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I have a voice 2020 lookback

I have a voice – look back at 2020.

As we approach the close of 2020 and I look back at this year I find I have found my voice or better said, I have overcome my fear to use my voice.  I would be lying if I said that this was an easy year – but then I think it was hard in many different ways for all of us. 

Personal voice:  so I nearly found myself saying goodbye to Max on April 30^th.  Max  suffered a massive heart attack and had to be “jump started” twice before they were able to do emergent heart surgery.  Just 5 short weeks later my voice was saying goodbye to my sweet sister in law who succumbed to cancer.  Three weeks after that my voice said farewell to my Mother who passed from Covid 19.    This was a very hard 10 weeks in my life and caused me to make some decisions I had been avoiding. 

Through this my voice found the courage to leave a job that I had been finding increasingly oppressive.  It was not easy but that same day I was offered a new job and it has turned out to be a wonderful healing experience. 

Politically voice:  I know this is a touchy subject…. But – I did find my voice.  With reluctance I finally spoke up and I am thankful I have.  What can I say? 

1. That I believe people who vote for a president based on 1 issue are as ridiculous as buying a house with a crumpling foundation because you like the front porch.  So what if the house falls down behind you as long as you got your porch.  Yet that is exactly what so many of my “Christian” friends have done. 
2. That to say the behavior I have seen from people I once believed to be loving, kind hearted, spiritual people is any thing but.  Some wishing for the deaths of those that have differing views.  Others hoping for civil war.  Where is humanity going?  I ask myself, “how will this end?”  I think of the words of Edmund Burke,  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  So I took on a voice (see earlier posts in this series) and spoke my piece.

• That all people deserve respect.  Do I always succeed in this – no – but I always try.  I may not like the current president and I don’t feel he is a Godly man by any stretch of the imagination, but he is in that office.  So until he leaves that office on Jan 20^th he has that title.  Does that mean I should not speak up when I see things that are immoral, untruthful or just plain wrong?  I don’t think so, but any protest I do make should be done with respect, dignity and without hatred.  Something I have seen very rarely lately among many of my “friends” on FB.  We have a saying on this site – You can’t tell anyone they are wrong.  Simply state that you respectfully disagree and state your own opinions with out name calling, degrading, accusing or cruelty.  Oh that our politicians would learn to do that, perhaps that would make an amazing change in our country.

Spiritual Voice:  I love the path that God has taken me on.  I have become a stronger, richer woman in so many ways.  Even though I have chosen to no longer use the moniker “Christian”  I do still have a strong and abiding belief in God.  ER go… I refer to myself as a Mono Theist.  This year God has shown many new horizons and paths.  The people he has brought into my life and those relationships that were already there have only made me a stronger, richer woman.  I have had the joy of sharing the spiritual journey of a few others who crossed my path but for a moment.  In return they to have touched my life and left a mark.  I have been challenged to look at things I once held as “truths” and to determine if that was so.  Some things fell away while others remain.  I continue this journey with hope and joy in my heart for where it will lead and how I will grow.  I continue to challenge myself to look inside and ask myself the hard questions with an open heart and mind to hear the answer – even if it changes me.  I look forward to deepening relationships with those in my life and to the new people God will bring across my path.

All in all 2020 has had many great challenges but I come to the close of the year with true knowledge that I am blessed.  I have so much in life to be thankful for and so much yet to come.

I have a voice Challenge

My next installment of I have a voice.  I have to warn you that some people may be offended by what I have to say.  Please know that it is not my intent to offend only to cause some to pause and think before posting.

Over the weekend I got into a couple of “discussions” with a couple of friends on FB.  Both of them have represented themselves as emissaries of Christ in many of their posts.  I have absolutely no issue with this.  The issue arose when the same people started posting derogatory, mean and inflammatory posts about people and groups who do not share their point of view.  I chose not to be silent and commented on their posts with “because name-calling is so Christ-like” and “This really shows the love of Christ” and such.

Now let me be clear, I don’t have a problem with political BS posts even though they malign complete groups of people, call names, and just get downright ugly.  I know I can’t change that.  The problem I have is that these people made multiple posts about praying for the nation, the love of God, and sharing stories from their short-term missions.  Now I have an issue.  Perhaps it should not bother me that someone would share beliefs about the love of God and desire to share that with others on one post and then in the next repost a meme, poster, or something smearing, tearing down, and name-calling a group or person because they do not agree with their point of view.  The rub is this…. If you are going to publicly declare you are Christ-like –  then be that!  There is nothing Christ-like about these posts and I felt I had to speak out.  One of my friends questioned my faith the other just told me to “give it a rest”  My response to that was that “I could not” so he unfriended me.  The other has completely ignored my response.  I did send a private FB message to one but since he unfriended me I’m sure he did not get it.

I know I’m not perfect but I would certainly hope that if I were to make posts that publicized my religious beliefs and then posted derogatory and inflammatory memes that someone would call me out on it.

In conclusion, I want to set a challenge for those out there who are representing themselves as Christians on FB and other public platforms.  Before re-posting those meme’s, posters, joke or articles ask yourself if the people whom you minister to or want to minister to read this will it help them to see and understand the love of Christ.  If you can honestly answer “yes”, then, by all means, post away.

Now being honest myself, I do not expect that my observations or opinions will make one bit of difference, but I have a voice and I must try.

I have a voice 2

This is the second installment in my little series I Have a Voice.  I must warn you that this post reflects some of my absolute frustration and yes anger with those who say they are representing Christ (Christians).

 

I look around me during these times we are going through and I am reminded of a Bruce Coburn song…

“What’s been done in the name of Jesus?
What’s been done in the name of Buddha?
What’s been done in the name of Islam?
What’s been done in the name of man?
What’s been done in the name of liberation?
And in the name of civilization?
And in the name of race?
And in the name of peace?
Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else

…Everybody’s seen the things they’ve seen
We all have to live with what we’ve been
When they say charity begins at home
They’re not just talking about a toilet and a telephone…”

 

I have tried my darndest to reconcile how seemingly good people can in the name of God say that a man who cheats, lies, rapes, commits adultery and enflames hatred is good.  But that is just where it begins for me.

Recently I lost my mother.  The only request we made of those from her church coming to my home for her memorial was that they wear masks to keep our families safe.  Especially my husband and Granddaughter who are very susceptible to this pandemic.  Only the minister’s wife had the courtesy and honor to do so.  The others protested it was a violation of their freedom and spouted conspiracy theories.  My Mom always taught me that being a Christian meant putting others needs and concerns above your own.  They all extolled how my Mom always looked out for others and they hoped they could come close to living the kind of life she did.  Yet even in the smallest regard they could not put their own mild discomfort aside and practice that very simple act of wearing a mask for 2 hours.  How, I ask, is that showing the love and concern of Christ?  How is that even behaving Christ like?

I have listened and read so much garbage about how this is all conspiracy and lies, but someone should have let that virus know that before it killed my mother and so many, many others.

I say, charity is putting aside your pride, discomfort, and selfishness.  Walk in the shoes of another and make an effort to hear them with your whole heart.  Put your faith to work, whether that be Muslim, Christianity, Islam and listen without judgement.  Have charity!  There is no religion that I have learned of that espouses hatred, bigotry, selfishness, or patriotism.

I have heard people talk about their rights… Rights to live in a neighborhood that has no immigrants, Jews, Muslims, blacks.  They have even used scriptures and God (by all his names) to justify their statements and behavior.  Well I say SHAME ON YOU!!!!

God, Allah, Jehovah (whatever name you use) made all of us in his image.  We are all equal in God’s sight.  We are all human beings, bleed red and have 2 legs and 2 arms.  Although I’m starting to wonder if we all have hearts.  Obviously, compassion is not given to all, or empathy.  I am so disheartened when I see what is happening in my own country right now with Black Lives Matter and I think – is this as far as we have come.  I am angered when I hear people use patriotism as a justification for their bigotrous behaviour.  When I hear them use their religion to say it’s okay to do this thing – this injustice.  This genocide, ethnic cleansing, gerrymandering, segregation and so on.  Worse yet they then wax eloquent on how patriotic they are and they’re doing this for the good of the country!  Again, I say SHAME ON YOU!!!

I recently heard a speech given on a tv show that portraited the 1960’s.  The woman speaking said, “There is oppression, there is prejudice, and there is suffering.  When one person suffers, we all do.  If one person falls, we all fall.  I truly believe there is a better time for all of us, a time when we shall all be in the sun.  To get there we must all stand together, side by side, walk together and leave no one behind.”  I could not have said it better and I have a voice!