My boundaries for the days ahead.

A long one, but I hope you’ll hang for a moment. 

Today is Martin Luther King Day. It is also the day that Joe Biden’s Presidency ends and  Donald Trump’s begins. 

I’ve read most everything I can get my hands on of King’s speeches and words over the last many years of my life. I’ve visited most of the sites of significance to his work. He’s a source of tremendous influence on my politics and my understanding of being American and being Christian. Too understated is the memory of King as a preacher. His prophetic voice so deeply influenced by the scriptures. He reminded his audience often, though I do not feel it as centered of a point today. It’s a meaningful reminder when so regularly both King and Scripture are twisted towards ends that would try and halt the work of justice and peace for terms of civility defined by those with the power. 

King challenged us. He knew we largely wanted a peace that wasn’t really peace, rather the absence of tension.

The absence of being bothered. 

The absence of being challenged. 

The absence of having to look squarely at the people harmed. 

The absence of having to learn about other cultures. 

The absence of being critical of our own government or favored candidates or parties. 

Rather than a peace as the presence of justice all over the world. 

His final days were focussed on the Poor Peoples Campaign and on criticizing the war in Vietnam. The violence of how America spends its money. 

As things begin to shift in Gaza, I too am reminded of Kings clarity in his famous Beyond Vietnam speech. If you’ve never read it. I’d invite you to do so today. I ask you to read it with our support of Israel in mind: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.”

I think this gives us a hard but clear path forward. Most of us won’t want to do it. But with a sincerity for love and a beloved community in mind, we let our kindness and focus be an inspiration. 

King’s critical views on Biden and Trump I believe are made clear by his words towards the very comparable realities of his day. He has said MUCH with regard to both of these men. And we would learn great things if we’d simply revisit and work towards that mountaintop he spent his life fighting towards. Again, revisiting the Beyond Vietnam speech is worth your time:

“It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin…we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

King’s book Strength to Love is for me, about as close to what I think Jesus could say to a country like America as I imagine possible. I so encourage you to read it someday soon. King was a person of tremendous faith, so deeply grounded in a very high understanding of the Christian movement. I’m not sure any public facing American has ever so understood and communicated an intellectually and spiritually grounded understanding of Christianity. He was very, very good at it.

While I would never presume to know Kings thoughts on every matter, I think those who have read and listened to his work could easily devise the contrast of this moment in our country with his heart’s greatest hopes. While we’ve done great work in aligning with much of what King envisioned, we have done great harm to his hopes of ending racism and poverty, confronting the way we use power, and creating an economic bill of rights. 

He had much to say of the wealthy. He had much to say of wealth redistribution. He had much to say of funding social uplift rather than funding war. He had much to say of our role around the globe. King, as repeatedly observed, has been incredibly diluted in the American Sphere of influence. We’d benefit greatly becoming reacquainted to this work.

All of this I reflect on to bring you here: 

Many Americans will have today off. Though as Correta Scott King long advocated, it was never meant to be a day off but a day on. A day of service within our communities. 

Today our annual community march has been canceled due to the frigid temperatures. Most of us are inside. 

While I’m inside, I do not plan to turn on the news today. And beyond this post, I hope to not glance here again today. 

I’ve spent some time lately coming up with a few rules or practices that I want to adopt for these years ahead. And just so I don’t seem too vague, I mean all that I believe to come under the Trump administration. This next chapter for America and the world beyond. 

I hope that sharing this could be of service to my communities online, at church, at concerts, around the city, and beyond. 

I wonder what thought you’ve given to help maintain your wellbeing for the days ahead? How will you focus your energy? What might you let go of? 

I don’t mean this simply for Christians, or Liberals, or whatever you think I am. I hope this is helpful for each of us. But I first believe it helpful for me. 

My boundaries for the season ahead:

*Cling aggressively to what is good.

Never feel guilt for choosing joy in the midst of hard things. Life should be good. It is too short. Too precious. There’s no greater fight.  I believe the fulfillment of justice is the goodness and fairness of all living things. 

*Don’t let the myth of perfection, prevent a movement forward.

Find the good thing, the true thing, in the midst of bad things, and the false things. We too often dismiss the whole rather than pull forward the good and true thing. We abandon and silence too many people this way. We are messy people. All of us. Bring forth the light we all carry. Look harder for it in others. 

*Give my energy to the right thing.

What gets my attention? What gets my time? What gets my words? I can spend all my energy fighting against a stubborn force. Or I can spend it building and creating with an open audience. Anonymous bullies don’t get my precious time. People who are not committed to understanding me, do not get my time. I’m going to move on. Our time and talents are desperately needed elsewhere. I will redirect my energy towards what is productive.

*You can’t take people where they don’t want to go.

No matter how close I am to them. No matter how much I hope they change. No matter how much I wish they’d see things the way I do. You can’t take people where they don’t want to go. 

*The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. 

*Post informatively, or productively rather than simply critically.

I don’t want my internet presence to be a series of complaints. I will not use my limited time to simply scrutinize, name call, huff my superiority over another group of people. I want to be helpful. I want to be encouraging. I want us all to survive. I want us all to know a deep and abiding love. 

*Don’t forget the real world around you.

I want to spend less time on social media. Algorithms feed you a false normalcy. They make you see fringes more regularly than you are actually experiencing. They make you think some things are far more common than they are. There is so much more to ALL of us. Go and experience this. 

*Abandon the use of “faceless theys”.

Those “republicans,” those “evangelicals.” Give others the nuance you want for yourself. I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I didn’t love either of them. I didn’t want either of them. I didn’t agree with them about a great many things. I want to at least try to offer that to people who voted differently than me. I hate it when I’m not able to speak for myself because of how others have determined people like me think. One of my least favorite things Donald Trump does is use the worst of humanity to describe an entire people group. “They’re murderers. They’re rapist.” No. They aren’t. White people kill and rape every day in this country. It will never be used to describe all of us. In kind, I don’t want to do the same towards entire communities. The worst of one persons or a few peoples humanity should not be used to diminish entire people groups. 

*Help locally.

Impacting the big problems of the globe have to begin within the five miles around me.

Humanity has not evolved to be able to effectively or emotionally carry the weight of having awareness for the entire world. My body screams at me when I try. I cannot hold it all. I need to know my limits. I believe the most effective work begins with my relationships, and with the people nearby. . I don’t want my heart to be so burdened by what is beyond my reach that I pass by the neighbor within my reach.

*I have to do more than vote.

If all I do is whine till Election Day. Then why bother being informed and distressed by every news story? Is not the most ignorant voter doing the same amount of work with far greater peace? If I’m going to lament and despair so strongly, my work must also be stronger and more purposeful. 

*Reclaim the Sabbath.

The busy-ness of life, coupled with anger and despair will destroy me. Rest. Rest. Rest. 

*Community is necessary. We’re not meant to go at it alone. I will lean on my church. Where all life’s messiness plays out. Where love heals and holds. Where joy is a choice. Where hope grows. Where transformation happens. 

To this all I pray to remain accountable.