The Great Division

"I was thinking about, seeing the face of a lady with whom I did and will continue to share the Gospel, how she had been to church before but now resisted doing it again like a plague, all because of the hypocrisy she had experienced.  She told me, I can never be like these people.  They have good families, dress well, talk good, many of them really wealthy, much better than I am anyway.  I could never be like them." 

"Travelling Salvation Show" from "Dear Eugene"

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Dear Alex,

I have just received good news tailored for me this morning on this first Summer month pregnant with promise.  A long labor of love I have endured for at least 9 years. The sea, the sky cannot contain my joy.

Last night I listened to the sermon audio, "God, Money and Worship".  The title is quite ambitious, I thought.  Three lives in sermon might not have covered each theme, let alone all 3 in 1 over 40 cash-charging minutes.  And indeed, its content calls for a tsunami of clashes in thinking and living apart from mainstream culture: 

     "If God is not at the center of our lives, there is no center... We need to order our home, our affections, our financial house." 

In plain words the speaker confronted me with the conviction of one who must have ailed in hell to have arrived at such truth in flesh for heaven on earth.  The Word speaks the Man into existence.

In plain words my daughter has confronted me:  Why write so much when a sentence or two could speak just the same? 

In plain words I have no sermon for her but a growing story to share:  Because this is my first Summer of knowing about a big change that could gift me more than I have given out in all my decades of toiling and careening, crashing and hoping.  Because more generosity, not ambition, will build more lives.  Because listening to books and stories in (extra)ordinary words can grow us into giant givers, not gobblers.  

Because we all write to speak in our special ways - with pen or hammer, spatula or golf clubs. 

And just maybe, in my feeble lisp or stutter, when someone looks at me or you and asks about the Good News, we may show a face lacking in pretense, glowing in grace.

Yours, Kate

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Dear Kate,

The Haves and the Have-Nots, a simple division we all do to others and ourselves.  Who draws the line?  The Self.  Sociologists might disagree with where and how we draw it, but that is their opinion.  A lady once told me twice in one conversation how she was living below the "poverty line."  She owns a home in Vancouver, mortgage-free, and that means boat cruise every year of course.

In front of others, we prop ourselves up as the Haves; not even the poorest are immune from pride.  (The "below-poverty-line" lady was bragging about something; can you guess what?)  Deep inside, behind closed doors, we cry foul all day long; a billion dollars in the bank only give us a billion reasons to stay angry.  Pride and anger are the best fuel to burn up a day, keep us restless to feel alive/not dying.

Who is the one who has but lives like he has not?  Who's the has-none who lives like she has all?  Who's the beautiful who dwells among the uglies?  Who's the condemned who feels at peace before the self-vindicated?  Who is the winner who is at home with the losers?  Who is the loser who loves like a winner?

The true sons and daughters of God they are.

Yours, Alex