I worry about the future for my friends who live with addiction and mental illness. For the refugee children being held by the INS in Texas. For elderly and families who need food stamps.
I worry because there was yet another shooting on a college campus. One more unarmed, young, Black man shot by police. Today, I read that the newly elected Speaker of the House in Nevada (a journalist of sorts with 13 years of columns to demonstrate his personal and political opinions quite clearly) actually used the words "simple minded darkies" to describe African American Democrats and stated that "Negroes" in America were not sufficiently grateful to Whites for "ending slavery."
I cry out to God because the Church seems largely either silent or in agreement. Help me, Jesus! I don't know what to do.
And, as always, the political becomes the personal. It must. Trickle down economics doesn't work, but trickle down values do. Unfortunately. A missionary and gifted worship leader writes that he has a rare eye disease and will go blind without expensive medication. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, he will be uninsured and uninsurable.
My friend Lilada - a truly stellar leader who is helping Black women find healing across the nation - is called the "N" word on the street in progressive Madison, Wisconsin.
Then, I hear that R. - a lovely, creative and brilliant young woman who loves Jesus - is told by a fellow church member who knows she is a lesbian in a long-term committed relationship that "I'd rather find my son dead in the bottom of the swimming pool than have him be gay." Really. I'm not making this stuff up here!
Friends, I can love people in the Tenderloin. I can open my heart to women who are sober, kind and engaging one day and drunk and irrational the next. I can feel sorrow at the trauma and abuse that created the scary and emotionally broken men I see every day on these streets. But I can't find any sane, emotionally level ground on which to stand when I look at the news and the actions and mind-sets of many political and religious leaders and of so many fellow Christians.
I want to care about what Jesus cares about - He confronted mindsets and actions that threatened and degraded women, powerful people who ignored the needs of the poor, and religious and political leaders whose actions demonstrated racism and abuse of power.
It takes more energy for me to hear and process what Lilada or R.experienced than it does to spend a week in the Tenderloin. I feel powerless and exhausted. I want to feel sane and grounded. At peace. Hopeful.
I've decided to take a sabbatical from all things political until Father God tells me differently.
And, I'm going to ask all my be-loveds to consider a simple act of love in honor of my sabbatical from craziness!
This random act of kindness will, if nothing else, offer a concrete, person-to-person way to care about something Jesus cares about. Thanks to my friend Patricia, for this idea!
I invite you to host a "blessing bag" party in your house. Or small group. Or "ladies who lunch" bunch.
How? ask people to bring hygiene and personal items and assemble bags for women or homeless vets or those panhandlers that irritate folks downtown. Then, give them away! Take them to your community's shelter. Call a meal program and see if you can give them away at dinner. Connect with a local ministry or rescue mission or the Salvation Army women's shelter. Make hot-pots full of hot cocoa, grab some friends and styrofoam cups, and go give them away yourself. You know where to go...sure you do!
A San Francisco woman did this for her WEDDING SHOWER!!! No kidding...it was fabulous....Love has to look like something - and sometimes it looks like soap and a tooth brush!
Details! (suddenly I feel like lots of exclamation points are required!) !
We give out many hygiene kits
every week here at Because Justice Matters in San Francisco (www.becausejusticematters.org).We've learned a few things like:
Small sizes of items are important because many people who are homeless don't
have much space and must carry every single thing with them.
Think:
*
necessity (shampoo, soap, tooth brush and paste and tampons for women's kits...small
containers of body wash are easier to keep than soap...once bar soap is wet,
it's a MESS for someone who has to carry everything around....if you include bar soap, put it in a little ziploc sandwich bag to contain future wet-soap mess...)
* body care
(lotion, lip balm, hand cream)
*weather (warm socks, sunscreen, lotions
for chapped skin)
* clothing needs (underwear for women, warm socks or
gloves/hat),
*safety (a small emergency whistle, condoms, bandaids and antibiotic ointment....a little card with
local phone numbers of the 24 hour domestic violence hot line, emergency help
for homeless hot line)
*food (a soft granola bar....remember many homeless people have lost teeth...a coupon for food at McDonald's or ? A little packet of hot cider or cocoa mix)
* and "you have value and we see you that way"
items (nicely scented body lotion, tinted lip balm for women, make-up in a little
bag at Christmas, a pair of inexpensive earrings or tiny bottle of perfume....a simple non-preachy note).
Not ALL these things, of course, but this gives you ideas. Purchase
freezer or heavier weight ziploc bags because they don't self-destruct in
someone's backpack. the cute little holiday gift bags look nice but fall apart.
Please don't give money. Here in SF, crack costs less than $1.
Some people bristle at the idea of including condoms. A condom could
save someone's life.
And finally: Thanks to every one who decides to
do this! Thank you thank you thank you. Please let me know what you do....it will make my heart beat faster and help me feel sane and grounded again!
Love to you all!
