A Separation of Church and State?

Where do I start?  After last week's MLK retreat and presidential inauguration, I was left with a lot of food for thought and a new hopefulness for our country.  I came back refreshed and renewed, but over the course of this past week, I've heard so many negative comments about the ceremony itself, and just general negativity about this presidency.  It's been a big energy suck.  Seriously.

This past Sunday at church we had a visiting priest, a monk from one of the churches in Armenia.  As he gave his sermon, I couldn't help but connect the attitudes regarding our church, with the attitudes regarding our country.  Fr. Asbed is assigned to a small monastery in Armenia.  Since most of the older adult population  grew up under the communist regime, he didn't have many in his congregation that were true believers.  But he was happy to report about the children.  He had 22 children coming to Sunday school, a handful of altar servers, and a children's choir.  He was hopeful.  But, he reported, that most people that come to his church, view the church as a museum, some "antique" building  to visit.  And what unnerved him was that the people that came to "visit" were very critical of the church complaining that the grounds could use maintenance, or that the place looked run down.  To which he would respond to them, "Excuse me?  Who are you to come here and criticize.  I've never even seen you here"  He went on to remind us that the church was not "his" or the country's but it belonged to ALL of us.  And it was up to all of us to take care of it.  Whether we had the blessing of financial ability or we could volunteer our voices in the choir or serve on the altar, or if we can help with physical maintenance, we should all understand that these talents are entrusted to us by God and that we should use them to his glory. 

Okay, a simple message, right?  Take care of what is entrusted to you by God.  It's up to you to take care of it.  And so what about our country?  What about our world?  For those of us that are blessed to live in the U.S., or in any democratic society that allows us to vote for our leaders, whether you agree with your elected officials or not, it's our country.   We are entrusted to take care of it...to make the best of what we have, and if not, to use our talents to bring about change to make it better for everyone.  Not sit back and bash and bad mouth. 

When I got back from Big Bear last weekend, I asked a friend of mine if he had watched the inauguration.  The response was no, that he wouldn't want to watch it.  I filled him in on what he had missed - the prayers, the poem, our president's speech.   His response was that the president has speech writers who write the speech for him and therefore it's not sincere and that, oh, by the way,  Beyoncé lip-synced the National Anthem of all things! (how could she?)  Really?  Okay, so he didn't view the ceremony, yet he knew all about it from various media outlets.  And to be clear, it wasn't the fact that he didn't watch it that upset me - certainly, everyone has a right to choose what they want to do with their time  - but what upset me was this person's negative and pre-conceived speculation on programming he didn't watch based on political bias - based on the commentary of pundits and speculations by media talking-heads.

Our country was built by the sweat of our people.  People who worked together for these United States. Every four years we elect a president.  Your political party either wins or loses.  Are we like the people that come to visit the little church in Armenia?  Detached and removed by choice, and then filled with negativity and complaints failing to see that this country belongs to ALL of us, and it's up to all of us to make use of our God-given talents to make it great?  We learned last week at our retreat that we CAN make change happen.  It requires patience, persistence, hope, prayer but more than anything, change requires action. It's easy to sit back and criticize.  I, too, was not happy with our president's first term, but I am hopeful that this next term will be better.   If we're not happy with the current situation, then we can work together to make it better.  And it's okay to complain (because we shouldn't just sit back and drink the Kool-Aid), but we should at least be informed on what we're complaining about and then work toward fixing it.

Is this democratic system that was created to unite us and give us a voice, creating separation and complacency among us?  I pray that we can set aside political party bias and prejudice and use everything in our ability to make things  better for all.  The office of president is a difficult and challenging one for anyone, no matter what their party affiliation.  Let's pray that God grant our president the wisdom to lead our nation toward peace and prosperity.  And also, pray that He gives us the courage and wisdom to judge a man not by his political party, but by the content of his actions.  And then after that informed judgment is made, to create in us the passion and fire to either work toward implementing those programs or create new ones that are better!

Finally, I'll leave with you a quote I read from one of our past presidents - Franklin D. Roosevelt:
There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still."  Let's work together to move beyond our prejudices and work to achieve our highest potential...and let's do it together.

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The Importance of Community in the Process of Healing

Yesterday was my first Sunday back at church.  Since my mastectomy four weeks ago, I've not been physically able to attend.  I am blessed to have a very wonderful church family.  We truly are like a family; and when I got diagnosed and went public with my cancer, they were there, praying for me.

I was excited and a bit scared about returning.  The scariness lay in the fact that we all missed one another, and that would warrant hugs, and hugs might be a bit painful yet.  So I had it in my head that I was going to approach with the left shoulder leading, hug with the left.  : )  It's always good to be prepared with a strategy.

It was great to be back.  I had a two-fold reason for wanting to go back this Sunday.  1.  I wanted to give thanks to God for the blessings of health; my surgery going well; the road to recovery being "so far so good."  2.  It was my nephew/Godson's last Sunday at church before his move to AZ to pursue his Masters in architecture.  So...I got ready. 

Getting ready I realized, once again, that I am down on myself.  My midsection is still swollen and I feel puffy.  I haven't been able to bend much, and the walking has been good one day, pay back the next.  My weight has been up since the surgery, and though my daughter and sister tell me that it's early yet, that it's only been a short time since the surgery, I want it all to be "normal" again.  I'm impatient with myself.  So there I am, beating myself up....and we go to church.

We pull up, and Sonig is outside.  She saw me get out of the car and came running up with open arms to softly hug me.  I walk into church, and my "me" disappears, and it's just so great to be back.  It's like a family reunion.  As I'm walking to my seat, I see smiles from friends.  It was great to be back in choir.  It was great to smell the familiar sweet incense; to see my family serving on the altar, and to worship with my church community.  When we gave the kiss of peace, it was so neat to hug my sister Susan, my friends Anoush and Lusine and great them with the message that Christ is revealed among us! 

After church, we had a small send off for my nephew who has been our church organist for the past three years.  That was bittersweet.  I'm excited for him because I know he will excel in his studies.  He's brilliant.  And I'm sad because we'll all miss him, his smile, his music, his creativity. 

Hugs were met with my "soft hugs" admonishment, and all went "pretty well."  : )  My homeless outreach partner in crime, Suzie, told me at least three times that she was so happy to see me, and  I just felt really blessed.  One of my friends came up after church and said, "I was praying for you and then I opened my eyes and you were here."  Reggie came up and told me she started crying when she saw me walk in because she had thought of me and prayed to see me.  Koko, my friend from our homeless outreach said, "I was starting my prayers praying for you....and then I was ending my prayers praying for you....and lately have I started and ended my prayers praying for you."

It's hard to convey how much this all means to me.  I know that I am where I am today....a survivor...because of God's grace, because of these very special prayers from my family/friends, and because of the belief (theirs and mine) that these prayers will be answered.  And they were.

To all of you out there who are praying for me...I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I truly believe that I could not have done this without your support, your love, and your prayers.  I love you all!