Living in Harmony
My house has kind of become home to a lot of bugs. I’m not quite sure how, because I don’t exactly leave my door open for them, but bugs constantly find their way into my house- daddy long legs, spiders, wasps, flies. Today I came across a spider that was the size of my fist- for real, and it had white stripes on it… kinda freaky.
It’s crazy how quickly I’ve been able to live at peace with those of God’s creatures that I hate the most. Don’t get me wrong, when given a chance, I will get them out of my house and there are certain ones that I will kill- but I don’t freak out about it or anything. Me and the bugs, we’ve reached a place of peace and harmony.
One thing I’ve been learning in a very real way over the past few months is what it means to truly strive to live in harmony. Theologically, I’ve done a lot of head work with this stuff in the past. You know, going down the road of creation and the fall, the disharmony it brought- disharmony between humanity and God, disharmony between humanity and creation, and disharmony within humanity. I truly believe that one of the main purposes of Christ is to bring us back into that world of harmony- that perfect creation where we live within the trinitarian community, a beautiful indwelling of persons who are all living for, with, and in each other. I believe it is our purpose as the body of Christ to work to bring about this Kingdom of harmony and have therefore become an advocate for striving for that harmony in everything we do.
I’ve never truly experienced what a huge challenge that is until I moved my life to Mission, SD. In this world I’m constantly encountering and interacting with those I greatly disagree with and I’ve tried my darndest to enter into communion with them. And I’ve tried to do this without my little subculture of folks who think like me and let me whine a bit and keep me from pulling off my arm and throwing it at people because I’m so theologically frustrated. It’s been a difficult journey but I’m finally reaching a strong place of peace about things- peace I know only comes from God because with my passionate spirit, I know I’m incapable of this sense of rest.
I’ve got a story- today in church, I learned yet again that God is a raging republican, that the only issues that matter in this election are outlawing abortion and saving our families from the horror of gay marriage. I learned that Islam is spreading in the U.S. and that its a dangerous thing because, well, they are bound to attack us Christians because of the freedoms we believe in. I also learned that preachers can’t tell us who to vote for because heathenistic feds will come throw them in prison. Oh, South Dakota.
Now normally something like this would make me want to walk out in a huff. It would create massive amounts of passionate unrest in my spirit. And I do have to admit that I was a little ticked. But, I stayed. And I prayed with these people after the service and I stood with them seeking God. I saw them as God’s creation; I saw them as my brothers and sisters.
I’ve felt like cutting and running so many times before but I know that I can’t. I’ve always been relatively critical of the Christians in Mission- the lack of cooperation and support, the lack of humility, the lack of impact because individuals cannot seem to get over themselves and work together. The moment I cut and run I become a part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution.
In the past, I was afraid that in order to live in harmony, I would have to sacrifice my ideals, my beliefs, and all that God has taught me. I’m learning that that isn’t true. Humility is not giving all that up. Living in harmony is not about conforming to the norm. Living in harmony is about love and indiscriminately approaching all of humanity with love, recognizing that no matter how ridiculous we find each other at times, we do in fact belong to each other.
When we do that, we will have peace.
