Daily Archives: September 14th, 2007

Hope Is Not A Myth

This is from a longer blog post from Jamie Tworkowski of To Write Love on Her Arms. I needed to hear this, and I wanted to share it for others who might need to.

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“Laughter is the evidence of freedom.” Bono says that. It’s one of my favorite quotes. If that’s true, then we would assume that a guy like Owen Wilson is certainly free. We always see him laughing. He is always making us laugh. Like a lot of you, I was shocked by the news of Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt.

And in the same week, Mother Theresa was on the cover of Time Magazine. For those of you who don’t know, Mother Theresa is remembered throughout the world as one of the greatest people ever to live. Her service, generosity, humility and leadership in working with the poor and dying in Calcutta, India is known throughout the world. Within the Church, she is known as one of the greatest examples of the Christian life. In short, her life was undeniable.

This cover suggested something different: “The Secret Life of Mother Theresa” it said in bold type, “Her Secret Agony” the headline inside. The article spoke to a 50-year near-silent struggle, and painted a different picture. Mother Theresa in pain. Mother Theresa feeling far from God. I suppose the story was meant to shock. It debated faith and doubt…

I finished the story with a smile. “Wow, she was human after all. She was one of us. She was broken. She was real.” That was my response.

And in the same moment, Owen Wilson is on the cover of People, that word “secret” there again. “The Secret Pain of Owen Wilson”. And again, a different picture. Heartache. Addiction. Pain. But what about all the millions in the bank? What about all the fame and all the fans, all the people who love him? Surely, he could find another girl… There’s plenty of fish in the sea, right?

Or maybe life is really really hard. For pretty much everyone. And suddenly, Owen Wilson is one of us. A human being. A real person with real problems. Questions. Struggles. A person in need.

This could probably be it’s own essay, which it wasn’t meant to… I guess I just want to say that I find hope in this possibility that we all have a lot more in common than we might guess at first glance. These are people that our culture, people everywhere, place on pedestals. And yet these are people who could not escape the human condition. Broken people, people in need of hope.

Life is hard. Owen Wilson isn’t always laughing. Mother Theresa wasn’t always walking the streets of Calcutta feeling like a million bucks. I suppose the point I’m trying to make is this: We are very much the same. We are people in need. Life is hard for most of us most of the time. Our fragile hearts break. We all have a story, and in every story, in every life, there is so much going on below the surface. And perhaps there are moments where you pray, but God feels far away. Does He care? Does anyone care? Is there hope for us?

I say yes. We say yes.

I have been learning a lot about community. I believe it’s the idea that people need other people, that we need people who know us. We need relationships and places where we can be honest. We will face complex problems, complex questions, that require complex answers. It is certainly easier to stay silent, to skip this whole conversation. That’s what most people do. We don’t like dirty laundry. We prefer to wear our cleanest shirt. But we have to face our broken stuff. We have to do our laundry. We have to learn to heal, to let go, to grow. We were meant to live.

The process might be uncomfortable. It probably will. For some, it’s a phone call to a hotline, or a counseling office. “I’d like to make an appointment”, “I need to talk to someone” or maybe it’s simply sitting down with your parents, or a friend, or a teacher, for a conversation that’s long-overdue. Is there someone you trust? Is there someone who knows you? I hope so. I know I need that. I think we all need that.

A friend sent me a really difficult email a few days ago. When I read the subject, I knew what it was about. I was so freaked out that I didn’t read it for two days. I just let it sit in my inbox and I worried about it. I was afraid to face it.

And finally, I opened it. And it was painful. Some really hard truths. The kind that steal your sleep. But it was his last words that hit me the hardest: “Hope is not a myth”, he said. And that is the thing that has stayed with me, that possibility that this thing we talk about, it is true. And if something is true, it is certain. We can reach for it. Lean on it. Run to it. Hope is not a myth.

So wherever you are tonight, wherever this finds you… You are not alone. We are all a people in need. But there is so much hope. And hope is not a myth.

Love and Evangelism

Some people really irritate me. If they find out someone isn’t a Christian, or that the person was a Christian but has left the church for some reason, they think they have the job to start evangelizing outright to the person. Many assume that they know all the answers, and that all the person needs to do is just listen or something like that. I’ll admit, I’ve been there.

Surely, sometimes it is all that’s needed. But this isn’t always the case. I would imagine that it’s rarely the case, in fact. Often, people have been turned off by false gospels such as that of the Health and Wealth movement in the Evangelical church. As Fr. Thomas Hopko puts it, these are the people who teach that all you have to do is believe in Jesus and you’ll be healthy, you’ll have plenty of money, and your color TV will work.

Some have been utterly disgusted by the antics of people who call themselves Christians while shouting messages of hate, all in the name of expanding the Kingdom. Recently, here on the campus of UT, there was a demonstration staged by a travelling ministry called Soulwinners International. How did they go about “winning souls”? By preaching on the pedestrian walkway in front of Hodges Library with signs and t-shirts saying “Homos Go To Hell.” This went on for a couple of days, and eventually escalated to a shouting match with the UT chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance.

As a Christian, this disturbed me. It’s entirely contradictory to preach that “God so loved the world…” and then say that someone who is gay is going to Hell, simply for being gay. Now, I’m not going to debate the concept of homosexuality being a sin or not. But, if you consider it to be a sin, then bear in mind that it’s no worse than any other sin. Cheats, liars, thieves, and adulterers are also sinners, and I don’t see anyone condemning them to Hell on the sidewalks of my campus. So often, evangelicals will say “Sin is sin. No one sin is worse than the others.” Yet, when it comes to that sin, they’re all going to burn without question. I don’t get it. Besides…have they forgotten verse 17 of John 3? “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world…”

When it comes to presenting the Gospel to those who don’t rightly know it, we are commanded to do it in love and patience. (cf John 13:35, 1 Cor. 13:4-8) The God that is revealed by Christ, who is our ultimate model, is one of love and not judgement. Is he the Judge? Absolutely. But, as Fr. Stephen says, we know nothing of God’s judgement, only his mercy. If we are to show what we believe is Truth to others, we have to do it within the truth that is contained therein, that “God is a good God and loves mankind.”

St. Francis of Assisi said, “At all times and to all people, preach the Gospel. Use words if you have to.” If someone is really looking for answers, searching for truth honestly, that’s all you have to do. I’m utterly convinced of this. If they really are running hard after the Truth in spite of their preconceived notions and the junk that they carry with them as a result of whatever previous misrepresentations or abuses of the Gospel message, then they’ll respond to it if they can manage to have an encounter with it. That encounter doesn’t need to include a list of everything wrong with them; many of them already know all of that and hear it from the rest of the world, making any such approach no different from what they’d find elsewhere. Instead, that encounter should be filled with honesty and love. “I don’t know” and “I don’t really understand why you feel that way, but I understand that it’s where you are in your life, and sometimes things like that take time to deal with,” and like assurances are essential. And it shouldn’t be done duplicitously, just so you can say you’re being a good witness. It takes grace to do this, and we should all seek it daily and moment by moment.

Moreover, you don’t even have to quote scriptures or the Fathers or the homily you heard last week. Sometimes it’s just enough to take someone in and tell them that they’re human beings and worth attention and love and grace, and that you want to give it to them as best you can. By what I see on TV and have heard from some minsters and just everyday people over the past few years, it’s a rare occasion that this happens anymore.

In his first epistle, John says to love “not with words or with tongue, but in action and in truth” (3:18) He also says that “God is love” (4:8). So, it seems to me that, if you can love someone in what you do for them, they will see God. I’m starting to believe this is the only essential task. (Of course, along with things in our spiritual lives that serve to change us more and more into the image and likeness of Christ.) Their conversion is between them and God. But, as I said, if they’re looking for it, and this really is the Truth, then it just follows that it’s what they’re looking for, so it’s only a matter of time, however long that period of time may be. More to the point, we evangelize and God saves in His good time.

I’ve been reminded of the simplicity of this several times recently, and I felt it was worth saying here. I hope it makes sense. :)