Love is an Orientation
Until Friday the 9th I will be speaking in Wisconsin at Lifest 2010. The third talk I’m giving is:
What Jesus Actually Meant When He Said Love Your Enemies.
Fitting, no? I’ll have plenty to say because I’ve had to humbly struggle through this exact thing the last week. It has been a very difficult rollercoaster for me the last few days emotionally, spiritually and mentally as I take everything too personally and it hits my core. But hope is a shield that provides space to faithfully continue walking forward. And walk on (well, at this moment it’s more like crawl) I will, even though everything inside of me just wants to disappear.
Oh, one other ironic sidenote. I got an email from the organizers of Lifest and they said they had received about a dozen emails from very conservative Christian folks emailing their sponsors urging them to drop their sponsorship because both Jim Wallis and I are speaking. These emailers called me a “heretical emergent pastor who loves gay people.” Ugh. Welcome to my everyday life. Just a part of being the bridge though – you make yourself vulnerable to both sides. I know many people who tell me that all of this stuff is like a badge of honor that you must be doing something right. But I take no pride in being accused and attacked from either direction; it just hurts my heart. So I pick up the pieces and try my best to keep going down the path I know I need to journey.
I read a tweet today from Zappos that read:
“Great opportunities lie in doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.”
I retweeted it with the addition:
“It takes no guts to retweet this, but it takes a world of them to live it out.”
Let that continually be my challenge as it’s what I’m trying to do everyday. Thanks for caring enough to be on this journey with me (yes, even for those who don’t so much care for me).
Much love.
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