Pondering...

Yesterday, the kids and I watched the inauguration.  Sadly, I realized that it's the first one I remember watching.  I am hoping I'm just forgetting about others, but it does offer some insight into the laxness of my political involvement.  I vote and try to keep up with the news, but most of my time and energy goes into living (some days it's more like surviving) my own day to day life. 

But when I do stop to consider political issues, I realize that I don't fit anywhere. I am pro-environment, pro-life, and sometime even pro-government-please-stay-completely-out-of-my-personal-views/business. I have friends marching in today's Women's March on D.C. and I have friends posting articles and comments against it.  I have friends who are vocal Trump supporters and friends who are equally vocal in their absolute dismay at the way this election turned out. 

I feel lost and confused, like I'm wandering around in a dark forest of ideologies and can't find the one I'm searching for. I feel troubled by the angry/snarky/rude comments I see traded back and forth on social media from all views.  I feel overwhelmed by the deep division and vast gulf between sides.

But today I've been pondering Jesus and the diverse group of people with which he chose to surround himself.  Yes, he engaged with religious leaders, prostitutes, skeptics and many other "sinners."  But I'm thinking about his closest friends and how they came from such different walks of life and probably held very different views.  Several working class fishermen, but also a government tax collector and an anti-government zealot.  And he loved them all the same.  Deeply, personally, and sacrificially.  And he told them to do the same. 

  John 13.34 "A new commandment I give to you, 

that you love one another: just as I have loved you, 

you also are to love one another." 

Rembrandt van Rijn Christ Washing The Feet of His Disciples 

So to all of the different people whose paths have crossed with mine, please know that I rejoice in having each of you as a friend. And I will love you. I will think about you, worry about your troubles, laugh with you, invite you over for dinner (if you live close by) and help you in any way that I can. Because I am a political misfit, I probably won't be loving you for your beliefs; in fact, I may even be loving you in spite of your beliefs. 

But I will love you all just the same. 

~Amy