Acceptance has evolved slowly over time, and greatly over the past five years. Racial equality, Gender equality, LGBTQ equality etc. I tear up every time I see a story about someone who is able to be him or herself freely and comfortably and be accepted by their peers, their workplace and society as a whole.

Yet still, there seems to be an influx of hate groups lately. As progress in equality is made, unthinkable acts of violence are committed. I feel my blood boil when I hear stories of hate and anger over the color of a person’s skin or over an external difference beyond our control.

I taught high school choir in Georgia for six years, and now teach high school choir in Michigan. The school where I taught in Georgia is diverse. 20% White, 20% African American, 20% Asian, 20% Hispanic, 20% everything else. Culture did not decide who would be friends with whom. An Indian student had an Indian dance recital, and her whole choir class went to see her show. I asked one day where the best Vietnamese food in town was, and an African American girl said “Linda Tran’s family has the best restaurant- duh!” A boy who came-out his freshmen year was class president and voted prom king his senior year. A Hispanic soccer star patiently explained the rules of the game to an Asian boy one day in class. A boy with autism brought his favorite snack to share with the class one day- bananas. Even though other students brought cookies or chips to share, no one giggled at the banana option and instead they thanked him and supported his choice of delicious fruit. Continue reading Kindness →

Every week, during our Sunday worship service, we say the Lord’s Prayer together.

Our Father Who art in the heavens,

Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
As in heaven, so upon the earth.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever.
Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13)

While I do usually focus on the content of the prayer and the words I’m speaking, sometimes I listen in awe to the voices around me.

I hear the strong voice of my pastor before me, leading us in prayer while at the same time making his own supplications of God.

I hear the voices of the school-aged boys in front of me, some dutifully reciting the words they’ve learned through years of nightly practice, others struggling with this new communication with the Lord. Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (All Around Me) →

I was thinking about Matthew, the tax collector, the other day, and how the Lord selected an unpopular worker to be His disciple. And how well Matthew justified His choice. As usual, the Lord showed His freedom from prejudice in giving his servant the chance that he never dreamed of, one that changed his life, and our lives as we read his gospel. The Sermon on the Mount, that most radical testament to Christian conviction, commands us to love our enemies, which must be one of the most difficult instructions ever issued. We are obliged to banish the ‘eye for an eye’ impulse and confront one of the greatest spiritual challenges of our lives. And although politicians are not necessarily our enemies per se, the instruction includes our attitude towards them.

I must admit that there are certain people who make my toes curl, whose presence on the TV ruins my day. ‘You lying cheat’, I think judgementally, and if I were Shakespeare I would shout ‘avaunt’. But we belong to a rational and charitable faith and clearly cannot continue as we are. Many politicians are the modern equivalents of the unregenerate Matthew, out for their own advancement, but we know from the Writings that the Lord can use these flawed folk for the good of mankind. We can judge their actions on the surface but are not able to separate the wheat from the chaff, which constitute the internal man or woman. So we are obliged to operate on the benefit of the doubt. Continue reading Should We Love Our Politicians? →

As a child, I thought that, as people grew up, they grew up. I presumed that as children grew into adolescents, and adolescents into adults, they matured accordingly, leaving their childish ways behind and adopting new, more refined, more angelic, more ‘right’ habits and perspectives. This is certainly true to an extent, as we can all witness and attest, however it was a shock to my system when I realised that this isn’t as thorough a transformation as I’d naïvely thought – with anyone, and less so for some than for others.

We are taught to turn to the Lord first and foremost; to do as He would have us do, according to His will. Inherent in this is good, or charity, towards others.
Continue reading Growing Up →