I love dogs. Particularly the one I have the pleasure of living with right now. Bambi, a Cocker Spaniel rescue, is perhaps the cuddliest, most loving, and intuitively affectionate dog ever to walk this earth. Given, my perspective is limited because I never grew up with pets, she still rocks.
Also, considering I have been funemployed for the past few months, I have spent a lot of time with Bambi. She seems to know when I’m stressed, feeling lonely, or when I just need a good laugh because dogs – not entirely different from humans – can be derps.
Bambi could not care less about my un-showered smell, my anxious cusswords, tears of frustration, or simply having to put up with me every day; confession, I eat a lot of snacks and feel like the biggest jerk for only sharing with her sometimes. She just wants to see me. In fact, she just wants to see everyone, no matter who they are.
When someone walks into the room, it becomes the greatest joy of her life.
Everyday, I watch as she climbs to the back of the couch and peers out of the window in anticipation of more people coming for her to see. Some people may conclude it is because she wants the attention, but I beg to differ. Someone new, or old, walking into her life is an adventure full of opportunity.
The ability to see and care about someone – beyond the mess, misconceptions, stereotypes, and even mistakes – is possibly the kindest thing anyone can do.
Early last week one of my favorite humans to walk this earth, Ellen DeGeneres, was lambasted for sitting and laughing with George W. Bush at a football game. Apparently, based on some misconceptions, stereotypes, and even messes or mistakes, they should not be able to share a laugh with one another.
Ellen of course responded to the ridicule with unbelievable grace and wisdom urging the world to “Be kind to everyone.”
What a simple, but apparently difficult concept. I mean I totally get it. I have worked in ministry and I have seen the worst from people who are supposed to be modeling after the most loving human on the planet. I have been the worst and have been anything but kind to people who I think have stupid opinions.
A life like that is draining. Having to constantly challenge and criticize someone else for their beliefs is exhausting. And judging by the level of tiredness I see in the world on a daily basis, no one is innocent.
Is it possible to wait joyfully for our next encounter with another person regardless of who they are, what they have done, or how we or society perceive them?
Daily I doubt such a world is possible. Last night on my way home from a local restaurant, I was driving behind a car – that was going 45 in a 55 while in the left lane *Insert eye roll* – with a bumper sticker that boldly proclaimed, “Hilary for Prison.” And people say Democrats cannot get over the 2016 election. *Insert another eye roll*
But this is exactly what I am talking about. While I was preparing a slew of scholastic and biblical arguments I was going to deliver with my eyes as I sped past them in the right lane, I began to realize I was no different than the people who were upset with Ellen.
I tend to steer clear of political discussion on social media because it has become increasingly divisive and hateful. As I watch the back and forth, I cannot help but feel more and more hopeless.
Why would or should a “Hilary for Prison” bumper sticker, meme, or advertisement convince me to vote for a certain candidate? In fact, similar attacks from the democratic party do not encourage me to vote either.
Maybe I am too soft, a snowflake, or easily triggered. But I am over auditoriums chanting, constant debasement of other human beings, and the treatment of those who think, act, look, speak, and believe differently, as lepers instead of humans.
It is going to be tough, it is going to take practice, and I am going to fail. I will have to sit in tension with ideas I strongly disagree with, but if I can be joyful instead of tired and hopeless, it will all be worth it.
At the end of the day, if I can see someone as a human rather than a person to be fixed, corrected, or put in their place, I will know hope.
Lastly, if people become more than the things said or believed about them, I will know love.
This is the good news of the Gospel. I believe it.