"Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."

I can remember hearing this quote in church one sunday and I have never been able to forget about it. Martin Luther King was on to something. He understood what love is really all about.
A key part of this understanding is the realization that love is not always a mutually beneficial relationship. In fact, it is not mutually beneficial most of the time. Many people pursue only requited love, but this, I would argue, is not actually love at all so much as it is vanity. When a person only loves those who will love them back, then the 'love them back' part not only becomes the most important part of the equation, it becomes the entire equation itself. This is why we live in a world where both friendships and marriages are cast aside like dirty clothes. Because we get tired of people, because we are impatient, because someone suddenly ceases to meet our needs, because we don't realize when we make a commitment to love someone or to be someone's friend that it will take work, endurance, and even suffering.
So this begs the question: "How, in a world where love and relationships are taken so lightly, can we expect anyone to not only show love and compassion to those who don't return our sentiments, but to show love and compassion to those who flat out hate us?"
It is very hard to learn to naturally love people. This is what I call "first-impulse love" (a pretty self-explanatory term). This requires you to set aside all of your predispositions and preconceived notions in favor of love. It is hard not to be judgmental and irritable. It can be hard to sit for any length of time in either of Wichita's 'first-rate' shopping malls and not be judgmental. It can also be hard to take 435 out of Kansas City during rush hour traffic and not feel impatient and irritable with others. But this is the battle that we each must fight everyday. The scope of this fight is smaller than that of Martin Luther King's fight. The details, the choices, and the results are smaller and less noticeable, but the implications are the same. As a culture and a species we have to learn to love (all) others. This entails more than simply making better decisions. Our lives must cease to be our own and must be lived for others ("Only a life lived for others is a life worth while"-Albert Einstein). But we cannot look to social movements promoting peace and understanding, we cannot look to political movements promising hope and change, we can only look to ourselves and the daily re-committal to living this life. Remind yourself every day to choose love. If you do, you will suffer for it, your heart will break because of it, but love will outweigh both.

An old post, then 'Lock and Load'

"I am so out of tune, with you"  I'm very fond of these lyrics because they describe my existential disposition. So often I am forced to choose between complete isolation and inane social interaction through de-humanizing social mediums (i.e. Facebook) While I'm on the subject. I hate Facebook. It's worthless. For me, it has no redeeming value, intellectually, or relationally, and yet, I cannot seem to garner enough courage to shut my facebook off. And thus, I hate it that much more. Back to my lifestyle dilemma, I often gladly choose complete emotional isolation because lets face it, it is far easier to really be and feel alone, then to have "friends" around you or just a mouse click away and still feel alone. But, here I am, pouring my heart onto a blog that no one will read, that I will keep secret, just for myself. So how is this any different? I don't know.  That was a snippet from an earlier blog that I have since abandoned. I feel that it is still applicable. I should be studying, but I won't concentrate until I write a little. So, let's just get straight to the big issues. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about this whole "followers of Christ" vs. "Christians" debate that I (surely I am not the only one) have been over-exposed to. Both sides have their charges filed, ready at a moments notice to deride the other as "incomplete" (a term that I will substitute for all of the other labels and names). I know Christians who say that the followers of Jesus are too experientially focused, and followers of Jesus who claim that the Christians are too pharisaical or legalistic and you know something? I wish they'd both give it a rest. I claim the mantle of "follower of Jesus" because, well, let's face it, I hate religion. I hate that we have a religious culture that now that is so wrapped up in being a part of an institutionalized system of beliefs which have led us to a point where it is more important that you go to the "right" church, listen to the "right" music, have the "right" friends, vote for the "right" issues, and on and on and on. In fact, picking apart the beliefs of judgmental, hypocritical, bigoted, over-zealous Christians is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Now, the important part. As a follower of Jesus, I am called to love people. This means I gotta love everyone. Not just those who love God. I gotta love the Atheists, the Agnostics, Muslims, Flying Spaghetti Monster-ists, Jews, Satanists, Pagans, Hindus, Buddhists, Heaven's Gate-ists...oh, wait..., Mormons, Scientologists, Pro-Americans, Anti-Americans, Hetero-Homo-A-Bi-Sexuals, crusaders, jihadists, etc., etc., etc. Most followers of Christ will agree with what I have just said. But the thing that most followers of Christ forget, and it is a kicker, is that we have to love the judgmental, hypocritical, bigoted, over-zealous Christians just like we do the rest of 'em. This means I have to love Fred Phelps, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell...oh, wait..., and the scary lady from that creepy Jesus Camp movie. In conclusion, hypocrisy, judgmental-ism, bigotry, and in-your-face-zealotry are all really annoying, especially in a pseudo-religious context. Calling out those type of Christians really is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, but for the love of God (literally, if you like), leave the fish alone. Because after all, life in the barrel that is "religion" can't be too pleasant, and our bullets are only going to keep them swimming in circles. Song of the post (a brand new, and soon to be, regular feature): "Foregone Conclusions" - Pedro the Lion