There are times in life when it's incredibly courageous to take a stand when few others will. Right now seems like one of those times and maybe it is. But there are also times in life when the most courageous thing to do is kneel. When everyone else is sitting, when everyone else is standing, when everyone else is fighting....what if we knelt instead? What if there's too much noise to hear the good news above the yelling but if you simply got down on one knee everyone in the room, maybe even everyone in the world, would hear what you had to say?
I think of St. Maximillian Kolbe who took a knee in anothers place in starvation bunker at a concentration camp. They were trying to kill Christianity by killing Catholic Priests. He didn't have social media or even a megaphone, but he took a knee and prisoners told and re-told that story and what God wanted to say that day is still being said around the world today.
I think of a football player who has 10 members of the opposing team barreling right towards him who decides not to run, not to fight, but to take a knee instead, knowing the rules of the game will get him farther than he could get on his own.
In fact, when I'm knocked down, I can only get up by first getting on my knee.
If you're looking at the world and wondering how we got here, or what can we possible do now, I think there are three different options. I think you can take a stand for what you believe to be right. I think you can sit and pretend it's all going to be fine and try to create your "new-normal". But I don't think either of those things are going to get you were you want to go. I think, the best thing we can all do, is courageously kneel.
And I don't mean on the football field or even in your own house. I mean coming together, in church at the foot of the cross.
In a country and even a world that says "pick sides" we have to come together in our churches and say "all are welcome here" and we have to MEAN IT!
In a world that says "some are better than others", we have to come to church and every single one of us kneel on the same level to the creater of the world, the same Father we share in common.
In a world that says "only some voices should be heard, and only those who agree with us can belong", our churches must be blaring loud examples that EVERY soul- NO MATTER WHAT- is valued, loved, cherished.
And here's the best part guys, it's that easy. There are no dramatic speeches to be made, there are no big capital campaigns, fundraisers, committees, protests, fights. Just come, as you are. Come take a knee with the rest of your brothers and sisters and you'll start seeing them again as your brothers and sisters. Come take a knee and be heard without saying a word. Come take a knee and let Him do your fighting for you and see you'll get further than you ever would have on your own.
I don't have all the answers. I know there are a lot of complicated issues and I have a lot of strong feelings about a lot of them. A LOT is at stake. I'm not asking you to lie down or give up and I'm not saying do nothing. Quite the opposite. To start, I'm asking us to humble ourselves, and kneel along side someone who disagrees with us, maybe even hates us, because we agree on the most important thing: Jesus Christ is the only real true King. Christian churches, must be the places where all of us, no matter how we vote, how we look, what we wear on our face or what we think, ALL OF US can come together and kneel at the foot of the cross.
If your church isn't this place right now it's time to make it that way and it starts with you. Show up. With a smile. And welcome someone else in. There will be a million reasons not to, some big obstacles and temptations to stay home. There's always going to be something and the devil is going to use every excuse in the book to keep you away because he hates it when we're all together the way God intended us to be. You've got a lot of great reasons to stay away, but come anyway, with a humble heart, take a knee, and see what happens.
"Beloved: Everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith." 1 Jn 5:1-4
His commandments aren't burdensome. They are life-giving. And that life is waiting for you each Sunday, each day if you choose it. Will you take a knee along side me? There's some of God's beauty you just can't see when you're standing.
