Well That Just Did It

You know, I was gone all weekend.  While SCOTUS was busy changing the laws of the states and changing the lives of homosexual couples everywhere, I was busy trying to eek out a little private time with my family.  I was on a mission to de-stress my husband, and find a bit of sanctuary of my own.  I wanted to be apart from others, so I could hear God’s voice and let him envelop me as I prepared to give a sermon this week.  Friday night, when I checked Facebook, I found rainbows everywhere, and several friends who had posted their celebration of the decision of our country’s high court, to overturn any state freedom to deny the right to marriage for same sex couples.  I also saw several friends who were trying to express their sadness of the court’s decision in a tactful and loving way, most of whom were met with some form of anger and indignation at anyone being saddened by the redefinition of the term “marriage”.   I felt sad for those who were happy about the decision, and I felt sad for those who were sorrowful about it.  I felt sad because I saw people I loved trying to voice their feelings on their own social space, and they were shut down, belittled, cursed at, and made to seem as though they, and their opinions were “less than”…  I am saddened that we have become like a playground full of bullies who refuse to listen to and hear voices other than our own.

I felt sad because I love a lot of people, who have a lot of different opinions.  I love people because they are God’s precious children, and He has commanded me to love them.  I love people because for whatever good reason, God put them in my life, and I know above all things, God wants me to love them because I can’t think of any other way to treat them.  If I have known them a day, I’ve known them a hundred years; because we seem to have a way of just letting everything out, my friends and I.  We seem to have this wonderful ease about our relationship, where we can just say what we want and be who we are, and we can somehow find a way to appreciate the differences in each other, and peaceably communicate.  One of my friends – who happens to be a different political affiliation, who happens to hold different societal views, who happens to be more educated, and have a different parenting style, and by the way, she just so happens to be gifted differently than I am – gave me a card once, and in that card were the most precious words I’d ever read about myself.  She told me that she enjoyed our relationship because no matter how polar our differences seemed, she never felt judged.  She always felt that I cared about her exactly as she was, and that she felt comfortable being herself around me.  I came to gauge my treatment of everyone else after that, by those words of hers.  They were that important to me!

I haven’t posted anything about how I feel about the Supreme Court Decision, or about marriage equality or racism (which are not the same thing, by the way) because my opinion does not matter.  What I think about all the evil in the world or all the good in the world is not important.  How I act in response to them is important.  So, I’ve been acting in the only way I know how to act.  I’ve been acting in love.  I’ve been praying for all the people who are upset for either “side”.  I’ve been praying for the salvation of the lost (whomever they are).  I’ve been loving on my kids, so that they know that no matter what crazy things are happening in this big ol’ world, life at home is consistent and rather boring.  I’ve been choosing my words carefully, and I’ve been waiting until God gives me something wise and kind and righteous to say about the topic of marriage equality or racism.  Until then, I intend to keep my mouth shut about it all.

So why am I posting?  What did it?  You ask…

The rainbow on the top of my WordPress screen.

I understand that this decision by the supreme court is monumental.  I get it that it is provoking and inflammatory and stirring.  I know that it is something that will be discussed around watercoolers the world over tomorrow, and it has baited the creative juices of even meager bloggers such as myself.  I believe that it should be talked about.  I know that the decision will cause differences of opinions, it will challenge us all to truly cut away the fat and get to the meat of what we believe, and we will have to stand behind those beliefs until we are able to see things from another perspective.  Oh yes, back to why I posted “Well That Just Did It”…  Because there is a rainbow on my screen.

I would have expected this from Google, they change their logo to celebrate everything.  I would have expected it from Facebook, because they have apps that change profile pictures into rainbows.  But wordpress?  No.  I was blindsided by that one.  But, I’m not angry.  I’m not going to tell you that I’m mad because there’s a rainbow on the top of my screen.  I’m not going to throw a tantrum because I don’t like the use of the rainbow for just any little thing… didn’t like it for Skittles, don’t like it for marriage equality, don’t even like it for those sour taffy candy that looks like a rainbow.  I’m not going to use this little rainbow banner, which wordpress has apparently decided I need to see today (for the nine millionth time) as a launching pad for a debate I’m not ready to partake in.  Nope.

I’m going to use it for God.  I’ve been thinking about it every time one of my Facebook friends changes their profile picture using the facebook.com/celebratepride app.  I’m going to pray every single time I see a rainbow.

What will I pray about, you ask?  Well, I’ll be praying for different things.  Sometimes, I’ll be praying for God to use me to speak peace to everyone who continues to argue about a decision made by man.  Sometimes, I’ll be praying for the safety of those same sex couples.  That they might not be persecuted for their newly adjudicated right to marry in any of the 50 states of this great nation, regardless of how the state mandates, or it’s constituents vote.  I’ll be praying for the justices who passed this law, that they might live out the remainder of their days in peace with their decisions, and if they have no peace, I pray they would find a way to make peace.  I’ll be praying for my children, to know that love is for everyone, even for people with whom we don’t agree, for lifestyles we don’t live, and for those that society sees as “others”.  Love is for everyone.  There really are no “others”.  I’ll pray for myself, to be a teacher of tolerance, as my mother was.  She taught me that people are people, and all people, though different in many ways, are worthy of redemption.  I’ll be praying for God to show me how to love people I don’t understand.  Oh boy… I really have some praying to do!  So I’ll spare you the entire list (there’s hundreds of ways I’ll pray) and just leave you with this thought…

What if we took every thing and every one we didn’t like, didn’t understand, and feared; and what if we looked at those things square in the face and said, “I’m not running.  I’m staying and I’m doing the very best thing that I can do.  I’m going to give you the respect that I would want, and I’m going to love the very best way I know how.”  What if we did that for every one and every thing?  I’m starting with this rainbow banner that I didn’t ask for on my wordpress reader and homepage.  Where are you going to start?

© amysara and TheRFarm.
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