Us versus Them. Which side are you? As children, we played Cowboys and Indians with the neighborhood kids. Everyone knew the enemy’s identity. Most of the good cowboys wore white hats, except Paladin from the Have Gun—Will Travel television series. As we got a little older, we read GI Joe comic books and fought battles with our enemies. Once again, everyone knew the identity of the enemy. A few years later, we were playing baseball or football against other teams. As we got older, rivalries became more pronounced. The enemy wore a different jersey, but he could be a friend when he took it off.
As our country entered undeclared wars, we knew people who shed blood while solving little. Most of the battles were against people who looked slightly dissimilar to us and spoke different languages. Of course, the issues causing the wars amounted to more than cosmetic differences and dialects. Back at home, good church kids ran around with kids just like themselves. We argued over whose church taught the Bible more accurately than other churches. We considered unchurched people with different labels. Our culture marinated our identities in an Us versus Them mentality.
Furthermore, not everyone in the United States grew up in the same neighborhood with the same Us versus Them. But the teachers in my little world taught us to love one another. How do you love someone when you know a little about them?
Endless Finger Pointing
Many Americans proudly sing “God Bless America.” With sincere hearts, we sing,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
God bless America, land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
However, we seemed to have forgotten Woody Guthrie’s
This land is your land, and this land is my land.
From California to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.
The spectacle of divisive politics and 24-hour news cycles driving an alienating narrative has exacerbated our nation’s discord and despair. Yet, the tributaries feeding our problems transport pain from many wounded and misunderstood hearts throughout our land. Little wonder we have seen our country develop into a people divided into groups of Us and Them. Whether race or gender issues, questions about the beginning or end of life, poverty, education, immigration, or religion, we differ. Yes, we have major structural problems to address physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. But generational issues rarely evaporate with quick fixes.
Learning the Language of Togetherness
When I was a boy, someone told me that to understand another person, I needed to walk a mile in his moccasins. When I became older, wisdom reminded me to take off my shoes before slipping my feet into someone else’s footwear. The more I face diversity, the more I recognize my shortcomings in understanding the depth of the feeling behind what I see and what another said. And I need to work through my emotions to decipher our conversation’s meaning. When another speaks, I hear the words with ears telling me what the words mean to me. But I do not always know not what the words mean to the speaker. The videos playing in my mind do not elicit the same responses streaming through the speaker’s mind. The stories informing our lives differ in unimaginable ways. Remember, our understanding begins where we stand.
A Way Beyond Us versus Them
Recently, I picked up Sarah Bauer Anderson’s book, The Space Between Us, How Jesus Teaches Us to Live Together When Politics and Religion Pull Us Apart. Though we do not share the same perspective on all the issues she raises, she challenges her readers to open their ears and hearts to meaningful conversations that can bridge the issues dividing us. We often reduce charged issues and complex individuals to single topics, nullifying significant points of commonality. And we bypass our contradictions, inconsistencies, and conflicts.
All people are not the same. Our uniqueness is good. On a personal note, I’m grateful my wife is not a mirror copy of me. Our differences add spice to our lives. As people in our land, let us make efforts to comprehend the differences in one another. None of us has complete knowledge on any subject. Let us learn together. And we will do well to make room for each other to interpret the thoughts and intents of one another. Increased understanding will assist us in avoiding false assumptions. The fresh air of familiarity will awaken new relationships. Hopefully, we can put away our need to win and sit down to break bread together as we find nourishment in each other’s offerings.
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Posted: December 16, 2020 by Harry Lucenay
Us versus Them: How to Bridge the Gap
Us versus Them. Which side are you? As children, we played Cowboys and Indians with the neighborhood kids. Everyone knew the enemy’s identity. Most of the good cowboys wore white hats, except Paladin from the Have Gun—Will Travel television series. As we got a little older, we read GI Joe comic books and fought battles with our enemies. Once again, everyone knew the identity of the enemy. A few years later, we were playing baseball or football against other teams. As we got older, rivalries became more pronounced. The enemy wore a different jersey, but he could be a friend when he took it off.
As our country entered undeclared wars, we knew people who shed blood while solving little. Most of the battles were against people who looked slightly dissimilar to us and spoke different languages. Of course, the issues causing the wars amounted to more than cosmetic differences and dialects. Back at home, good church kids ran around with kids just like themselves. We argued over whose church taught the Bible more accurately than other churches. We considered unchurched people with different labels. Our culture marinated our identities in an Us versus Them mentality.
Furthermore, not everyone in the United States grew up in the same neighborhood with the same Us versus Them. But the teachers in my little world taught us to love one another. How do you love someone when you know a little about them?
Endless Finger Pointing
Many Americans proudly sing “God Bless America.” With sincere hearts, we sing,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
God bless America, land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
However, we seemed to have forgotten Woody Guthrie’s
This land is your land, and this land is my land.
From California to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.
The spectacle of divisive politics and 24-hour news cycles driving an alienating narrative has exacerbated our nation’s discord and despair. Yet, the tributaries feeding our problems transport pain from many wounded and misunderstood hearts throughout our land. Little wonder we have seen our country develop into a people divided into groups of Us and Them. Whether race or gender issues, questions about the beginning or end of life, poverty, education, immigration, or religion, we differ. Yes, we have major structural problems to address physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. But generational issues rarely evaporate with quick fixes.
Learning the Language of Togetherness
When I was a boy, someone told me that to understand another person, I needed to walk a mile in his moccasins. When I became older, wisdom reminded me to take off my shoes before slipping my feet into someone else’s footwear. The more I face diversity, the more I recognize my shortcomings in understanding the depth of the feeling behind what I see and what another said. And I need to work through my emotions to decipher our conversation’s meaning. When another speaks, I hear the words with ears telling me what the words mean to me. But I do not always know not what the words mean to the speaker. The videos playing in my mind do not elicit the same responses streaming through the speaker’s mind. The stories informing our lives differ in unimaginable ways. Remember, our understanding begins where we stand.
A Way Beyond Us versus Them
Recently, I picked up Sarah Bauer Anderson’s book, The Space Between Us, How Jesus Teaches Us to Live Together When Politics and Religion Pull Us Apart. Though we do not share the same perspective on all the issues she raises, she challenges her readers to open their ears and hearts to meaningful conversations that can bridge the issues dividing us. We often reduce charged issues and complex individuals to single topics, nullifying significant points of commonality. And we bypass our contradictions, inconsistencies, and conflicts.
All people are not the same. Our uniqueness is good. On a personal note, I’m grateful my wife is not a mirror copy of me. Our differences add spice to our lives. As people in our land, let us make efforts to comprehend the differences in one another. None of us has complete knowledge on any subject. Let us learn together. And we will do well to make room for each other to interpret the thoughts and intents of one another. Increased understanding will assist us in avoiding false assumptions. The fresh air of familiarity will awaken new relationships. Hopefully, we can put away our need to win and sit down to break bread together as we find nourishment in each other’s offerings.
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Posted: December 4, 2020 by Harry Lucenay
Do You Have a Hard Time Letting Go?
Even nature knows letting go is hard to do. An autumn storm tore the top off a tree in my backyard. The leaves from living trees continued to drop in the weeks following the storm. Yet, the brown leaves of the fallen tree crown persist in hanging tight. Why is it so hard for this disconnected part of the tree to let go of the leaves?
I Need to Let God
My question birthed another question in my heart, “Why is it so hard to let go of some things?” You know what I mean. Sometimes we hold things so tightly that a rottweiler couldn’t pull them out of our hands. Other memories lurk in the shadows until the slightest ray of light brings them into the open, where they vie to control our thoughts. We know the things and people populating our history don’t have to dictate our destiny. But they resurface to release their stink once again.
I wondered why the leaves fell from living trees, but not from dead branches. In my simplified terms, the broken limb can’t choke off the veins that move water into the leaves and food into the tree. So, the dead leaves on the broken branches can’t let go.
Just as trees go through seasons of life, we do too. My closet reveals the remnants of many seasons with clothes that fit when I weighed more or less. One of my grandchildren recently pulled out the catcher’s mitt I used as a Little Leaguer in another century. The baseball glove holds a memory. The clothes betray hopes and fears. And I haven’t mentioned the books resting in boxes, longing for a shelf to call home. Admittedly, I have trouble letting go of things.
Letting Go Is Hard
Holding onto the familiar, painful though it may be, offers comfort venturing into the unknown cannot provide. However, the pictures living in our minds contain distortions, giving words and actions disproportionate meaning. Memory monkeys play unhealthy games with our subjective minds as we add and subtract to our painful versions of the unforgivable. In the process of forgiveness, we forgive others and ourselves. Sometimes we need either to release or redeem a situation. Still, as we identify what or who needs forgiveness, we cannot take the next step until we let go of what is bothering us.
Healing invites us to describe what happened and recognize the meaning it holds. Not everything weighs the same to everyone. Values differ. Without diminishing reality, we want to unmask former troubles that continue to disturb us. We don’t want to make more of what hurt us than it was. Neither do we want to make less of that which seeks to hold power to label us. We call it what it is, but as Christians, our identity is in Christ. What scars us doesn’t define us. But faith does.
We Have Choices to Make
Carl Jung said, “I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become.” No one lives a perfect life. All of us have scars from people and situations we have encountered. We can rise above our woundedness or allow our suffering to determine our lives. If we allow resentment to grow in us, the bitterness binds us to that person or situation with painful emotional links. We must make the choice about what we are going to allow to take up residence in our minds.
Then, we decline to allow our pain to confine us. Gandhi once said, ‘I refuse to let anyone walk through my mind with dirty feet.’ But how do we escape those dirty footprints?
Simon Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” We can give our troubling people and situations to Jesus Christ in prayer. Whether verbal or written, these prayers are significant. Whichever approach we use, our words become a transaction in which we are giving our struggles to the one who has borne our pain. Simon Peter’s next words were, “Be self-controlled…” We can choose the focus of our thoughts.
Please note, if we have had a problem letting go, the situation may come to mind again. If it does, we can acknowledge its presence, and once more, let it go. I’ve found that reminding myself I’ve already given this person or situation to Jesus frees me from the temptation to steal it back from him.
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Posted: November 24, 2020 by Harry Lucenay
Are You Ready to Bring Joy to God’s Heart?
How can someone like me bring joy to God’s heart? The thought sends my mind spinning. Parents have placed their newborns in my hands for a prayer of dedication. In this prayer, we joyfully raise the child created in God’s image to the Creator. At the other end of our earthly journey, Jude tells us we will stand before the Almighty and see his joy.
The voices of revival preachers in my childhood make me think of judgment. However, Jude speaks of joy. What am I missing?
God Majors on the Impossible
The young often try to imagine something God cannot do. For instance, can he create a rock so big he cannot lift it? Or can he make one-ended sticks or square circles? C. S. Lewis reminds us, “nonsense is still nonsense, even when we speak it about God.”
When we speak of God’s omnipotence, we recognize his character creates limitations. God cannot lie. Nor can he make himself imperfect or fail. Thus, Jude speaks, “To him, who is able…”
Paul’s letter to the Romans reminds us God can strengthen his followers according to the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25). And in his letter to the Ephesians, he awakens us to the reality that God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). So, Jude places his confidence in the unlimited power of God.
God Addresses Your Missteps
Carefully note the personal impact of Jude’s words. “To him, who is able to keep you from stumbling.” I’ve spent many years close to someone who’s balance is not good. When we walk together, my eyes search for anything that might cause her to fall. My arm reaches out to give her something to help brace herself. God wants to steady us, to protect us from tripping.
A weak ankle sometimes causes me to stumble. Yet, God’s Word reminds me:
We read these promises even as we recognize our weaknesses. What does God expect of us? We know the reference to stumbling in this passage refers to tumbling over temptation. A look deep within reveals the obstructions blocking the paths of righteousness. Thus, the concept of presenting one to God “without fault” stirs the same illogical ideas that we conjure up in our minds. Can God walk on water at the same time he cannot walk on water? Aquinas said he could not. Can God take a sinner like me and present him without fault, without telling a lie? Simon Peter said he could.
You Will Bring Joy to God’s Heart
Not only will God scrub our scarlet stains until we are white like snow, but he will also forgive our sins and put them out of his memory. Therefore, we cannot fixate on our flaws but on the liberating truth of Jesus’ forgiveness. As we turn away from our rebellion against God and submit to Jesus the way of Jesus, he makes us pure. Therefore, he can bring us into “his glorious presence… with great joy.”
Have you ever been so excited about giving someone something that you could hardly wait to see them open the present? Do you know the joy of being able to give someone a gift you know will bring joy to their hearts? At the heart of Jude’s words is the idea that one day you will stand before the living God and see his great joy. Yes, it is possible that as you stand before God Almighty, his heart will leap for joy.
Scriptures used are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
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Posted: November 17, 2020 by Harry Lucenay
How to Recognize a Coliseum Christian
Are you a coliseum Christian? I never thought I was. My theology makes sense. But sometimes I’m a cup of sugar short on love. As a result, I run with friends who define the love of God in the same ways I do. How about you?
Where Can You Find a Coliseum Christian?
Scott Sauls introduced me to the concept of “coliseum culture,” in which everyone rallies around a common enemy. Coliseum Christians proclaim judgment on people they see as “unrighteous.” Maybe you have heard people condemn “sinners” who committed adultery, lied, stole, and hurt people. Perhaps you’ve encountered little gossip groups huddled under the guise of praying for wrongdoers. I grew up in a world that condemned drunkenness but never mentioned gluttony.
A person doesn’t have to be wrong to incur the judgment of the holier-than-thou. She can come to Sunday morning worship wearing something that looked like she just threw it on and missed. Perhaps she smells different from you. Then, the man sitting close to the front takes a phone call during the music or sermon. She may ask members for financial help. The list need not be exhaustive. Those who know the right way to do things get upset by those who don’t know any better. And the coliseum culture quickly shouts, “Somebody needs to do something about that.”
Coliseum culture is alive and thriving in our country. Citizens from sea to shining sea ask God to shed his grace on this land. But the same voices struggle to request God’s hand in mending their flaws. Unrestrained people in coliseum bleachers demand self-control in the arena without making the slightest effort to practice what they expect from others. What’s wrong with this country appears to be those who aren’t like “us.” Such comments are especially true if our definition of “us” stands against the deeply held beliefs “they” have. We overlook the effect our personal history has on our biases.
How Do Our Differences Contribute to Cultural Problems?
In our complex world, we face many sociological, philosophical, religious, moral, and spiritual differences. We view life and issues from various perspectives. We believe we are right and want to convince those who don’t think we are to see things our way. They have their minds set. Add a prejudiced attitude to any issue, and words pick up steam. When we raise our voices as we talk, we only hear ourselves. If we don’t like someone else’s tune, we shut them out. Agreement escapes us. So does understanding. If we want to work together for better days, we must close the space between us. Learning to communicate requires listening and talking so we can get to know one another. Still, we may not see things the same way.
Can the Love of God Define Our Relationships?
Jesus once reminded his listeners of the need to love your neighbor as you love yourself. This kind of love is an act of will. We must climb out of the coliseum stands, get in the arena, and try to understand one another. Then we can work toward the well-being of one another. This truth confronts us in our neighborhoods, churches, and society.
E. Randolph Richards relates a powerful story of commitment to close the space between differences.
Are there places in your life where you see yourself as a coliseum Christian? Do you stand in the coliseum and cast judgment on those in the arena? What steps can you take to close the space between yourself and those disturbing you?
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Posted: November 6, 2020 by Harry Lucenay
Do You Need the Sounds of Silence?
Where can a fella experience the sounds of silence in this noisy world? Inside our living spaces, a cacophony of voices screams in our ears. Outside we encounter noisy traffic chasing away the sounds of nature. Even earbuds cannot bring tranquility. Yet silence promises to settle our hearts.
Confronted by Noise
When I stepped into the pit in NASCAR’s 24-Hour Daytona Race, the roar of racecar engines overwhelmed me. Once the race started, no one dared enter the pit without ear protection. However, most noise levels we experience, though distracting, fall below the level of that event.
Henri Nouwen, a Christian writer, wrote to remind us:
In recent months, the news has bombarded us with stories of the pandemic, protests, and politics. What was routine in our daily lives has succumbed to the unpredictable. Negotiating our way through the familiar stretches our nerves with anxiety about the unknown. More than ever, we need the therapy of the sounds of silence.
The Guinness Book of Records tells us the quietest place on earth is in Redmond, Washington. There, Microsoft’s anechoic chamber has a background noise reading of -10 decibels. I suspect my tinnitus would prevent me from recognizing the silence even inside the lab.
Search for the Sounds of Silence
The search for silence invites us to venture to the Middle East. Three of the world’s great religions began there. Israel discovered God in Sinai, Mohammed, in Arabia, and both Jesus and Paul spent inspirational time in the wilderness. However, with modernization, the sounds of tourists and travel would chase away the windswept quiet. Perhaps an adventure into the Saudi Arabian desert city of Madain Saleh would expose us to the overwhelming quietness of a rarely traveled locale. But who could make such a trip?
On the other hand, maybe we can locate a park, countryside, lake, or hiking trail. There, with the wind in our face, and hopefully, birds in the air and a minimum of insects, we can enjoy wind rustling leaves or clouds racing to their destination. In the muted tranquility of nature, perhaps the still small voice of God can whisper his peace into our souls.
Find God in the Quiet Places
Augustine discovered God was,
Before Augustine could write, he had to learn the practice of silence to engage the heart of God. Yet, God was with him all along.
Within the four walls of my home, I need to shut off the noisemakers to reduce the decibels confronting me. And I need not turn on the television or engage devices to settle my soul. I see nature from my window or I can take a walk in the nearby woods. Sometimes just sitting in the silence of the outside world speaks a language without words to my soul.
Make Room for the Sounds of Silence
When the calendar flips to November, a holiday spirit stirs within us. Then to-do lists require our attention, and demands come at us from many directions. And, if we are not careful, we can let the season slip through our fingers without making time to allow our souls to connect with God. As the sounds of the season fill the airwaves, make time for the sounds of silence to whisper peace in your soul.