October 6, 2018
Dear Diary, My heart breaks for women who have been emotionally, verbally, or sexually abused, who carry painful scars and deep wounds. My heart breaks for those who have kept silent, for they have been too afraid or too ashamed or too intimidated to speak up. My heart breaks for those who have spoken up, but whose cries have been ignored. I pray for them and I pray for their families, who have been forever marked by the horror of it all. So much pain. It’s not fair. My heart breaks for unborn babies who are aborted before they see the light of day. So much beauty, so much potential, destroyed. They should have had a chance to see the morning light, a crack at living a beautiful life and maybe doing some great good in the world, but their lives were snuffed out before they had a chance. I pray for the parents who made exceedingly difficult decisions under exceedingly difficult circumstances. So much pain. It’s not fair. My heart breaks for men who are falsely accused, whose names and reputations and opportunities are destroyed because of lies that were believed and truths that were ignored. I pray for them and I pray for their families, who have struggled and borne the weight of the horror. So much pain. It’s not fair. I do not know who is lying and who is telling the truth. If she is telling the truth, then something horrible has just happened. May God forgive us. If he is telling the truth, then I do not feel like celebrating, because the cries of the women who have suffered still have not been heard, and the babies who perhaps will be saved will grow into adults who will know that they were born into a world where they were not wanted. God forgive those who are celebrating callously. If they must celebrate, may they celebrate humanely, with deep awareness of and genuine concern for the pain and the scars and the injustices that others are suffering. May their celebration be tempered by their humanity. Deep down inside, I have this horrible feeling that a mistake has been made. I hope I am wrong. When all has been said and done and the dust has settled and what is on today’s social media will have found its way into tomorrow’s history books, I don’t want to be remembered as a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t want to be remembered as a conservative or a liberal. I don’t want to be remembered as a hater. I don’t want to be remembered as one who was found celebrating when he should have been mourning, or as one who was found mourning when he should have been celebrating. I want to be remembered as a genuine follower of Jesus. I want to be remembered as a decent human being. I want to be remembered as one who cared, and as one who acted and spoke and lived as though he had spent a whole lot of time hanging around Jesus. But the Republicans and the Democrats will continue to fight and the haters will continue to hate, and, tragically, many of them will name the name of Jesus as they spew out their hatred. Injustices will never cease until Jesus returns to set it all right. I just wish that a few more people could start to get it right now. I guess that’s too much to ask for. Maybe it’s the wrong thing to ask for. Just tonight I was reading the following lines penned by Richard Rohr: “In the second half of life, we do not have strong and final opinions about everything, every event, or most people, as much as we allow things and people to delight us, sadden us, and truly influence us. We no longer need to change or adjust other people to be happy ourselves” (Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, Jossey-Bass, (c) 2011, pp.122-123) . Well, I am in the second half of my life, so I guess that’s how I need to be praying for myself.
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