I couldn’t believe it was broken.
Earlier this week I was cleaning up and moving from room to room at quick pace. I’d taken the sheets off the bed and left them in a pile on the floor. I pulled the door closed behind me so the cat wouldn’t curl up inside them. As I took two steps down the hall, the wall shook and I heard a terrible crash on the other side. I stood frozen in my tracks, knowing just what had happened and dreading what came next.
I took a deep breath, turned around and reentered the bedroom. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath while sadness and nostalgia washed over me. On the floor was my mom’s mirror, shattered in a thousand pieces. It had decorated her bedroom wall when she and my dad got married and hung on mine for the last fifteen years.
On some level, I’d known for a few months it wasn’t hanging securely and something needed to be done. But I hadn’t fixed it and now tiny shards of glass covered the carpet. Bigger chunks lay side by side like a jigsaw puzzle. I winced thinking, “This is not what I had planned to do today.”
And while it’s normal for me to react with four letter words in such a situation, I didn’t freak out. A great calm came over me and I simply knelt down beside the mess. I surveyed the situation and decided how best to clean it up. I got a box, a trash bag, gloves and the vacuum.
Handled haphazardly, roughly or in a rush, any one of those pieces could cut to the bone and I knew it. This required a slow, steady hand. So I got down on my hands and knees and worked in silence for over an hour.
That story comes back to me as I watch the events in Baton Rouge, Minnesota, Dallas, Boston, and New York unfold.
But we are not broken beyond repair.
It is our human nature to react quickly- with four letter words, accusations, rage, and fear. We are tempted to add to the noise that is already deafening and dividing us- to yell louder and take sides and fill in the blanks.
But we need to do just the opposite.
What we need most in our country right now is to humble and quiet ourselves first.
Lower our heads and open our hearts. We need less reacting and more responding with silence. Because in silence,compassion is born. In silence, we can truly listen to one another. In silence, real understanding rises. In silence, we can hear Jesus saying, “The world and its aggravators lie and say you are different. You are not different. You are the same, all created in My image; all saved by My grace; all a part of My family.”
The worst thing we can do now is react haphazardly, roughly, and in a rush. Rather, we need to kneel down beside one another in the mess and ask Jesus how to best clean it up; together. We need to humble our hearts before Jesus, yes...
But most importantly now, we need to humble our hearts before one another.
Will you join me today by honoring all the precious lives that have been lost these last days, and are lost every day around the world? We can do so now in silent and humble compassion before we react?
As we continually humble ourselves, The Lord will help us rise up in new form and come together as the family He created us to be.
If you need to let go of fear an anxiety amidst the disquiet. You can download this free guided meditation.
This article first published on Purpose Dweller.