Tuscon

I am not sure what to say to the atrocities that occurred in Tuscon over the weekend.

Political pundits have weighed in. Westboro Baptist Church has their plans. The Pima County Sheriff's department has a perspective. The "talking heads" on television and radio have opined for four days.

I am not sure what to say to all of these things.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was executed for his opposition to the Nazi party wrote these words from his cell in a concentration camp...

"Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or don't do, and more in light of what they suffer."

It is easy to have opinions about others. It is easy to be critical, from a distance, about what has been said or should have been said.

Often I have seen people make sweeping generalizations about a person or  group of people only to discover that the thing they were most critical of in others is the challenge they face in their own lives. 

It's the sort of thing Jesus talked about when He said, "let he who is without sin, hurl the first rock." 

What would happen if we "regarded" people more in light of what they suffer rather that by what they say or do? I am not sure what that looks like completely, but I am willing to give it a shot. 

To do so, frees me from being judgmental. It sets me free to see people as He sees them. It causes me to realize that I have no business picking up rocks much less throwing them even if those rocks come in the form of words or deeds.

Many words have been spoken about the mayhem in Tuscon. I wonder how many of them have been redemptive and how many have been destructive? 

So, today I pray this prayer when I see the suffering around me, "let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight..." Amen