Last week an insurmountable amount of people lost their lives and homes in floods and tornadoes across the Southeast. Entire communities have banded together to pick up the pieces that lay around them. Yesterday afternoon I went to a Welcome Home party for a friend whose home sustained extreme damages in the Nashville Flood of 2010. A year later, groups of people who gathered just a year before to help this family in rebuilding efforts, were now celebrating in the joy of restoration. What do these situations have in common? Light overtaking the darkness. In the midst of darkness...someone grabs ahold of light and says...no way, unfathomable situation..you will not take away my light. You will not overcome me.
On my last trip to Sierra Leone Bethany and I shook the hands of a man who has taken a huge part in the suffering of others. The weight on my chest I felt in his presence made me feel physically ill. But upon meeting him...all I heard in my head was, "Don't you judge him, he has a story too." Where does brokenness come from? Gosh, I'll never answer that question. But, I think a better question could be when does brokenness thrive and produce more brokenness? When we give negative energy to an already negative situation.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Our nation has been engaged in a War on Terror for the past 10 years. As of yesterday evening it was announced that Osama Bin Laden, public enemy number one had been killed. A man responsible for the death of more than my brain can fathom, and shed darkness on so many lives had now been killed. A nation rejoiced.
I preface my future remarks by saying, I grew up for the first eleven years of my life as the child of an Air Force Officer and almost every male member of my family has served in the United States Military, including my cousin who graduated from West Point and now serves in Afghanistan. I take pride in the work our servicemen do because they give of themselves for the betterment of others. They humbly give of their lives. BUT...there it is...yep...there's a but...I cannot and will not rejoice in the death of a man. I will lament in the brokenness that was in his heart and the damage produced. But in order to squelch the darkness...we must overwhelm the situation with light.
My thoughts over the past few hours are in no way eloquent. I've tried to come up with some quip statement to really drive the point home. But my heart hurts. My heart hurts because just days and even moments after wrapping the darkness of those close to me in light...the negative energy produced by this one man was met with more...negative energy.
We all have a story. We all have a reason for where we have come in our lives. If I were to lay my brokenness on a table in front of you...lay out all of the negative things about myself, all the terrible situations that have occurred in my life...it would provide insight to others as to why I respond and act the way I do. It may not excuse it. But others would certainly understand where I come from. And beyond that...I certainly hope that my brokenness would be viewed by others through a lens of love rather than hate and judgement (ESPECIALLY by the people who claim to live for a Savior who exhibited nothing BUT light.) I certainly hope each one of my inadequacies would be met by others with, "So now what...? Let's move forward." Osama Bin Laden has a table of brokenness too. He did beyond terrible things. I don't excuse any of his actions for a moment, but instead of throwing parties, instead of shouting "USA ALL THE WAY!" Perhaps we should be covering the families of those affected by the last 10 years (and the years that we still have ahead) in LIGHT...and I don't know...perhaps covering Osama himself in light and saying, "So now what...? Let's move forward." Let's move forward with LOVE AND LIGHT!
Regina
