Where I live

This morning where I live it's wonderfully cool. There's a bit of a breeze moving limbs that were close to the ground with heavy winds and blowing rain just two days ago.

But in Baltimore today smoke billows from buildings that have been burned to the ground because a man was killed in police custody in suspicious circumstances, at best.

This morning where I live the sun is playing tag with clouds as the morning traffic flows toward work.

But outside the Supreme Court they're taking down signs amid discussions about what the future of marriage will be in this country, for better or worse or all the things in between.

This morning where I live the day is beginning as if there won't be another one as wonderful as this.

But this country is splitting, my denomination is warring and we're wondering what on earth might come next.

This morning where I live there have been no lives discovered buried amidst rubble but in Nepal, my God what a morning.

I was reminded yesterday of how easy this very difficult world is. We make it so very hard with our infighting and our differences. Skin color continues to be a fighting point. Gender questions are never going to go away till we are settled and we don't seem to be near a settling point, if we ever will be.

What a friend reminded me of was how easy Jesus decided all these difficult questions. He said this: Love your God with all your soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

Oh, my.

How we've forgotten that, if we ever got it. We've made this all about beliefs, doctrine, personal issues. We've made all this about rules, about change, about who controls change. We've made all this, all of life, about who is in charge.

It never was.

It never will be.

Because the issue was settled at the beginning, well, before the beginning. In the beginning was God. In the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That issue, one of control, was decided before it was an issue.

That being the case (and you can argue till the cows come home -- and do cows actually come home? -- but the case is the case), where do we go?

We love him with all our soul, mind and strength... and we love you, and you, and you the same. We love the LGBT person as our self. We love the black person or the white person or the Hispanic or Latino or Asian person as our self. We love the atheist as our self. We love the racist as our self. We love the Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Orthodox Greek, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Methodist or the Church of the Great Happening Now member as OUR SELF. We love the druggie, the alcoholic, the old person, the young person, the Democrat or Republican as our self.

You see how this is supposed to work?
Then tell me if you see it happening that way?

Thought not.

This morning where I live I've been privileged all my life to have a job, to have reasonably healthy kids and grand kids and even spouse and myself. But in realizing that there are those who have not had those things, and that there are people living in the country, state, city, block I live on who do not have those very things this very minute should make me and you realize we have a moral obligation to care about those persons as we do our own selves.

Love him. Love them.

That would put the fires out in Baltimore, the arguments out in Washington, and it would help rescue the perishing in Nepal.

Seems like that's been the mission much longer than we've let on as Christians, heck as humans.

It's never too late to start, though. Is it?