I'm tired
I'm tired... I think right now I could start everything I do with those words. Yet today I am not talking about being tired physically, While I am physically tired, that's not what I want talk about today.
I'm tired of the hate, rhetoric, the soap boxing, the platforming. I am over the chaos that plagues my social media accounts. People are suffering in Vegas, people are suffering in Puerto Rico, people are trying desperately to pull their lives back together in Texas, homes are burning in California and my social media is not filled with an outpouring of love, or prayers, or people taking action. It's not filled with pictures of people doing something, anything, to make a difference. I have to actively search, and spend a large amount of time doing it, to find anyone having a real conversation.
This past weeks Gospel lesson was about tenants of a vineyard, who lived their lives in fear. Truly scared that the land owner is coming to seize everything they have. Their solution? Beat and kill those who came. Again the master sends people, again they kill them. The third time the owner sends his son and they kill him. Here you have a group of people who live their lives in constant fear and take actions out of it. This doesn't feel so different to me than the world I am seeing all around me.
I live a rather odd social media world, partly because of my job, partly because of my family, partly because of my friends. On social media I have family, friends, church members that people would call the "Alt-Right" and I have family, friends, church members people would call the "Alt Left." I've always lived the middle of not being conservative enough or liberal enough. It puts me in an interesting world. I see a very diverse and wide array of opinions being expressed but I see something in common on both sides of the aisle; a lot of anger, fear, and resentment. I see people laying waste to each other on a social media platform in ways they would never do in a face to face conversation. I also see others validating this awfulness and empowering people as they continue to tear each other down. I see this past week's vineyard tenants coming into the present. I see the aisle between the two sides growing wider and wider.
I told you last week I was done avoiding the hard conversations and I am. In fact I've had some very good conversations in the last week. But as I talked with one person we discussed that the conversation only works because both sides decided to listen. We both let the other say the things they needed to get out and we didn't get emotionally charged up about it. We let the other express their thoughts and ideas.
I don't have the answers to fix things, I don't have a magic wand. BUT, I do know that only in having constructive conversation and talking to, not at, others can we hope to start building a bridge. I hear and see value to ideas on both sides of the aisle, but both sides have to be willing to listen and hear what the others are saying. We have got to let go of our fear and tendency to tear down others before we have even heard what they have to say.
This week my goal is the same as last week, not to avoid tough conversations, but it's time to go further, it's time to build bridges and take action.
I'm tired of the hate, rhetoric, the soap boxing, the platforming. I am over the chaos that plagues my social media accounts. People are suffering in Vegas, people are suffering in Puerto Rico, people are trying desperately to pull their lives back together in Texas, homes are burning in California and my social media is not filled with an outpouring of love, or prayers, or people taking action. It's not filled with pictures of people doing something, anything, to make a difference. I have to actively search, and spend a large amount of time doing it, to find anyone having a real conversation.
This past weeks Gospel lesson was about tenants of a vineyard, who lived their lives in fear. Truly scared that the land owner is coming to seize everything they have. Their solution? Beat and kill those who came. Again the master sends people, again they kill them. The third time the owner sends his son and they kill him. Here you have a group of people who live their lives in constant fear and take actions out of it. This doesn't feel so different to me than the world I am seeing all around me.
I live a rather odd social media world, partly because of my job, partly because of my family, partly because of my friends. On social media I have family, friends, church members that people would call the "Alt-Right" and I have family, friends, church members people would call the "Alt Left." I've always lived the middle of not being conservative enough or liberal enough. It puts me in an interesting world. I see a very diverse and wide array of opinions being expressed but I see something in common on both sides of the aisle; a lot of anger, fear, and resentment. I see people laying waste to each other on a social media platform in ways they would never do in a face to face conversation. I also see others validating this awfulness and empowering people as they continue to tear each other down. I see this past week's vineyard tenants coming into the present. I see the aisle between the two sides growing wider and wider.
I told you last week I was done avoiding the hard conversations and I am. In fact I've had some very good conversations in the last week. But as I talked with one person we discussed that the conversation only works because both sides decided to listen. We both let the other say the things they needed to get out and we didn't get emotionally charged up about it. We let the other express their thoughts and ideas.
I don't have the answers to fix things, I don't have a magic wand. BUT, I do know that only in having constructive conversation and talking to, not at, others can we hope to start building a bridge. I hear and see value to ideas on both sides of the aisle, but both sides have to be willing to listen and hear what the others are saying. We have got to let go of our fear and tendency to tear down others before we have even heard what they have to say.
This week my goal is the same as last week, not to avoid tough conversations, but it's time to go further, it's time to build bridges and take action.
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