every one who is angry.
every one who is disappointed.
everyone who is worried.
everyone who is scared.
every one with a heart that feels heavy with anxiety about the years to come.
every cynic who is waiting for the failure of our next president.
every jaded non-voter who was more plagued by disappointment than apathy.
every religious radical that has put their words in the mouth of god.
every bigot that will revel in this opportunity to hate and exploit the hidden hate of others.
every citizen whose hidden hate is bubbling up in their consciousness under the guise of rationality.
every would-be assassin that is plotting the worst.
every would-be prophet who is secretly cheering them on.
every disheartened man and woman who doesn't know how to hope for much of anything anymore.
every hopeful man and woman who will certainly have their hopes challenged by the very things that promised them hope in the first place.
this is a scattered list and i make no claims at poetic poignancy. i know my list reeks of negativity but it comes out of a heart burdened by hope. make no mistake, i am inspired by the possibility of the things to come, i am excited about who we elected as president, and yet i can't help but feel the weight [albeit preemptively] of the inevitable challenge ahead. this election has both illustrated how much our country has healed and exposed the long untreated wounds that still infect our people. though i have felt a great deal of indignant disgust for the ugliness that has been center stage during much of this election, in a weird way i'm thankful for it all the same because at the very least, it is being exposed for what it is. it has exposed the ugliness in our nation and the ugliness in myself and though both are painful to contend with, they must be addressed. my prayer and hope is that those old wounds would be treated at last. that before we start pointing out the splinters in the eyes of even the most splintery-eyed wack-jobs, we would first address the planks in our own. that we would treat every radical, every pharasical nutzo, every racist, every bigot with more love then they or we deserve. that we would not depend upon government to legislate our morality but rather be governed by a morality that is more rigid than any law. and that we would love first and foremost whether or not we got the opportunity to do anything more or less than just that.
i know what i'm saying is laced with a certain amount of cliche but i think that sometimes cliche endures simply because of the truth embedded within. so excuse me when i say that the next president is not the hope of our nation.
you are.
i am.
we are.
and most of all [and most cliche of all]
Jesus is.
on Christ the solid rock I stand - all other ground is sinking sand.
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3 comments:
Well said. I almost can't believe this is finally over. I've spent so much time recently facing an absurd discrimination from my friends, family and coworkers for my choice for President--that I feel marked and changed by the race itself, and am not sure what happens now.
Naively I think I believed that my choice was rational and circumspect and that it would be understood and accepted on those terms. But over the past few months, I've seen my family and friends act out in bigotry, pride and pharisaism. It's a picture that I won't soon be able to shake, even now that the election has been decided.
So I'll have to change. I woke up on the other side of a great divide and I'll have to learn to deal with things I cannot change in myself and in others--because there is not always a compromise between the two.
this is lovely Jessica. . . it's incredibly refreshing to hear your heart.
I wish anyone tempted to speak hate-filled words of bigotry would be graced by your blog.
Amen to that! Jesus is the Rock and we all need to pray.
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