Moonlight

Moonlight. In reality there is no such thing. The light we see from the moon is only a reflection of the sun's light. The moon acts like a giant mirror and bounces rays of sunlight back to us.

Even so on a dark night, that reflected light reveals landmarks that help us find our way. Moonlight also sheds light on dangerous obstacles: the curb to step over; the tree requiring a detour; the stranger lurking in the shadows.

Like moonlight, aid workers, social workers, clergy, intake workers, community organizers, and counselors are obvious light reflectors. By connecting needs with resources, by suggesting options and strategies, by listening to need and collaborating for solutions, they help those on the periphery find their way through the darkness.  

But they're not the only ones with moonlight. Think of the heroes in your life, the ones who empowered you to try one more time. Most often they just found some way to care, like the friend who years ago brought me a yellow gerbera (looks like a yellow daisy) on a bleak day.

"I thought you'd like some sunshine," she said.

And so it arrived via moonlight.

"More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps...to have the time to practice the ministry of presence...I wonder if the first thing (before meetings and social organizing) should be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them." --Henri Nouwen, quoted in Connections, January 2013.

Being present. Something any one of us can do -- even those of us on the periphery. Go light your world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtIIFJIxdUw

Living Above Grace's Expectation

“So do to others what you would have them do to you."

I have always missed the "so" when reading this passage from Matthew. But look at that “so”. It precedes the statement, "If you . . . know how to give good gifts...how much more will the Father give?”

This passage really has much to say about grace. The Father God lavishes good things on us, so we should at least be able to treat others as we wish to be treated. God would do far more than that, but He only asks from us that we treat others as we wish to be treated. We will never measure up to His goodness. He knows that. So all he asks is that we give others the same respect we give ourselves.

But there is more yet. I happened to read that passage the same day I read this one from Genesis.  The land "is worth 400 ... but what is that between you and me?” And Abraham then paid the full 400. I understand that this depicts the way financial transactions were negotiated in the Genesis period, that Abraham would have understood that the 400 was a suggested price for the land. Just as the Genesis people had their own negotiating terms, so do the people groups in the international community in which I live.

Perhaps “do unto others as you would have done to you" is best rephrased, “do to others as you would have done to you IF you were the Senegalese in front of you.” Or “do to others as you would have done to you IF you were the Muslim in front of you.” “Or “do to others as you would have done to you IF you were the Kurd in front of you.” Or the Russian? The Cuban? The Dominican? The Mexican? The . . .

I wonder, do I automatically fall back to my southern Iowa ways no matter who is in front of me? What if instead I did unto others in accordance with the manner and culture they understand? What if I went even farther and gave to others in a way they understood as being even better than how I want to be treated? What if I truly sought to understand them, to see their heart, to hear their need?

What if we all did?