I think the problem with so many of the voices today (and society in general) is that they don’t value life, at least not in the way Jesus did. Some devalue life when they only encourage immigration that allows for people they find personally valuable, a kind of a “what can you do for me” mentality. If you can add value to my life and won’t cost too much, then I want you here. If not, keep steppin’.
We devalue life when we worry so much about protecting our own place of privilege that we refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. It also happens when we stand on soapboxes about social ills of our day with no thought to why things got to be the way they are or how to make them better. We devalue life when we refuse to see the truth about the effects and reality of racism in our culture.
We devalue life when our words and actions contradict a love and care for it. Taunting potential shooters with a “Let’s teach them a lesson” challenge is just a step or two removed from “Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out!” Are you kidding me? Reducing the idea of taking another human life into a taunt or a thing to cheer about must make Jesus cringe. It does me, anyway.
We devalue life when we place personal choice over it. I wonder how Jesus feels about the killing of actual human beings by the thousands, all in the name of choice. One child is delivered pre-term and is cherished and nursed to health. Another child is aborted at the same gestational age and we march in the streets to guarantee that doing this is always a legitimate choice. Really? We rail against the death penalty and at the same time march for the free choice to abortion. Really? Life is precious.
We devalue life when we say by our words and actions, “I only want you around if you act and believe like I do.” That’s not what Jesus did. He loved others without reservations. He told the truth to people, yes he did, but I would be very surprised if every person that he spent time with who was considered a “sinner”, even those he considered to be that, came to faith in him. Yet, he loved them and spent time with them anyways. He added value to others, he gave them dignity, he recognized that they were God’s children.
Folks, we live in a culture of violence — and it exists on so many levels. Even those that would never dream of owning a gun, and think no one else should either, might be buying into this culture of violence. Even the way we talk proves this. President Obama’s communications director, Jennifer Psaki, said of the president campaigning for Hillary Clinton, “”(Obama) has indicated he wants to spend a lot of time on the campaign trail, so when it’s time to do that, we’ll go out guns ablazing,” President Obama is staunchly pro-gun control, but even his team uses violent imagery in their communications. We and our children play video games that award high scores for shooting and killing others. We forget the fact that we are depicting the taking of human life. We watch movies and TV shows and cheer when the bad guy (or zombie!!) gets blown away, or decapitated or whatever. Our entertainment depicts police officers or soldiers that are forced to take another life and we cheer. But what we don’t see is the reality that soldiers or officers in the real world might spend months or years suffering from PTSD because they had to take another life. Whether or not they had a choice in the moment is beside the point, taking a life should never be easy. Making games out of taking life and being entertained by the flippant loss of it are not examples of the Jesus I want to emulate. Oh, and why stop now when I’m probably ticking people off – we play paintball and buy airsoft guns for our kids that are so real they are indistinguishable from real guns. You might be thinking, “Come on, Mark! Are you serious? – paintball, airsoft?” Well, think about it. The point of those things is to make a game at shooting one another. I’m not judging you, I’m just saying, we live in a culture of violence.
When I’m truly honest about these issues I know that my finger is pointing at myself as much as anyone. Some of my favorite movies from the past have been ones that celebrate, if not the flippant taking of human life, at least some kind of strange idea of honor on the battlefield. I cheer in a football game when a player is tackled so hard that they leave their feet or their head whips back. I have been raised in a culture of violence and have personally celebrated it far too often. These issues have been ones that I’ve been working through for a long time and I will continue to work through them my whole life, I’m sure. I don’t mean to judge anyone. But I ask myself, and maybe you might want to ask yourself, “Do my words, opinions and actions represent that life has value? Do I value life in the same way Jesus does?” I fall short of that question in many ways but I pray that the giver of life, the one who valued it enough to give his own, will change me, will transform me into his image. I pray that what Jesus values I will value.
God help me. God help us.
Woodworking is a great hobby for those in ministry, or others in the people business — teachers, the medical field, public safety, counselors and others like that because in those fields the work is never done. When you work with people you are dealing with lifelong projects. People never stop needing to learn, they never arrive at a place of spiritual perfection where they don’t need the input of spiritual leaders. The work is never finished, and while this might ensure job security, it can be discouraging at times. As important as our work with people is, so much of it is intangible. Don’t get me wrong, it can be deeply satisfying and bear eternal consequences, but I can’t always see learning, or spiritual growth. When I’m working with wood I can feel that, I can produce a thing — a table, or chair, or a build a gift to share with another.