Tag: making a difference

Made For These Days

Watching an online worship service this morning, the special music was a song entitled Made for These Days. As in you and me made for these days. I loved the song and the sentiment, but in the back of my mind I asked “Really?”
You and me?
Or, at least me?
Where I am?
How I am?
Mostly at home?
One voice?
One vote?
Made for these days…
Of political divisiveness and paralysis.
Of growing disparity between those who have and those who don’t.
Of racism.
Of sexism.
Of deepening distrust.
My skepticism said,
“Really?”
“Me?”
“Made for these days?”
But, my faith says,
“Yes.”
“Really!”
“You are made for these days.”
There is something to be done that I can do.
There is some place of darkness where I can be a light.
There is some despair that I can lean into with my hope.
Do I know for sure?
No.
But…
Maybe.
And so I will lean into today where I am and how I am and with the best that I have.

The music today also reminded me of this by Sweet Honey in the Rock.
I believe this is true, as well.

P.S. Here is the song which was sung this morning.

What I Can Do Today

He calls people names.
I will do my best to see who you are.

He believes he knows it all.
I will be open to learning from those who hold different opinions.

He lies.
I will endeavor to be honest.

He mocks those who are different.
I will do my best to treat you with respect.

He excludes.
I will extend a welcome.

He puts others down.
I will do my best to lift you up.

He preys upon people’s fear and anxiousness.
I will live believing there is enough for all of us.

He believes he can do no wrong.
I will admit my mistakes and try to do better.

He makes a mockery of faith.
I will do my best to live mine.

He feels entitled.
I will be grateful.

Messy

The other evening I watched as a father played with his young daughter.
He was kicking and throwing a beach ball to her.
She would run and try to catch it.
On one attempt she fell down and got grass stain on her pants.
Getting up she looked at her pants and then looked at her dad wondering if she was going to get into trouble because her pants got dirty. Her father smiled, looked at her pants and said “grass stain” and threw her the ball. She smiled as she ran to catch it.

I wonder if we focus too much on being clean and neat.
And on proper place.
And proper order.
And coloring inside the lines.
And following all the rules.
Maybe we should teach children to be messy and to learn to deal with the mess.
Grass stain on the knees of your pants.
Muddy shoes.
Dirty face.
After all, life is messy.
Growing up is messy.
Learning to love is messy.
Caring about another is messy.
Trying to make a difference is messy.
Addressing issues and solving problems means getting your hands dirty and your too easy responses challenged and standing shoulder to shoulder with those who look different and think differently and who have different backgrounds and customs. Relationships are just the same.
All of which is messy.
And complex.
And hard.
And matters.

He smiled as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Grass stain,” he said as he threw her the ball again.
And smiling, she ran as fast as she could to catch it.
Grass stain and all.

Greater Than

When you are tempted to say…
I am the only one.
What can one person do.
No one will listen to me.
I am just an ordinary person.
I can’t.
What if.
The task is too big.
The need is too large.
The problem is too great.
It won’t make a dent.
I won’t make a dent.
No one will notice.
Nothing will change.
What difference can one person make.
Remember this…
One is greater than zero.

What Are You Going to Do Today?

This week on our Twitter and our Facebook pages, Megan Hansen, who manages our online communication, posted a reflection written by MaryAnn McKibben Dana entitled Kick With Your Left Foot. The springboard for her reflection was a podcast she heard about the 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer final in which the US National Women’s team beat China in a penalty kick shootout. The winning goal was scored by Brandi Chastain. Any of you who follow soccer at all may remember that moment and that kick and Brandi Chastain’s reaction. But what caught MaryAnn Dana’s attention was the fact that just before Brandi Chastain walked onto the field to take that kick, her coach told her to take the kick with her left foot. Something she had done hundreds of times in practice, but never in a game. Especially a game and a moment of that magnitude. Chastain followed her coach’s instruction. Took the kick. With her left foot. Scored the goal. The rest is history.

Ms. Dana ends her blog post with this:
And that’s how life works, isn’t it.
We do what is ours to do, day by day.
We pursue our “craft,” whatever that might be;
we explore what it means to be our authentic selves;
we learn, we engage in rituals and traditions,
we practice so that at moments when we are most needed in our communities and families, we are ready to give our best effort for the sake of tikkun olam, the healing of the world. As Danusa Veronca Goska writes, “When we study the biographies of our heroes, we learn that they spent years in preparation doing tiny, decent things before one historical moment propelled them to center stage.”
Tiny, decent things.
Tiny, decent, surprising things.
Tiny, decent, surprising things…so we’re ready to jump in, with either foot forward.

Which brings me back to today.
And, to the Bible.
And, to you and me.
And, to our claim and calling to follow in the way and the spirit of Jesus, who, if Matthew’s Gospel is to be believed, spent his time and energy healing and teaching and bringing something of God’s Kingdom close.
Tikkun Olam.
Healing the world.
Little by little.
One person.
One step.
One household.
One community.
At a time.

One of the scribbled notes on the file folder in which I keep sermon notes and ideas is:
“Quit thinking you have to be Gandhi.”
Which, I think, means this.
Quit thinking you can’t do anything about it because the problem is too big.
Quit thinking you are just one person.
Quit thinking that someone else with more time, more energy, more influence, more power, more clout will be the one to jump in to fix it or solve it or do it.
Quit thinking you have to be Gandhi.
Or, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Or Nelson Mandela.
Or, Jesus.
Instead, remember it is…
Tiny, decent things.
Tiny, decent, surprising things.
Tiny, decent, surprising things…that make us ready to jump in, with either foot forward.

In that same file folder as the scribbled note about Gandhi, I found this written by Emilie Townes, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Studies in Religion and Theology a Yale Divinity School. She writes:
Ultimately, I believe that somewhere deep inside each of us
We know that perhaps the simplest, yet the most difficult, answer to the challenge of “what will we proceed to do with the fullness and the incompleteness of what we have brought to this time and place” is:
Live your faith deeply.
Now I am not talking about perfection.
I’m talking about what we call in Christian ethics, the everydayness of moral acts.
It’s what we do every day that shapes us and says more about us than those grand moments of righteous indignation and action.
The everydayness of listening closely when folks talk or don’t talk to hear what they are saying.
The everydayness of taking some time, however short or long, to refresh ourselves through prayer or meditation.
The everydayness of speaking to folks and actually meaning whatever it is that is coming out of our mouths.
The everydayness of being a presence in people’s lives.
The everydayness of sharing a meal.
The everydayness of facing heartache and disappointment.
The everydayness of joy and laughter.
The everydayness of facing people who expect us to lead them somewhere or at least point them in the right direction.
The everydayness of blending head and heart.
It’s the everydayness of getting up and trying one more time to get our living right.
It is in the everydayness that “we the people” are formed.
And, we the people of faith, live and must witness to a justice wrapped in a love that will not let us go and a peace that is simply too ornery to give up on us.

So…
What are you going to do today to claim your calling and to follow in the way and spirit of Jesus?
What are you going to do today…
To heal?
To help?
To teach?
To bring God’s Kingdom close?
One person at a time.
One moment at a time.
One household…your household…at a time.
To heal the world…
Your world…
Our world…
This world…
Just a little bit?

Remember it is…
Tiny, decent things.
Tiny, decent, surprising things.
Tiny, decent, surprising things
That make us ready to jump in, with either foot forward.

Figuring Out the Answer

I spent last week in Colcord, WV with 27 high school students, 4 college students and 4 other adults. In the 90+ degree heat we worked repairing floors, building and repairing handicapped ramps and repairing and building two porches. In addition to the work, on most evenings we gathered in the small Presbyterian Church next to where we were staying to talk about the work we were doing and about what we were learning. All this is a familiar summer pattern for me. Except for four years, every summer since 1979 I have traveled to Appalachia – first from Illinois and then from Wisconsin and now from New York – and spent a week with high school students and other adults living in a community and part of the country very different from where we lived and repairing homes of those who could no longer do the work themselves. These trips have shaped who I am both as a person and as a pastor and given me the opportunity to form relationships with many who have been and are role models for me. That legion of everyday saints who do what they can to make the world in which you and I live a better place.

Last Sunday evening, which was our first evening there, as we sat on the floor and in the pews of the Colcord Presbyterian Church, we asked the question of the young adults who were with us:
“Why are you here? Why did you come on this trip?”
The answers were honest and what you might expect.
I like helping other people.
I like making a difference.
The friendships and the relationships I make on trips like this are so important.
As a part of our conversation I added my response, but I can’t remember what I said, but the question stuck with me all week. Why am I here?

On our last evening in Colcord, we gathered again in the front of that small church. Each person was asked to bring something which represented the week to add to the collage we create in the center of our circle. One by one items were added and stories told.
A piece of wood from the first time he used a circular saw.
A stone from the creek.
A coke can which a neighbor gave them while they were working.
A screw representing the hundreds of screws used to hold porch or ramp together.
My contribution was a piece of paper with a question mark on it.
As I thought about the question of Why am I here? I realized that each of the trips I have been on over the years have been my effort to answer the question which the lawyer asked Jesus 2000 years ago: Who is my neighbor? which I think is the most important religious question of our time.

I answer that question better today than I did in 1979.
But, truth be told…
I still have a long way to go as I do my best to figure out the answer.

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Several things I believe: