The first step to overcoming a problem is admitting you have a problem. Well, I have a problem. I cannot dress as stylishly as I would like. I consider my style decent, but I am limited when it comes to my pants selection.
Why do you ask? Could this be any more awkward of an introduction? Why yes it could be. To prove it could be, I am going to be completely transparent, and tell you a story about ripped pants.
I played football for fourteen years, meaning I spent a lot of time in the weight room. Insert meathead joke. In the weight room, it was essential that we back squatted. With back-squats come leg muscles. With leg muscles comes difficulty finding pants that fit. Despite my playing days being long behind me and much of the weight I carried lost over time, I still have trouble finding pants that fit.
Thus, a problem arose. As men everywhere move towards skinny jeans and tapered pants, I find myself attempting to look stylish, but feeling uncomfortable.
In an attempt to combat my discomfort, I researched “stretchy slim-fit dress pants,” and found a pair. Stoked about my find, I began to wear them all of the time. I mean these things were awesome. I could do gymnastics and look professional. Need to run to a meeting? No problem. Dropped a pencil? I will do a one-legged squat to pick it up. Just kidding, I cannot one-legged squat to save my life.
What was the problem with these pants you ask? They do not have great longevity and require intimate maintenance. Of course, I did not follow the maintenance instruction because why would I do that? One day, after work, I went to sit in my car, and I was greeted with a loud ripping noise. At first, I was hoping I had torn a ligament because that would be less embarrassing, but something much worse had happened.
From crotch to mid hamstring was a giant rip in my pants. My deep inner thigh was exposed. Well, at least I had made it through the day, and I could now go home; or so I thought. After cranking my car, my heart skipped a beat. I had forgotten my gas light was on and had been on for a while. I would have to get gas. Not only that, I would have to go somewhere close by on this college campus.
Reluctantly, I approached the nearest gas pump and pulled in. It was my lucky day, all things considered because no one was around. I slowly slid out of my car, held my legs together, and waddled to the pump. Just as I began to fuel, another car approached. Much to my chagrin, a person emerged from the vehicle and stared right at me. I did the only thing I could do. I stood there awkwardly and smiled. I was exposed.
The ripping that took place on that day in small-town North Carolina pales in comparison to the ripping that took place at the most recent State of the Union address a few weeks ago. However, much like my experience, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ripping of the president’s speech, further exposed just how torn the heart of the country I love is.
My social media was filled with hate from both sides of the aisle and apathetic exasperations of people who have given up.
One person referred to Pelosi as “the skank.” While other conservatives decried this tearing of paper as the greatest tragedy in the history of the United States and the constitution. Ignoring, of course, the 3/5ths compromise, slavery in general, the Trail of Tears, ill-fated wars, segregation, the proclamation that only white men need voting rights, and well the list could go on.
My left-minded social media acquaintances were, of course, quick to point out the fallacies of President Trump and his several, inappropriate, “word-gaffes.” Not to mention, they championed/deified Pelosi and her tactics all the while utilizing their own divisive rhetoric. My more liberal feed further co-opted the identities of the oft oppressed and marginalized to show why they are on the “right” or “good” side of history.
This whole incident made me wonder if we, as a country, will ever realize how exposed we truly are and what we are showing others. I wonder if we can see this ripping of paper as a metaphor of a much larger tearing that has taken place over several years.
Hearts have been exposed and we are not covering in shame at what is being illuminated, we are letting our torn hearts bleed openly.
At least, that is what it feels like.
No longer do we take intimate care of the relationships around us; we consistently apply stress and pressure to the seams of our relationships. The fabric of the nation must be continuously woven and tended to, not disregarded.
I certainly look to Jesus during a time like this. I believe that Jesus was neither Republican nor Democrat. Even further, I believe Jesus was not, nor ever could be considered American; and most definitely not a proponent of nationalism or creating a god out of country or leader.
We often pull Bible verses to attempt to show how Jesus would respond to certain contemporary issues. Yet, Jesus was not meant to be quoted to promote our own agenda, but to promote a message of love and a way of salvation. We cannot say with certainty Jesus would have voted for Donald Trump and fight whole-heartedly for America to be a Christian nation; or that Jesus would rip a piece of paper to declare something is unjust.
In fact, none of the aforementioned truly fit the character of Jesus at all. While there were times that Jesus stood against the governing authorities - flipping tables in the temple due to the financial oppression of poor people (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18) - Jesus was a unifier. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s...” (Matt. 22:21), because it is not about that guy at all! He was not a unifier for god and country, but for God and God’s creation. All of creation. Paul concludes this in his letter to the Galatians during a dispute between Jews and Gentiles:
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)
I love this verse and often quote it in my blogs because of its ability to summarize the mission of Jesus in the gospel stories. Yet, in itself, it is only a part. Just as John 3:16 is and so many others that are shared elsewhere.
This Sunday, the lectionary – a list of portions of scriptures to be read or utilized in worship by the universal church throughout the Christian year – covered the transfiguration. The transfiguration – found in Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36 – discusses when Jesus literally appears like a dazzling and shining display of metamorphosis before a few disciples and the great Hebrew figures, Elijah and Moses.
The awestruck disciples see the spectacle of Christ, gleaming before them, and two dead guys. As my pastor noted, this was probably a “weird” and frightening sight. Yet this exposure was one of a transformed life.
When we expose hearts of hate, anger, and opposition we might as well expose hearts of evil. When we act to polarize rather than unify, we are tending to our own narrative and agenda, not becoming intimate with the seams that connect us.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be... This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
We must tend to our hearts. We must tend to one another. If something must be shown, I hope to God it is a transformed heart.