Loving Your Neighbor
Well, I have been traveling around the last couple of weeks for work. It has been really busy and I don't always have internet access. There are places in this state that are no where close to having WiFi, in fact, some counties only have one or two restaurants. True. Last week the Judge and I were in a county in another district hearing a criminal trial. There was only one restaurant in town. So, every day at lunch everyone went to the same restaurant - the defendant and his family, the prosecutor and police, and me and the Judge. It felt like we were in an old movie. I kept waiting for the director to say, "cut."
We have also had some interesting things happen around the courthouse lately. My personal favorite story is the guy who showed up to go to prison. He brought with him a ziploc bag filled with 2 romance novels, lotion, shampoo, and baby powder. Talk about being prepared. Many of my friends have made requests as to which romance novels, and shampoo they would need if sent to prison.
Oh, and last week I went to the Kindergarten classes for my "Lawyer in Every Classroom" bit. The topic was misconduct in school, and I had to water it down a little bit for them, or so I thought. These kids see more crime than I do. We were discussing what actions will make you go to prison and one said, "shootin' someone, stealin' money," then one little boy said, "smokin' weed." I almost fell out of my chair at that one. I mean, they are five and six. The teacher said, "Elijah some people might not know what weed is. Weed is marijuana and it is a drug that you smoke and it is illegal."
One teacher asked me to discuss why it is misconduct to scrape the cork out of the new cork boards. I started telling them how the cork boards were there to display all of their art work and what not when one little boy said, "well, James licks the board." Without even thinking I said, "DISGUSTING. That board probably has germs." All the kids laughed.
Another teacher told me after my little presentation, "you sure do relate well to kids. Do you have children?" I said, "no." She said, "you married?" I said, "No." She said, "Well, my husband of 21 years died in December." So, I said, "I am so sorry." And she said, "That was a hard thing." And I said, "I am sure it was really hard when he died." She said, "no, that wasn't hard. Being married was hard, and I will never do that again." I couldn't think up a response.
All of my travels have made me really start thinking about the fact that we tend to get caught up in our own lives and we forget that so many people live in such different and harder circumstances than us. There is a line in "Taking Woodstock" that gets to the heart of this: "Everyone with their little perspective. Perspective shuts out the universe, it keeps the love out." Someone challenged me this week to live more fully into my baptismal covenant, particularly the question which asks "Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?" See, the hard part of that is, we don't get to choose our neighbor - our neighbor is every one in the World. Remember, the Bible says "For God so loved the World," not "for God so loved who I think God should love." Perspective. When we start truly loving all persons as ourselves, then we will start gaining the view of many other perspectives, letting a lot of love in. Thus, I challenge you, as well as myself, to start looking at the world through other perspectives and to seek and serve Christ in all persons. It will not be easy, but just as the covenant says, "I will, with God's help."
We have also had some interesting things happen around the courthouse lately. My personal favorite story is the guy who showed up to go to prison. He brought with him a ziploc bag filled with 2 romance novels, lotion, shampoo, and baby powder. Talk about being prepared. Many of my friends have made requests as to which romance novels, and shampoo they would need if sent to prison.
Oh, and last week I went to the Kindergarten classes for my "Lawyer in Every Classroom" bit. The topic was misconduct in school, and I had to water it down a little bit for them, or so I thought. These kids see more crime than I do. We were discussing what actions will make you go to prison and one said, "shootin' someone, stealin' money," then one little boy said, "smokin' weed." I almost fell out of my chair at that one. I mean, they are five and six. The teacher said, "Elijah some people might not know what weed is. Weed is marijuana and it is a drug that you smoke and it is illegal."
One teacher asked me to discuss why it is misconduct to scrape the cork out of the new cork boards. I started telling them how the cork boards were there to display all of their art work and what not when one little boy said, "well, James licks the board." Without even thinking I said, "DISGUSTING. That board probably has germs." All the kids laughed.
Another teacher told me after my little presentation, "you sure do relate well to kids. Do you have children?" I said, "no." She said, "you married?" I said, "No." She said, "Well, my husband of 21 years died in December." So, I said, "I am so sorry." And she said, "That was a hard thing." And I said, "I am sure it was really hard when he died." She said, "no, that wasn't hard. Being married was hard, and I will never do that again." I couldn't think up a response.
All of my travels have made me really start thinking about the fact that we tend to get caught up in our own lives and we forget that so many people live in such different and harder circumstances than us. There is a line in "Taking Woodstock" that gets to the heart of this: "Everyone with their little perspective. Perspective shuts out the universe, it keeps the love out." Someone challenged me this week to live more fully into my baptismal covenant, particularly the question which asks "Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?" See, the hard part of that is, we don't get to choose our neighbor - our neighbor is every one in the World. Remember, the Bible says "For God so loved the World," not "for God so loved who I think God should love." Perspective. When we start truly loving all persons as ourselves, then we will start gaining the view of many other perspectives, letting a lot of love in. Thus, I challenge you, as well as myself, to start looking at the world through other perspectives and to seek and serve Christ in all persons. It will not be easy, but just as the covenant says, "I will, with God's help."
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