Fools

 I sang at my dad’s church yesterday.

While practicing for the service,

I cried.

 

“Lord, you never said that the road would be easy.

The mockers and scoffers and critics and skeptics will stand up to taunt you.

Only a fool would choose to walk into uncertainty

I guess I’m a fool ‘cause I choose You

Though a struggle it may be

So let it be.”

 

I remember writing those words with a friend

At a camp where we both used to spend the majority of our free time.

I wrote it for an organization that I believed in and gave my life to,

But in the end, the organization parted ways with me because our theologies didn’t match.

In short, I am welcoming and affirming.

The organization and its main partners are not.

 

To be honest, the break-up was hard.

I leapt into uncertainty,

Choosing Christ’s love above denominational loyalty,

Foolishly trying to live into the fullness of God’s creation,

While struggling to redefine all I had ever known.

 

Maybe that’s why I cried while I practiced those words.

Maybe they hit a little too close to home.

Because maybe I’m a fool for choosing my understanding of Christ,

And yet…let it be.

 

I finished Martin Luther King’s autobiography last week.

I know he had his weaknesses.

I know he had his flaws.

But I also know that he had a rock-solid faith in the love of Jesus Christ,

And that his faith led him to non-violent direct action that changed a nation.

He believed that not standing for justice for all people was being complicit in the oppression,

And that staying silent on issues involving the dignity of human life was as bad as openly disparaging an entire group of people.

His faith and beliefs drew jail time, death threats, home bombings, and an ultimate assassination.

Some would say his actions were foolish.

And maybe they were.

But as he said…

Let it be.

 

“Be our light. Be our guide. Help us see in this world

Where we can be the hands and feet of your love.

Help us be. Help us do. Help us live in you, Lord,

In everything shine through us as we follow you.”

 

God: Regardless of the mockers and scoffers and critics and skeptics, give us the strength and courage to choose you…to choose Love…foolish as it may be. Amen.