[The act (art?) of writing is extremely difficult for me. It’s not even the writing itself that is the problem; my challenge is actually sitting down to do it. I had great intentions to get this blog moving at a good rate, but this is my first activity in way too long. I could blame it on the fact that I had to move my family back to Los Angeles from Portland, return to my old job, and try to figure out how to do all that with a 7-month-old, but I’ll just leave my excuses in the past, where they belong. I had intended to “re-start” my blog (again!), but who cares. If I have to explain myself for long breaks in between writing, I’ll never write anything. So, for the two or three of you who will read this, let’s just move forward, shall we?]
Harmony has never been one of my defining characteristics. By “harmony,” I mean the overwhelming motivation to create harmony and peace among people. By nature, I operate out of passion and gravitate toward the extremes. In my love of football, I strongly support the Texas Tech Red Raiders, and I have a sickening feeling of angst toward the Texas Longhorns. As my dad has always said, I’m a fan of Texas Tech and anyone who plays the University of Texas. Texas Tech had an average season last year and lost to the Longhorns, but it was a great success because UT had a horrible year overall. In certain areas of my life, I am not okay with sharing success among opposing sides.
But the development of maturity within each person requires growth in the attitude of harmony. As everyone knows from observation and experience, kids love to fight over ownership of territory and possessions. Playground bullies pride themselves on proving dominance over others, and we learn (or are supposed to learn) how bullies are wrong. As we mature, we are taught to share our toys, be kind to others, refrain from violence, and so on. And even though we are supposed to continue to mature for our entire lives, at a certain point (let’s call this point “adulthood”) we are expected to reach a respectable level of social maturity.
I’m beginning to believe that we lie to our children. All our efforts to teach them how to share and get along with one another are acts of hypocrisy. When I look at the society around me and listen to U.S. leaders in government and business, I see adult-sized children fighting over toys in a sandbox. I see school-aged bullies behind microphones and “news” articles claiming dominance over the weakest in society. I will try with all my might to teach my son how to grow in harmony, but as soon as he learns to watch TV he will think I’m full of s***.
Or maybe he will think the people on TV are the liars. That’s my hope.
So many Jesus-following Americans have forgotten that Jesus has told us, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Our country will not continue to function effectively as long as we pride ourselves in the failures of the opposing side. There is a time to stand up against “evil” and a time to listen to, accept, and compromise with those with whom we disagree. May God help us figure out the difference between the two because I fear we’re getting it all wrong.
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