Valuing people.
I think that's very important. Each of us have our quirks, our idiosyncrosies, our faults.
"...gotta couple dents in my fender...gotta couple rips in my jeans...tryin' to fit the pieces together, but perfection is my enemy...on my own I'm so clumsy...but on Your shoulders I can see...I'm free to be me...and you're free to be you."
Very comforting to know Someone has great plans for us no matter who we are...
Showing posts with label acceptance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acceptance. Show all posts
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Hope for the New Year
Last year I "resolved" to have wishes instead of creating ambiguous resolutions that last for a day. This year, I still refuse to create a resolution I probably won't keep. But I will go one step beyond wishes. As we enter a new year, I have new hope.
Everything around me seems to be leaning toward coming together--listening to each other...learning from each other...accepting each other for who they are...and challenging each other to move beyond.
On January 20, we will have a president who has lived in different countries and whose skin color has caused him to experience life in the United States differently than any president who has gone before him. His presence has brought out hatred and evil from some. His assumed political views have created excitement and frustration from both sides. His religious associations have caused people to question him from the "right" and the "left." ...but his unifying talk and consequential actions are demonstrating a much longer term vision for bringing people together.
I find it interesting that the state of our nation is also causing people to become interested in other cultures and countries besides "America." Several friends (including myself) have expressed a desire to know more about the people and the culture of the areas where our friends and family are engaged in a war and are, thus, reading more and paying a little more attention to international news. There seems to be a desire to understand more about the middle eastern cultures and are finding out what life is like for other people in other countries and of religions other than Christian. It seems we are beginning to notice that our Iraqi, Muslim, Indian, Pakistani, Shia, Sunni neighbors exist here in the United States.
The other day I watched a documentary called Beyond our Differences.
As I listened to people of various religions, cultures, and ethnicities speak, I was inspired yet again with a sense of hope for our new year. In the documentary, Desmond Tutu quoted the Prayer of Saint Francis:
Oh Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
I remember singing a song like this in college...however, I remember that when I sang it, I thought about it as an action, something I could do for others, and not an application to my own life. In my religious upbringing, I was taught that I could take peace to someone else--the destitute people in Africa...the poor people in the inner city...the down and out in disaster areas. In my mind, it was "them" who needed me to teach them more about peace. I knew I was qualified because I didn't fight or intentionally harm people. I didn't think the song applied to me personally. It never occurred to me that there were ways I could change my own life to better embody that peace.
I never thought the true spiritual role and responsibility to carry peace within would be to make myself conscious of words that could be racially offensive, to educate myself about laws that disproportionately hurt people who are poor, to listen to people's stories of injustice, and to work with people to change that injustice.
This year I have hope that many more people will join on the path of seeing, understanding, and appreciating differences...and then going beyond them. I look forward to that in 2009.
Everything around me seems to be leaning toward coming together--listening to each other...learning from each other...accepting each other for who they are...and challenging each other to move beyond.
On January 20, we will have a president who has lived in different countries and whose skin color has caused him to experience life in the United States differently than any president who has gone before him. His presence has brought out hatred and evil from some. His assumed political views have created excitement and frustration from both sides. His religious associations have caused people to question him from the "right" and the "left." ...but his unifying talk and consequential actions are demonstrating a much longer term vision for bringing people together.
I find it interesting that the state of our nation is also causing people to become interested in other cultures and countries besides "America." Several friends (including myself) have expressed a desire to know more about the people and the culture of the areas where our friends and family are engaged in a war and are, thus, reading more and paying a little more attention to international news. There seems to be a desire to understand more about the middle eastern cultures and are finding out what life is like for other people in other countries and of religions other than Christian. It seems we are beginning to notice that our Iraqi, Muslim, Indian, Pakistani, Shia, Sunni neighbors exist here in the United States.
The other day I watched a documentary called Beyond our Differences.
As I listened to people of various religions, cultures, and ethnicities speak, I was inspired yet again with a sense of hope for our new year. In the documentary, Desmond Tutu quoted the Prayer of Saint Francis:
Oh Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
I remember singing a song like this in college...however, I remember that when I sang it, I thought about it as an action, something I could do for others, and not an application to my own life. In my religious upbringing, I was taught that I could take peace to someone else--the destitute people in Africa...the poor people in the inner city...the down and out in disaster areas. In my mind, it was "them" who needed me to teach them more about peace. I knew I was qualified because I didn't fight or intentionally harm people. I didn't think the song applied to me personally. It never occurred to me that there were ways I could change my own life to better embody that peace.
I never thought the true spiritual role and responsibility to carry peace within would be to make myself conscious of words that could be racially offensive, to educate myself about laws that disproportionately hurt people who are poor, to listen to people's stories of injustice, and to work with people to change that injustice.
This year I have hope that many more people will join on the path of seeing, understanding, and appreciating differences...and then going beyond them. I look forward to that in 2009.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Daverse lounge
Lighted only by glass globes suspended from the ceiling and Chinese paper lamps scattered throughout the room, Daverse Lounge feels as if you are walking into a type of club. There is a low buzz of talking as people stand in line for free Starbucks drinks and then search for a seat.
The environment absolutely amazes and enthralls me--not because of the club-like atmosphere and the free coffee (though free Starbucks is always exciting!). Not because it is primarily for teenagers (though there are a few adults scattered around who go so they can take in the event as well).
Daverse Lounge amazes me because it is the only place I've ever experienced where people can come together and just be. At Daverse Lounge, the environment is set up so that all judgment is suspended. Teenagers come from Highland Park High School to South Oak Cliff and everywhere in between. They come to present their deepest thoughts and emotion in the form of poetry.
Teenagers listen to each other with rapt attention as one speaks of inner struggles and fears as she tries to understand her own sexual preferences. Another has formed a poetic response to girls at school who have told her to lose weight. Still another grapples with her dual identity of being Hispanic and African-American. A 11-year old boy stands up and waxes eloquent for a good 3-4 minutes about the state of our country, the political game we play, and how war is affecting us. Two young men have created a tag team effort to describe their "difficult" life of being "pretty boys" that girls don't take seriously. Yet another young man stands up and speaks of his virginity and his intent to stay pure.
I commend Will Ritchey for bringing it together and creating such an amazing environment where everyone is accepted, applauded, and patted on the back.
It is socially conscious. It is spiritually energizing. It is...
Real.
Honest.
Safe.
Accepting.
Wouldn't it be nice if church had those characteristics??
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