Discernment

Last Wednesday at church, Katherine and I ran into someone we’d been trying to connect with for a while. We started talking about making dinner plans for later that week, but finding a day that worked for everyone proved to be difficult. I was ready to give up and try again another time, but my wife was smarter than that. Thinking quickly, she said, “We could go right now.” I was stunned, because the idea hadn’t even crossed my mind. But we did, and it turned out to be a great time.

I wouldn’t necessarily call myself indecisive, but I am a ruminator. When making a decision, I take time—sometimes lots of it. I overthink things to the point of exhaustion. I do make decisions, but not without a great deal of effort and difficulty. And even once the decision’s been made, that doesn’t mean my brain slows down. Did I make the right decision? What are other people going to think? The cycle never ends.

A good deal of my decision-making effort is put towards being sensible. Taking a logical approach. Thinking through every detail and its consequences before actually doing anything. But that’s not what discernment is about.

The point of discernment isn’t to make good decisions. It’s to make wise decisions. And a formula for the latter simply doesn’t exist.

I think that wise decisions can come through a great deal of consideration. After all, we don’t want to just float through life doing whatever we feel like doing in the moment. God gave us our brains for a reason, and we’re meant to use them. But just like any other tool, if we rely too much on logic in decision-making, it can become a crutch and hold us back.

Discernment has other tools in its belt as well, many of which I am guilty of neglecting when I face a decision. Tools like scripture, accountability, prayer, community, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How often do we turn to these sources of wisdom when thinking through something? If you’re like me, the answer is, “Not as often as I should.”

That’s not to say that all of my decisions have been bad. I’d like to think that I’ve done more things right than wrong, because I do try to practice discernment well. But I’ve also made some pretty big blunders, and when I reflect on them, I can see in each of them a lack of discernment on my part. I imagine that most of us could do the same if we’re being honest.

Thankfully, I was saved from making that sort of blunder last week when making dinner plans with my friend. Sometimes, discernment comes in the form of spontaneity. Or in simply listening to your wife. Other times, it looks different. But it always requires some combination of the tools God has given us. May we never neglect any of them, and may we always rely on them to help us make wise decisions.

A Different Point of View

SCENARIO ONE: LIVING ROOM

You’ve been invited over to a friend’s house to watch movies. Sitting on their couch, you feel a sudden chill.

YOU: It’s cold in here.

FRIEND: No, it’s not.

YOU: Yes, it is. I’m freezing.

FRIEND: Walks over to thermostat. It’s 71 degrees in here, a perfectly normal temperature. That’s how it’s always set. I’m not changing it.

YOU: Alright… but I’m still cold.

FRIEND: Frustrated. It is not cold in here! Would you just stop complaining? Suck it up.

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SCENARIO TWO: ICE CREAM SHOP

You’re on a first date, and it’s going pretty well. You decide to go for ice cream after dinner. As you’re standing at the counter making your selections, your date turns to you.

DATE: There are so many options!

YOU: Yeah, there are! I think I’ll stick with my favorite flavor, though.

DATE: What’s your favorite?

YOU: [Insert your favorite flavor of ice cream here.]

DATE: Flatly. Oh. That’s stupid. Butter pecan is obviously the best.

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Clearly, these two scenarios are ridiculous and fictional. I hope that you’ve never experienced anything like them, though I imagine some might have. I wrote these not just for fun, but to illustrate a point: None of us would ever purposefully treat another person like this.

If your friend is cold, you offer them a blanket. If your friend likes a different flavor of ice cream than you do, that doesn’t mean that their choice of dessert is wrong. It’s simply their opinion. We know this to be true, right? These exaggerated stories seem pretty cut and dry. But I wonder if we’re so good at applying the principles these stories illustrate in situations that are less straightforward.

These stories show us the importance of valuing the subjective experience of others—in other words, the way they see the world. No two people experience life exactly the same way, which is why we have differing views on just about everything. Our experiences make us who we are, and sharing those experiences can help us understand one another better, but only if we truly value what other people feel.

When was the last time you took to the time to hear out someone who sees the world in a different light than you do? Not to argue with them, or to convert them to your side, or to gather intellectual firepower to support your views in the future. I’m talking about actually putting your differences aside and truly listening to someone’s heart, their pain, the things that have brought them to where they are. Can you honestly say that you’ve done that recently?

The saying goes, “People will never care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I believe that all civil dialogue is based on this single proverb. Any conversation that does not come from a place of caring for the other is futile.

Because nothing in the world can change how a person feels. Just as a thermostat reading can’t make someone suddenly stop feeling cold, objective reality can’t force them to change the way they experience the world. And just as you would never demean another person for their favorite flavor of ice cream, we have no right to tell someone that the way they feel about something is wrong. It’s not like they can help it. We can’t choose the way our experiences make us feel, so why would we expect anyone else to?

There is a time and a place to talk about truth and growth and moving in the right direction, but before any of that can take place, we must first meet people where they are. We must first make them feel known, heard, valued, and safe. We must first look them in the eyes, recognize their experience, and say, “I see where you’re coming from.”

At the end of the day, we all see the world through a certain lens. None of us has a monopoly on reality. And we would each do well to adjust our worldviews in one way or another. That’s a good deal of the work I’m trying to do in my writing. But none of it means anything if it isn’t rooted in compassion, in empathy, in recognizing and affirming the experiences of others. Because no matter your opinion on their experience of reality, it’s real to them. And you’ll never have any sort of impact on them until you experience it with them.

So here’s to taking a more compassionate approach towards others. You never know what you might learn by seeing things from a different point of view. No matter what, you’ll be able to make someone else feel heard, and that can make all the difference in the world.

Book Review: Beating Guns

At this point, it would be nearly impossible for someone to look honestly at the events taking place in our country and not come to the conclusion that we have a serious problem when it comes to gun violence. Some say it’s a gun problem; others say it’s a people problem. Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin argue that it’s both, and they address both aspects of the issue in their new book, Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence, which I had privilege of reading ahead of its release today.

Before we get too far into the review, I’d like to make a note that this book is not meant as an attack on gun rights or gun owners. Shane himself shares fond memories of hunting with his grandfather in the book. Some of the research for this book was done while one of the authors was shopping with his wife at gun shows. The opening line says, “If you own guns and want to see fewer people killed, this book is for you.” I think we can all agree that we want to see fewer people killed, so this book is not looking to exclude anyone, regardless of their political leanings when it comes to this issue.

The title is a bit of a double entendre. Of course, the authors’ goal is to help us overcome gun violence, but that’s not all they’re trying to do. Inspired by Isaiah’s prophecy that God’s people would one day beat their swords into plowshares, Claiborne and Martin have made a habit of literally welding guns into farming tools, and even the occasional work of art. In this way, they are “beating guns” both literally and figuratively.

It isn’t just for show, though. Through their work, Claiborne and Martin are seeking to transform not only bits of metal and wood, but the hearts of people. When they look at the violence plaguing our world, they see it for what it is, but they also see the potential for it to be changed into something beautiful. And they share that vision in their book.

I’ve been a fan of Shane for a very long time, ever since I read his first book, The Irresistible Revolution. Shane is an author and public speaker, but his day job is at The Simple Way, an intentional Christian community he helped found in Philadelphia. There, he and his team minister to their impoverished community and work to improve living conditions in the name of Christ. He’s also the co-creator of Red Letter Christians, a movement of evangelicals committed to truly living out the words of Jesus in their daily lives.

I wasn’t familiar with Michael Martin before reading this book, but he’s got an impressive resume as well. From his Mennonite background, Michael inherited a commitment to nonviolence that has come to define his career. He founded RAWtools, a ministry that travels the country turning guns into gardening tools and, as they say, “other lovely things.” Michael also teaches seminars on nonviolent confrontation and deescalation, skills that most people simply don’t know enough—if anything—about.

Both Claiborne and Martin write from the worldview of the Christian faith, which they use a lens for understanding and dealing with the problem of gun violence. Unfortunately, public debate on this issue often doesn’t make room for the faith that so many of those debating claim to hold. But this book does a good job of integrating public discourse with theology in a way that affirms the truths of scripture and calls believers to live up to them.

The book is truly comprehensive, despite its manageable length. (I read it in just a few sittings.) In addition to taking a theological approach to combatting gun violence, it also covers the history of gun violence in the US, analyzes the economics of the gun industry, addresses the Second Amendment and its interpretations, and touches on important issues like the intersection of gun violence with age, race, and gender. Spread throughout are graphics, photos, and statistics that go along with the author’s points. While reading, I got the impression that this book was very thoroughly researched, not just the byproduct of another echo chamber.

Most importantly, the book shares the stories of real people impacted by gun violence and what we can learn from them. The authors recognize that while statistics are important, it’s stories that can truly transform the way people think. Nearly every chapter includes a memorial to the victims of a mass shooting, including a brief summary of the story and the names of each and every person killed. It’s jarring, humbling, and heartbreaking to read these stories, many of which I haven’t thought about since they were in the news. But if we’re going to make a difference, it’s important that we not allow ourselves to become desensitized to the violence, and reading these stories helps prevents that.

The part of the book that impacted me the most was the chapter on suicide. While most of the news coverage on gun violence centers on mass shootings, a significant number of those affected are actually victims of suicide, not homicide. I had no idea. In the book, the authors spell out intelligently the ways that we can prevent many, many deaths by creating a few simple barriers to access for those who are most at risk. I know many in our day and age shudder at any mention of limitations on gun access, but if we can save the lives of those who’ve lost the ability to save themselves, I think it’s at least worth considering. Seriously, this chapter alone is worth the cost of the book.

At the center of the gun debate in our country is the tension between personal liberty and public safety. Claiborne and Martin address that tension in a way that is sensical, practical, and faithful both to their Christian beliefs and to the American ideal of freedom for all. They include several suggestions for commonsense reforms that they believe would reduce gun violence significantly, many of which have already proven popular among the American people.

But ultimately, their book isn’t about laws. While they recognize the importance of the legal system in addressing the gun problem, Claiborne and Martin are interested in changing something much more fundamental: the human heart. Their book is a call for Christians to choose love over fear, to stop seeing the world through the lens of persistent self-defense, and to choose what they call the “third way” of Jesus in the face of violence. We don’t have to be either perpetrators or victims. There’s a better way that Jesus shows us, and while it may not be the most comfortable, it is the way we’re called to follow.

It’s the only way that will lead us to the future that Isaiah saw for God’s people, where violence is defeated and weapons are beat into farming tools. And we can only get there by committing ourselves to living out the way of Christ even when the world says it won’t work. Even when we’re laughed at or subject to scare tactics or even taken advantage of, we must choose to emulate Christ and refuse to participate in the world’s violent ways.

We can end the epidemic of gun violence in our country, but not by continuing to do things the way we’ve always done them. We have to choose a new way forward: the way of Christ. Otherwise, the cycle of violence will only continue. As Claiborne and Martin say in their book, “One of the greatest mysteries of our faith is that, for some strange reason, God does not want to change the world without us.”

Beating Guns is a faithful attempt to imagine what that way could look like, and we would do well to listen. If enough Christ-followers would heed the words of this book, we might actually see things start to change in our communities and then across the country. That’s my hope, at least, and the hope of Shane and Michael in writing this book. So give it a read, and maybe you can become a part of the movement that beats gun violence once and for all.

Beating Guns is available today wherever books are sold. I highly recommend you pick up a copy. (Or you can borrow mine.) If you get a chance to check it out, I’d love to hear what you think!

Believing Victims

It’s unfortunate that it’s taken this long for us as as a society to have a candid conversation about the complexities of responding to interpersonal violence, but here we are. We all know about the reality of atrocities like domestic violence, sexual assault, hate crimes, and the like. But instead of tackling them head-on, we’ve tended to brush them under the rug along with other things that we consider too difficult or too inconvenient to face. Thankfully—finally—with the rise of movements like Me Too, Time’s Up, and others like them, victims are coming out of the shadows, their voices are being broadcast like never before, and every one of us is now forced to listen up and respond.

As tragic as the situation is, this is actually a move in the right direction. Due to stigma, threats, and fear of not being believed, the majority of people suffering from interpersonal violence have had to do so in secret. Their stories haven’t been shared, which only adds to their misery. But no more. These individuals have a right to be heard, which means we have a responsibility to listen.

Stories, after all, have the power to enact change. We’ve known the statistics concerning these issues forever. But statistics don’t change things. People don’t connect with numbers, so they rarely act on them. But stories—they have the power to move people to action. They have the ability to bring people together around a cause and to bring about change. Stories, even tragic ones, have impact.

So even though I’m saddened by the accounts of victims, and by the sheer number of victims who are out there, I’m glad that we’re beginning to make room for these stories. Because we need to hear them if things are ever going to get any better. The first step to solving a problem is looking it squarely in the face and recognizing it for what it is. We’re just starting to do that.

And in doing so, we’ve opened the proverbial can of worms. Denial was easy (at least, for those of us who weren’t suffering firsthand). But actually dealing with the truth—that’s going to require a lot of work from all of us. Because very little about these issues is straightforward, and if we’re going to get to the heart of them and really make a difference, we have to be willing to work through every ugly bit of it.

One aspect that’s been particularly challenging as of late is the question of what to do once a person comes forward claiming to be a victim. How should their story (often understood as an accusation against an alleged perpetrator) be responded to? Now that it’s out in the open, it can’t simply be left there; any decent person knows that. But the question of what should actually be done isn’t so simple for everyone.

This is usually the part in the article where I review the various approaches and the logic behind them, but that feels unnecessary this time. You already know the usual takes, and you probably already have a default one. It would be naive for me to think that anyone is approaching this topic without preconceived notions. So I hope you’ll excuse me for simply moving on to my point.

Out of the chaos of the public debate over these issues the past few years, a simple mantra has arisen as the rallying cry of those working toward change: Believe victims. These two words may seem simple, possibly even an oversimplification to some, but they represent what I believe to be everything we need to know about responding to these situations.

What do you do when a victim comes forward with their story? You believe them. You look them in the eyes and say, “I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through this. I am here for you.” You affirm their experience. You support them in their grief. You believe their story.

This isn’t to say that you immediately go barreling down the door of the accused, throw them in jail, and ruin their lives. There are systems in place for that sort of thing, and you pray to God that they work, knowing that they often do not. But whether they do or not, you stand by the victim. You support them. You let them know that their story is heard and believed. Because that is what they need and deserve.

There is a tendency when these stories come out to immediately shift focus from the victim to the accused. What could this mean for them? How should they be treated? What are their rights? I think these questions usually come from a good place, but ultimately, they miss the point.

Our society is based on a system of retributive justice. If someone does something wrong, they deserve to be punished. To us, that looks like justice. And so when there’s an accusation of wrongdoing, our minds immediately move to punishment. But in that moment, victims aren’t necessarily looking for justice, at least not in the sense we usually think of it. They’re simply seeking acceptance. To be heard. They want someone to believe them, and that is our job.

After all, putting perpetrators behind bars prevents them from creating more victims, but it doesn’t undo the damage that’s already been done. Nothing can do that. There’s a time and a place for the right people to analyze evidence, comb through every detail, and issue verdicts, but that time and place is not immediately after a victim comes forward with a story. In order for a victim to ever have the hope of finding peace, they must first be heard and believed.

I understand that this is easier said than done; it is messy. Will people lie and try to take advantage? Yes, they will. When you do the right thing, there will always be someone trying to play you. But everyone knows that coming forward leads to a great deal of scrutiny, something most sound-minded people wouldn’t endure just for attention. And as Jussie Smollett is now learning, getting away with a lie like that isn’t easy, even in an environment where everyone seems to believe you. The liars are the exception, not the rule. We can’t go back to a policy of disbelief based on a few fringe cases.

Because when we don’t believe victims, we re-victimize them. We become complicit in their victimization. We commit more violence against them, not physically, but emotionally. We make things worse for them. And we create an environment in which they no longer feel safe to come forward, and that won’t solve anything. Better to erroneously believe a few liars, allow the systems in place to uncover the truth, and then adjust than to perpetuate the problem through our cynicism.

Again, I am not saying that a single accusation should land someone in prison. Our systems are actually biased towards defendants to protect people from being punished for something they didn’t do. What I am saying is that when victims come forward, we have no choice but to hear them out, support them, and believe them. Anything less makes us a part of the problem.

We live in a messy world, and horrible things happen here. That’s reality, and it breaks my heart. I hope it does yours, too. But the good news is that we can all do things—small things, each and every day—to make this world a little bit of a better place. I believe it starts with having compassion on those who need it the most, having solidarity with them, and allowing their stories to change us and call us to action. When we do that, we can change the world.

Jesus said that we can show our love for him by loving the “least of these” (Matthew 25.40). Victims of interpersonal violence are among the most marginalized, underserved, mistreated groups we can find in our society today. When we love them well, we love Jesus well. When we stand with them, we stand with Christ. And when we believe them, we help them find the freedom that only the truth can give. May we create a world where the truth is heard, believed, and allowed to set people free.

The Throne Room

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at stories from the Bible that teach us about unity through the metaphor of language. We’ve seen how the world became such a divided place as a result of sin, and we’ve seen how every once a while, we get glimpses of unity breaking back into the world. In our final story, we’re going to see God’s ultimate plan for uniting humanity come to fruition, and we’re going to discuss how we can be a part of that. Let’s get to it.

This week’s story is unique in that it hasn’t actually happened yet. But we can read about it in Revelation 7. In this chapter, we get a preview of what worship is going to be like in eternity. Starting in verse nine, we read John’s account:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Now, we’ll skip down to verse 13:

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

What an incredible future God has in store for his people!

In this passage, we get a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. John tells us here that he sees a crowd standing before God made up of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language. This means that, in eternity, believers from every corner of the world will come together and worship our God.

Back in Revelation 5.9-10, some of the inhabitants of heaven are praising Jesus, and they say, “Worthy are you… for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom…” And now, just a couple of chapters later, that kingdom has been assembled before the throne of its king.

God’s kingdom is made up of believers from every earthly kingdom that exists now, has existed before, or ever will exist. It includes people of every background, of every shade, who speak every language that’s ever been spoken. In God’s kingdom, there will be people from China, from North Korea, from Uganda, from Iran, from here, from there, and from everywhere. And at the end of time, we will all come together before the throne of God, and we will say with one voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who is on the throne!”

We won’t have any language barriers then. There will be no disconnect, no division, no differences. We will be united as one kingdom: God’s kingdom. Because before the throne of God, the tower of Babel crumbles into nothing, and the division and brokenness that it caused disappear. They are no more. Because in God’s kingdom, we are all one. We are perfectly united, just the way God intended for us to be.

That’s the future we have to look forward to. Someday, we will live in a perfect place with no pain, no strife, and no conflict. And in that perfect place will be our brothers and in sisters in Christ from all over the world, and we’ll live in perfect harmony and unity under one shepherd. There won’t be any ingroups and outgroups. There will be only one group: us. The kingdom of God.

These stories teach us that God’s end goal for humanity is for us to be united in him. But they also remind us that we don’t have to wait until the end of time to participate in that unity. We can catch glimpses of it now, and we can choose to live into the reality of it even as we await its completion.

Did you know that while Jesus was on earth, he prayed for his followers? We read about it in John 17. In the passage, he starts by praying for the disciples who were with him right then and there, but then, he turns and prays for all of those who would come after them, including believers today. Here’s what he says in verses 20 and 21:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you…

It was Jesus’ prayer for us as believers that we be united in him. That’s what he wanted for us. Unfortunately, we sometimes allow things to come between us, to divide us. This should not be so. Because there is nothing that could ever come between us, whether it be a disagreement or physical distance or a language barrier or anything else, that can take precedence over our bond as brothers and sisters in Christ.

One quick example, and then I’ll be done: Katherine and I recently got married, which means my family just got a whole lot bigger. Something you may or may not know about my wife is that she is Hispanic. If you look back a few generations, part of her family comes from Mexico. Which means that now, part of my family comes from Mexico.

So now, when I hear people talk about those of Hispanic descent, they’re not just talking about some faceless mass of people I don’t know. They’re talking about my wife, my grandmother, my siblings. When Katherine and I have children, they will, through their mother, inherit that legacy. So someday, they’ll be talking about my kids. And those of you who are parents know what it’s like when someone says something about your kids. For the rest of my life, through my family connection, I have a stake in what happens to that community and how they’re talked about because those are my people.

But if you’re a believer, a brother or sister in Christ, doesn’t that make them your people, too? In reality, we’ve got family—siblings—who come from every nation, tribe, people, and language living on this planet right now. And they’re all our people.

There is no us-versus-them in the body of Christ. There is no “not our problem” in the body of Christ. There are no barriers, language or otherwise, in the body of Christ because we are all one body. We are all one kingdom: the kingdom of God. And we are called to unity.

Their struggle is our struggle. Their pain is our pain. Their victory is our victory. And their concerns should be our concerns. If we are to live up to the unity that God has called us to, then we must remember this simple truth: We have brothers and sisters all around the world, and they are our people. We are called by God to be concerned for them because his kingdom has brought us together, and we shouldn’t allow anything to tear us apart.

Unity is hard. The tower of Babel teaches us that. But God is working in the world to create that unity among his people, and one day, he will finish his work. In the meantime, we’re getting glimpses, and we’re invited to share in his unifying work. Here’s the question for you: Will you take part? How will you take part?

Maybe it’s simply by choosing to remember that when we talk about events going on in the world, we’re talking about real people who are created by God in his image for a purpose and who are loved by him. We’re talking about our brothers and sisters. And every time we choose to speak, we need to keep in mind who we’re speaking about.

Maybe it’s by reaching out and getting to know someone who looks a little different than you do, or speaks a little differently than you do, or sees the world a little differently than you do. Honestly, how can you say you’re participating in God’s unifying work if all of your friends and loved ones look, act, and believe the same way as you? We’re called to do more than just sit contently in our ingroups. We can do better.

Maybe it’s by inviting others to share in God’s unifying work, as I’ve tried to do through this series. Or maybe it’s another way. However the Holy Spirit leads you, we are each called to participate in this work, because it is God’s work. He wants us to be united, and one day he will bring us all together in his kingdom. Until then, he’s leaving it up to us.

The world can be a less divided place, but only if we make it that way. I say we do it, together.