Crazy.

Jesus taught us, saying: ‘The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will. John 10:17

Bourgeault shares how Jesus brings third force to the situation of the woman caught in adultery. When presented with the polarities of stoning the woman or freeing her, Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). Bourgeault writes: “He finds the thing that will put the terrible two binaries in a completely new relationship and creates a new kingdom . . . called compassion, forgiveness.” – Richard Rohr

We are not of this world and its logic. Its either or perspective.

Love is not rational. It is something outside of the evolutional survival-of-the-fittest engine that drives both the individual and society forward.

But there is hope to be found in the weight of the headlines. The Syrian White Hats heading to the rubble to search for victims. The airport sign-holding welcoming of the stranger. The stooping down and picking up of a fallen competitor. Even the paying-it-forward cups of McDonald coffee.

My students had to write an essay Background Thesis Support Support Counterpoint Rebuttal Conclusion on whether they felt hope or despair after studying American policy at the turn of the century and the shackling injustices.  Because there were those who stood against the norm, the way things are, lights flickering in the darkness of lynchings and segregation and relocations. Sigmund Livingston. Susan B. Anthony. Eugene Debs. W.E.N. Du Bois. Toyohiko Kagawa. Jane Addams. Booker T. Washington. Carrie Catt.

You can’t argue or debate or parse or throw pearls with the world because we use a different dictionary to define terms.

We can only live it. Letting our light shine, His light shine. The upside down kingdom, of the seed falling into the earth, of laying it all down and of picking up His cross and following Him daily.

Freely we have received.