Last night I dreamed I was caught in a shootout  – in a real active shooter/ mass shooting scenario.

For whatever reason, while others ducked and covered, I ran out to spot the shooter.  I ended up caught in a crossfire between those who would call me friend and those who would rather see me dead.

With a rifle pointed at me, I stared down  my ‘would be’ friendly shooter. I brushed the muzzle of his rifle aside, grabbed the weapon, and then pointed it in the direction of the actual enemy. 

Boom!

When I woke up I could still hear the sound of gunfire.

In times like these, when everyone is already afraid and on edge, people who aren’t used to combat will panic.  This panic may cause us to mistake a friend for a foe. The pressure of battle can make us freeze or retreat.  

While I am not inclined to either of these behaviors, it is particularly costly – especially when comfort and safety are the idols before which many of us bow.  

Lord have mercy on me for not being able to just fall in line, to acquiesce, for disturbing your peace… But now is not the time to be silent!  And ,I guess you already know that I cannot keep quiet! 

¹³  “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

¹⁴  They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. 

Jeremiah 6:13–14

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs, 

just adam

When I think about the massive changes that are occurring all around us and how it seems like there’s no end in sight, I am beginning to realize something.

First, I am seeing that as a culture we haven’t learned how to deal with difficult things, to wrestle with what makes us uncomfortable, or to face challenges that require more than just short bursts of energy. We like quick fixes.  We love shortcuts.

Second, I see that forgetting painful things and glossing over tragedies are ways of avoiding the necessities of grief and mourning.  We double down on entertainment as an escape rather than learning how to embrace the pains that accompany loss while producing empathy and compassion.

Third, I see that our desire for quick fixes and our drive to escape any sign of discomfort keeps us from developing the capacity and resilience to deal with our present crises. Our shortsightedness and lack of vision are our undoing!

The nonsense we have going on will not go away with a wish or whim.  The old wounds that have been exacerbated by new offenses, will not heal in a day.  The historic and systemic injustices that shape our nation’s identity will not be undone with a single election, a court ruling, a protest, or a boycott.

We are in a centuries-long battle for our souls, our sanity and our dignity , and we will not prevail with the simple stroke of a pen.  We are in an uphill battle that demands more than happy thoughts and sunny dispositions.  Our ancestors knew this.

‘I don’t feel no ways tired. I’ve come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me the road would be easy. And, I don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me…”

(Rev. James Cleveland)

The days ahead will require of us a new discipline rooted in the hope that sustained our foremothers and forefathers.  The days ahead will require of us the faithfulness of all the saints who’ve preceded us.  The days ahead of us will require the fortitude that only the Spirit can provide us.  

“If we cannot fly, then we will run. If we cannot run, we will walk, and if we cannot walk we will crawl. But by all means, we will keep on moving!”

(Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

We have some tough days ahead. And we will need every ounce of joyful discipline and hopeful endurance we can muster to keep leaning forward.  But we have a cloud of witnesses before us!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Hebrews 12:1–2

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

It’s amazing how philosophical and technical we can get when we start talking about how to treat one another. We strain gnats and swallow camels!

The hemming and hawing about who to love, how to love, and what love looks like is maddening!  

Worse yet, it appears to be that those who claim to follow Jesus are some of the worst at discerning what the LORD requires.  

The way we discriminate and dole out grace as if it is a limited commodity, picking and choosing who’s in and who’s out according to our own proclivities is shameful. The way we mind other folks’ business like we’re getting paid and in possession of a bottomless barrel of perverse judgments – a paradox!

We are supposed to be grace people, mercy people, justice people, generous people,  love people… 

Sadly, it is often only when crisis strikes or troubles come, that we want to hold hands, ‘cum-ba-yah,’ feigning sincerity with hollow prayers that belie our practices and policies.  

What do we do, Oh LORD?

God says, ‘You already know!’

He has told you, O man, what is good;and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

We already know!

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

God cares about those who are suffering.  

God cares about the poor and the sick.  

God cares about the imprisoned.  

God cares about the last, the lost, the least, the left out, and the left behind!  

Jesus is acquainted with the lowly.  

It is impossible that while claiming to love God, we hate and reject those whom God loves – those to whom Jesus came!

God is on the side of the oppressed.

Jesus said,

¹⁸  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,¹⁹  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18–19

Where do WE stand?

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

One of the greatest challenges to our faith is systemic injustice.  It is sneaky.  It is subtle.  It is the invisible millstone around our collective necks, threatening to drown us! It is a violent cancer gnawing away at our internal organs.  It is a destructive blood borne illness that attacks our own body.

Too graphic? Too early for such disturbing imagery? Perhaps.

The evil embedded in our world’s systems, the ‘ghosts in the machine,’ hide in plain sight behind labels called patriotism, conservatism, and even, I dare say, morality and christianity.  

But like a destructive computer virus that alters file names, this evil turns wrong to right, equity to discrimination, and diversity to division. Then it erases and corrupts memory so that even with a reboot, there can be no recovery.  

There is no ‘safe mode.’  Only a red, white, and finally the dreaded blue screen of death! 

The only thing to do is to totally scrub the machine, reformat the hard drive, and restore the machine from an immutable data source – with a trusted image – and start over!  Get it?

Sometimes the only, the best, and the hardest solution is to start over.  As difficult as it is to accept – we may be at a point where we must seriously consider the cost and what it means to start over. 

Get it?

We may continue to ‘throw good money after bad,’ wasting time, energy, and resources – feigning progress only to regress, or we may begin, at least, to imagine and embrace our hopeful alternative – from a trusted, immutable source of data.

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  

Revelation 21:5

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

I won’t tell you how long I lived in the South before I realized that, ‘Bless your heart,’ wasn’t actually a blessing. 

When we claim to love God but are then cruel and compassionless to others, we become liars and the truth is not in us.  

‘Bless your heart.’

When we offer praise to God, while cursing our neighbors, we walk in darkness. When we claim grace for ourselves but demand judgment for everyone else, we are hypocrites.

‘Bless your heart.’

When we are polite and genteel on the outside, while harboring bitterness and malice in our hearts, we deceive ourselves. 

‘Bless your heart!’

Subtle deceptions are often the most destructive – counterfeit faith – false piety – wrapping warped behaviors in flowery words – using holy language as a cloak for hatefulness!

We become those of whom the prophet spoke:

⁸ “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; ⁹  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Matthew 15:8–9

Lord help us. Guard our hearts against hypocrisy.  

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

When we are recovering from some hardship, illness, serback,or loss, for some of us our tendency is to isolate ourselves and try to battle it out on our own.

As noble as this seems, healing work and then the ability to get and remain well and free is often a communal work.  We need assistance and encouragement from others!

Remember the story of the man sick from palsy? He had four friends who carried him to Jesus.  Remember when Lazarus was resurrected from the grave?  Jesus told those who were outside the tomb to, ‘loose him and let him go!’

Don’t be afraid or ashamed to rely on those around you to help you when you are trying to get better!  God gives us one another to care for and sometimes even carry one another!  And when we get free we are able to free and offer our strength to others!

Remember when Jesus restored Peter?  Jesus told him to ‘strengthen the brethren.’

We will all need some help sometimes.  When we get free, one of the best ways we can demonstrate our gratitude is by assisting others! Get it?

³¹ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, ³² but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31–32

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

When someone is struggling with consequences for bad decisions they may have made, the last thing that they need is to be discouraged by our heavy-handed criticisms and judgments.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we avoid issues or fail to challenge one another when we are wrong.  But it does mean that we are compassionate even when we are confronting one another.  

Lord have mercy if our actions drive an already wounded soul away from

God instead of drawing them to God!

Humility realizes that it is only of the LORD’s mercy that we haven’t all been consumed.  We all come up short.  We all stumble.  We all have errors in our judgment.  We all mess up!  

So the next time you want to slam someone else for missing the mark, try to think of what you would need to hear if you were in their shoes – and say that!

After all – it could be you!

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  

Galatians 6:1–3

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam