How can I live in the same world?
How can I exist in the same era where hatred, bigotry & intolerance still have a foothold?
How can I be apart of an era that was moving so far along with progress just to take a landslide back?
That’s what I’ve been asking myself in the midst of the election and the results. How did we let this happen? How did we allow our country to buy into a man that condones sexism, racism & prejudice to run wild in his conversation.
I thought I lived in tolerate, loving, accepting world. I thought I lived in an age that was redefining history. Tuesday night and into this past week, I felt beat down and distraught. Somehow confused and thinking that maybe I am in a different world than parts of my country. That’s the only logical answer. Division. A country divided, two sided. I want to believe in the world I’ve grown to love and trust. A world that speaks love into hate, grace into weakness, strength into the afraid. I want to believe that world exists in a larger mass than I can currently scope. I know that the media is playing out that the “millennials” are in uproar but I have to believe it’s not just us. I have to believe that people in my parents generation, my grandparents generation, are also grieving. That they are distraught by the beast that our country has created. That more than just my select community is nervous, feeling unrest and ready to take action. I have to believe that together, the people who stand for justice, a culture of tolerance and love; I have to believe there’s enough of us to make a difference.
But how. How do we start? Where do we start? That’s something I know alot of people are asking themselves right now. I really think it begins with loving your neighbor. Loving the people in the life that may seem like bystanders, the ones who don’t play a full time role in your life. Loving the people who don’t believe what you believe. Trusting the people who are apart of cause and banding together. In the end, all we have is each other and we owe each other LOVE. We owe each other grace and understanding, confront, a safe haven. I don’t believe in a country that speaks openly against other people groups. I don’t believe in a country that is bias towards people that are a bit different. I believe in a community of grace and that’s something that I have to remember when I read articles in the media about the height of rape culture, the racist comments on buildings, the mockery of religions in schools, the conversations I have with people who think differently than me. I have to remember that I still stand for love, grace and acceptance.
I’m reminded of a prayer by Saint Francis, “where there is hatred, let me sow love.” This is my favorite prayer (I think it’s about time I get this tattooed on myself) , it’s something I can’t seem to get out of my mind and it really applies right now. When the world is full of hate, remember to show your love. Don’t meet hate with resistance. Hate just breeds more hate so meet hate with love.
I’m grieving, I’m lost but I’m not down for the count. I’m ready to be more of an advocate for what I believe in and ready to speak up against the injustice of the nation, of my community and for myself.
”
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen. ”
This is my prayer, my promise and my cry.
All this time dreaming 