I turn on the news or open my newsfeed or turn on the radio, and I hear hate. It’s coming from all places, making all sounds, using all sorts of words.
But in this house, behind these walls, we speak love.
I see confusion out there. I face chaos. Truth is called lies and lies are heralded as truth. Blackness is called light, and light is pushed under blankets and in closets and down in cellars.
But in this house, we seek the truth. We hold it in our sights. We block out the noise and and the chaos and the lies, and we focus on the one truth we can possibly know. We trust it to deliver us safely to the place we all long to one day go.
Out there there’s jumping to conclusions. There’s holding people to the upmost account for their worst motives or proclivities or moments. Out there there are cries for justice against the few and grace for none.
In this home, we speak our justice in truth. We love the person while speaking truth to the sin. We hold each other accountable and we ask for grace. And then we show each other grace. We judge people by their light rather than their darkness. We are light seekers.
Out there there is anger. And it’s lauded. It’s celebrated. It’s termed just. It’s glorified, and it’s worshiped. It’s made into a god.
In this house, we speak forgiveness. We refuse to be at full service to the tummults of anger that well up in every human heart. We respect it and honor it and then put it in its rightful place on the sidelines, overcome by grace and forgiveness and mercy and light.
Out there is a world searching for an answer and searching for a direction. There’s no road map. There’s no guide. There are only futile and frantic attempts to define self by an ever changing set of internal circumstances and whims and prejudices and storms.
In this house, we find our worth in God and how we were created by Him and for Him.
And out there there is despair. There is a lack of hope, and it’s fueled by fear.
But in this house, we speak joy. We dance and sing and talk too loud. We praise too graciously and we celebrate all there is to be celebrated.
This is our song, our creed, our goal, and sometimes our reality. At least each day we strive to make it so.