated first” or “who hated most.”
Whether we are talking hatred or its younger, less developed sibling – let’s call him/her “Animosity” — someone has to diffuse the situation lest the animosity/hatred escalate. The mental picture that comes to mind is that of two people tossing a “pin pulled” live grenade back and forth while arguing over who pulled the pin. What they fail to see, or even consider, is that what is most needed at that point is that the grenade be tossed aside, not back.
Hatred is wrong. Never give it a pass. It must be called out for what it is, when it is, where it is. Personal expressions of hatred, political messages of hatred or stated group purposes of hatred may all fall under the umbrella of First Amendment protected speech, but the first five words of the First Amendment are “Congress shall make no law….” The limitations/obligations of the state aside, as citizens, as humans, we are allowed, required, to call out hatred for what it is, when it is, where it is lest it ultimately devour us. Hatred is wrong.
From Heather Havrilesky’s What If This Were Enough:
“We are called to savor the process of our own slow, patient development, instead of suffering an enervated anxious state over our value or popularity.”
That can be a tall order, to “savor the process of our own slow, patient development.” In this time when nearly everything can be brought to our door, or we to it, immediately, “slow, patient development” does not seem to be in favor. We want what when we want it, and we typically want it, are getting used to getting it, NOW.
In many ways it seems that the “enervated anxious state” has become the accepted norm. But of coursed some things just take time, whether we like it or not. I am reminded of Billy Joe Shaver’s song (made popular by John Anderson) – “I’m just an old chunk of coal, but I’m gonna be a diamond some day….” Or, there’s Ashley Gorley and Bryan Simpson’s song (made popular by Sammy Kershaw, and more so by Tim McGraw) – “I ain’t as good as I’m gonnna get, but I’m better than I used to be.”
A while back I stumbled across The Devil’s Dictionary, a collection of a newspaper column written by Ambrose Bierce in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It speaks to both the timelessness and the insight that can be provided by dry-witted sarcasm.
“Christian, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.”
Guilty on both counts!
Photo taken in Central Park a few weeks back. (Light altered a bit to add contrast.)
It occurs to me... 