Immigration Is Hard

I knew a couple who came to the US from the Soviet Union. They were in an American grocery store for the first time, close to Christmas. They wept with joy as Silent Night played over the sound system. A few minutes  later, they stood astounded in the dairy aisle. “How many kinds of butter do Americans need?”

I read a book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, about Hmong refugees. Medical science, with its exact doses and precise timing, bumps up against a culture whose clock is the sun and unit of measure is a handful.

 

1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)
Love bears all things.

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Unhappy Ever After?

We’d like to think that our immigration stories all have happy-ever-after endings. 

But I worry about those sneaking across the border. How many young people are picked up by perverts, recruited by brutal gangs or abandoned by coyotes who promise a glorious garden and deliver a desert?

How many end up worse off than they started?

 

 

Lord God, show us a better way.

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Rules of Debate

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Safe Middle Ground

 

Immigration is a hot topic just now. What do you think?

 

 

  • Keep out — build the wall
  • Come! There’s a place here for everyone
  • I’m confused

Yes, we have enough to share. And no one wants a gangster, thief or bomb-builder living next door.

Matthew 10:16 (ESV)
Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Everybody take a deep breath. Stop the name calling.

Don’t turn the middle ground into a no man’s land.

 

 

 

 

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Who’s Listening?

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Listening, Day 1

 

OK, Lord, I spoke less today. But I can’t say
that I listened more. 

 

 

This listening for Lent is harder than I thought.

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Closed Mouth, Open Ears

 

Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.

 

Everybody else has something to say, but Jesus is silent. 

Maybe Jesus is intently listening to the lies spoken about him. Or maybe he hears his Father’s still small voice whispering over the roar of the crowd.

James 1:19
Be quick to listen, slow to speak
and slow to become angry,

That’s our Jesus — quick to listen, slow to speak. And when he does speak, it’s not anger. It’s forgiveness.

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Listen for Lent

Most people give up something for Lent. Just to be different, sometimes I add something for Lent.

 

 

This year, I’m going to listen for Lent. 

 

 

That’s what God told me to do (at least, that’s what I think he said).

What about you? Are you listening?

 

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Do This, or Do Nothing

 

 

What is going on in our land?

 

  • Progress!
  • It’s a mess!
  • What to do next?

It’s simple, really:

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Humble ourselves. And pray.

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Pray Nice

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