“My Country.”

H,

We live in this country and so we are affected by it. We are planted here to grow and become more like our eternal selves. This context is important. It means something. We are in the specific venue of most of our life so far. And we are drawn to it, we encounter its problems and live in the midst of its challenges. We cannot live in silos. Faith is about engagement. Knowing God means loving people. And being a light means standing up in these dark rooms.

 

Our country is people. It is not just some land on the map. It is human beings like us striving to be better and to carve meaning out of chaos. The answers are not in us. Many times, the answer is through us. We are these beacons, moons, translucent shards of brokenness and carriers of this divine light. Being vulnerable will always be more important than being right. Which is good because we are very rarely right about anything.

 

Our country will always be each other. The lines will fade, race will be obsolete, time will turn all of us more alike than we are now, and these bodies will mesh into nothingness. We will remain beings, beyond country and ethnicity and race and ideology and gender and affiliations. What is eternal is that we belong to each other.