Sunday, July 28, 2013

A Tale of Two Communities

In 2006, a man named Charles killed five elementary students and then himself in an Amish community in Nickel Mines, PA. Five little lives were taken in their classroom while their teacher and the other children watched in nightmarish horror. A close-knit community was rocked forever by an outsider who unleashed all his fury of reasonless evil upon it, and the grief-stricken parents were left to bury their little ones in the Pennsylvania soil.

Then something happened. They Nickel Mines community forgave.
Charles Roberts wasn't Amish, but Amish families knew him as the milk truck driver who made deliveries. Last month, it was announced that the Amish community had donated money to the killer's widow and her three young children. (emphasis added)
"I think the most powerful demonstration of the depth of Amish forgiveness was when members of the Amish community went to the killer's burial service at the cemetery. Several families, Amish families who had buried their own daughters just the day before were in attendance and they hugged the widow, and hugged other members of the killer's family," said Donald Kraybill, a sociologist at nearby Elizabethtown College and co-author of Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. (emphasis added)
In 2012, a man named George shot and killed a 17 year-old named Trayvon, as the younger man punched him about the head after the two got into a fight in a neighborhood. One young life was taken in an awful confrontation, while the other, after a lengthy legal process, went free.

Then something happened. The Trayvon community didn't forgive. In fact, members of the Trayvon community organized protest rallies, threatened George with further legal action, and even threatened to kill George, George's parents, other people named George, and other people with similar phone numbers as George.

These stories are both true. But they are vastly different because of one thing: forgiveness.

The Nickel Mines community knew that even if it retaliated against the killer (if he hadn't killed himself), the killer's family or people like him, it wouldn't bring justice to the loss of their children. They knew that true justice in these times comes in eternity and nowhere else. And in the face of unspeakable evil they were convinced of this truth:
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)
They did, and their actions testify to their love.

The Trayvon community says it wants justice, but it doesn't. It wants vengeance and more. It wants retaliation on a larger scale. With its current mindset, this community will not receive justice it says it wants; nor will it overcome evil, because it has already been overcome itself.

The question is, will the leaders of this community realize their mistake? Will they at some point see the fruits of their labor (not equality, but hatred) and actually forgive George? I don't know. True forgiveness is not something people make themselves do; it is a fruit of a heart that has known forgiveness itself. We cannot bring true peace to others without first having peace from God, and that is where we all must start.

- - -

This is by no means either an exhaustive history of either case, or a final word on the current situation within America. Time will only tell what kinds of things will happen in the next few months. It is mainly meant to expose the stark difference in these two situations, and to point to the enormous healing that happens when people love and forgive others. Is this difficult to do? Of course.

I hate racial labels. (That's why I've labeled these two groups of people as "communities" and nothing else. The point remains without delving further.) I hate that people have made and allowed divisions based on skin color. All this needs to stop before anyone can move forward.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Leaders: Do You Love?

This morning as I did a few dishes I thought about the church here in America. I pondered, as I often do, how to eliminate bells and whistles and the endless push to do more during our Sunday mornings. I remembered a recent Sunday when the kids choir from children's church sang/led a couple of songs, and how powerful a testimony that was to me. Their teacher played an acoustic guitar and they sang; nothing flashy. One of their songs was actually an old hymn called "Ancient Words," and to hear such young kids singing it was compelling. The powerful thing in that moment was the love I could see the teacher had for her students, and how that was reflected back to her and to us. I'd reckon they would sing any song for her; because she loved them they would follow her anywhere.

Maybe you've seen the movie White Christmas. Do you remember the scene in which a bunch of the men that General Waverly led in the war gathered from around the region for a surprise banquet in his honor? Remember the look on the general's face when he walked in and saw them again, as they broke into this song:
We'll follow the old man wherever he wants to go
Long as he wants to go opposite to the foe
We'll stay with the old man wherever he wants to stay
Long as he stays away from the battle's fray 
Because we love him, we love him
Especially when he keeps us on the ball
And we'll tell the kiddies we answered duty's call
With the grandest son of a soldier of them all
While this was a tongue-in-cheek song, the movie showed the principle of love at the center of leadership, especially between brothers in arms. While I haven't experienced combat myself, I recently read several interviews of enlisted and commissioned military men in William Bennett's The Book of Man. Several times while talking about the men under their command, the officers talked about how much they loved their guys and how they would have done anything for them. With leaders like that, I'm sure the enlisted men would have gladly done anything for their superiors.

How does this connect to the church? Intimately. I believe if leaders miss this, they've missed it all, and shown they don't understand what they're called to do. And without love, what makes people think they really are leaders? These are questions for you and for me to answer:

Do you honestly care about the people you are leading?

Are you available to help them?

Do you discipline out of love? Do you care enough to do hard things?

Are you willing to do the things you ask of those you are leading?

Will you inconvenience yourself for the sake of others?

Is your love conditional or unconditional?
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. — Jesus (John 15:12-15)
Do you want people to follow your leadership? Love them.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Today's Reading

An excerpt from what I read this morning, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Psalm of Life":

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.