The Least of These...

"And I was just thinking.  We should drive down there and get one of them.  Give at least one of them a chance at life and at hope.  I mean we already have three kids, what's one more?"

No, I wasn't the one that said this, but part of my heart is so sad that it wasn't me, that this isn't what my mind thinks or what my heart runs to.  I tend to be a lot more selfish and righteously indignant than be moved by this heart of compassion and unselfish mercy.  Because I saw a problem, instead of a person.  I saw a political issue, not a heart issue.  And my facebook feed seems to agree because this statement was the first I heard that in any way offered the solution of love to the problem of hopelessness and, yes, even hate.

Yesterday was the 4th of July.  We, as a citizens and visitors, came together to celebrate the "birth" of America.  Words like "all men were created equal" and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were bantered around with pride and pomp.  Bands played, fireworks exploded, heroes were honored and the fallen were memorialized.  As a social studies education major, I have always loved the celebration of our country's story and the great men and women who shaped our country from the ground up.  I love stories about how so many predicted that our republic would never last or quickly form into a tyranny and how against the odds, the United States of America strove to stay exactly that - united as one country.  I marvel at how blessed I am to have been born into the country that consistently tops the lists of places people around the world want to immigrate to and call their own home.  I am grateful for the freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, press, and petition and I love that our celebrations seem to have always involved shared meals (if you don't believe me, check out our history).

It seems like we can all agree that we live in a really great country... on Independence Day.  But the rest of the time, it seems like all we can do is find something or someone to complain about.  Lately my facebook feed has been filled with stories of the immigration camps overflowing in Texas and filled with children by the hundreds who have been sent across the border by their parents and guardians in various Latin American countries.  The great immigration debate.  Should we kick them out or welcome them in?  There's got to be some kind of law about immigration right?  Some kind of limitation?  Maybe we can just say whoever is here gets to stay but then everyone else has to follow the laws?  We need more enforcement, better laws, stronger government, less government, open doors, higher walls, deeper rivers, angrier people, a new president, a new Congress, a new country?  Land of the free and home of the brave suddenly doesn't sound so blissful.  All men created equal sounds like a nice thing written on a old piece of paper that really doesn't have any relevance today.  Endowed by their Creator?  What Creator?  He really isn't all that welcome in this arena at this time.  Our archaic government just cannot handle the problems of today.  Why are we even celebrating it?

And it would be one thing if I could say that those who are "seeking first God's kingdom" and united in serving the Creator are conspicuously absent from the mud-slinging and insult-hurling.  It would bless me to no end if what I was reading on facebook was a call to a church to go "to the least of these" to wash the feet of these poor hopeless CHILDREN and to hug and hold these little ones who are too young to understand politics and immigration and only know back home there was no hope and here there is no love.  If I could see my Christian friends on either side of the argument calling for the church, the arms and legs of Christ on earth, to mobilize, to love, to serve despite political differences and frustrations with the government to just "be" the church.  I'm not saying you can't hold an opinion, because frankly that's what this country was founded on - the right to hold an opinion and persuade others to it - but if your opinion about our President, our government, our laws, and our political situation is all others think and hear and SEE of you, then we all need to question just who's kingdom we are seeking first.

When my friend said those words to me yesterday, I was convicted to the core.  For I have perhaps been the saddest of them all.  I have said nothing.  I have cried silent tears, tried to put it from my mind, said "It's not my problem.  I can't do anything anyway.  Those poor kids" and never once even considered that maybe I could do something and more importantly, maybe I should do something.  Because I can't imagine for a minute the God I serve knowing this is happening and sitting behind his computer typing a status about how terrible our government, those people, these laws are/is.  I see him going to the lepers, eating with the sinners, embracing the broken and giving hope to the hopeless.

And this applies to more than just this situation.  If you are against abortion, may I ask, what are you doing to help that single mom who just kept her baby and is completely alone?  If you are against welfare, are you willing to open your home and your wallet to keep those two souls well and nourished?  Where are our priorities?  Is is so important to us that the world "knows our views" that we have forgotten what they need to know is our God?  And that our God said they way they would know Him is by our love.  And that love is, as the old DC Talk song proclaimed, love is a verb.

I get that not all of us can go adopt a child or open our home to a single mom or fill in the blank with whatever came to your mind.  But that cannot be our excuse to do nothing.  We cannot teach our children that in the wonderful country where we are blessed with freedom and wealth that many will never know it is okay to use as an excuse "I couldn't do the big thing so I just did nothing."   If I could go through this life and you never knew my political persuasions or what party I supported but you knew I loved God and I loved people, wouldn't that be a much better legacy?  

In Jeremiah 29, the home of every graduation cards favorite verse (Jer. 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you, plans to give you a future and a hope) we find this instruction from God for the people of Israel who were living in a strange land as a conquered nation.  They were not particularly fond of the government, the ruler and the land they were.  But God did not tell them to rise up and change things.  He didn't say "Make sure they know exactly where you stand and what you think."  He didn't call for reform or fight against regulation.  He simply said, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”   And in that context he tells them that he has plans for them, for a future and a hope.

God has plans for us too.  As followers of Christ, we know that our future extends into eternity.  We have a hope that is an anchor to our souls.  So while we are here, should our energy be spent ridiculing our representatives and tearing down our government?  Or should our words, our actions, our lives be ones of increasing in number by extending the love of God and invitation to His family to everyone around us, especially to "the least of these."  I know some would say that by making these strong political statements or by taking a stand on divisive issues, they are seeking the peace of their city, but I have to share, when I see the message couched in an insult of our leaders or by disparaging the other political party, I can't see peace being pursued.  It's much easier to look to others and say, "It's their fault.  Look what they've done" than to look at ourselves and say, "What have I done?"  And if you've done, good for you, keep at it and if you have not, perhaps we must ask why?

I'm guessing this won't be one of my more popular blogs.  I'm guessing that it is much easier for us to post a facebook status that says, "They are so wrong.  I am so right" than it is for us to examine our hearts and lives and say, "I am so wrong.  He is so right."  It is a lot less messy to deal with the drama on facebook when we post a political statement than it is to look into the eyes of a broken person and hold their imperfect hands and welcome their empty hearts into our lives and our homes and our country.  I know because I'm living it right now and asking God, "Where are my 'least of these'?  What do you want of me?  How can I be your hands and feet?"  And it starts with this post, this reminder, that we are called to so very much more than a political party and a righteous stand.  We are called to love.  We are called to "the least of these."