If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
            Romans 12:18

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

           Matthew 5:9

Are you discouraged today? It is easy to find ourselves so. I saw scenes playing out in our nation’s capital yesterday that were hard to reconcile with my understanding of the kind of country I was born into and in which I have invested my life of 60 years. These things do not happen here, or at least I used to think that was true. Today, it seems like anything is possible.

And as I surveyed the responses on social media today (Why, tell me why do I do this?) I am reminded how deeply divided our country is. Today, so many folks are playing the “blame game.” It was our president’s fault; no, it was just a far-right fringe group; no, it was far-left rabble-rousers pretending to be protestors. Anybody remember a scene in “Dumb and Dumber” where Lloyd points at Harry to place blame for a mishap in a diner? I was raising boys in the nineties who LOVED this movie and quickly acquired the habit of pointing at each other in the same way to waylay any blame for whatever the infraction might be in our family-life. (Excuse the “Dumb and Dumber” reference! I am sure your other pastors will provide much more intellectual reference points!)

I guess thinking about “Dumb and Dumber” keeps me from just succumbing to sorrow today over things I can’t seem to do anything about, and frustrated that in my role as a pastor, I just don’t know how to make a difference in this vast polarization that seems to keep us from moving forward in a helpful and hopeful way. Placing blame, however, is as old as…time…as the original sin. God asked for an answer from Adam when he knew himself to be naked. Adam pointed at Eve and Eve pointed at a serpent and we have been pointing at others ever since rather than doing the hard work of looking at ourselves.

Somehow, though, we have to find a way to walk toward each other and be responsible FOR each other—not in changing someone else’s behavior, but in creating a community where we share ownership of who we are and how we live. And it starts with me, and doing away with the finger-pointing and trying to put something positive and helpful out into the “community” where I do have some influence, not because I am a pastor, but by virtue of being human.

It seems that yesterday and today a lot of us have thought about a prayer often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Actually, its origins are a little murkier than that, but someone was in tune with the Spirit when they wrote this!  Maybe these words can be your prayer in this time of upheaval. It is mine! And as I pray the words I am reminded that really, all I can ultimately change in this world is me. But if I find a path forward to change ME, maybe something good will spill over.

Here I am, Lord. Change me. Fill me. Use me.

Let’s pray this together:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; 
Where there is hatred, let me sow love; 
Where there is injury, pardon; 
Where there is doubt, faith; 
Where there is despair, hope; 
Where there is darkness, light; 
And where there is sadness, joy. 

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console; 
To be understood, as to understand; 
To be loved, as to love; 
For it is in giving that we receive, 
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. 
Amen.

Be blessed, but first, be a blessing!

Laura