Can we stop fighting terrorism?

My friend Rev. Lance Marshal  is a much better preacher than I am (as well a better academic,  much more creative, thought provoking and all around a better person). A few weeks ago in a sermon after the Paris attacks he spoke about terrorism. Specifically he drew the parallel to terrorism as cancer. 

In his sermon Season Of Saints: The Way of Healing on November 14, at minute mark 25 Lance fleshes out this metaphor. 

If you don't listen to it, you are missing out on some of the best 5 minutes of preaching. Take time to listen to it. 

Seriously, the last 90 seconds is a prayer so if you only have 3:30 minutes take it to listen to Lance. 

When you do you will hear Lance, a cancer survivor himself, talks about cancer as something that is to be cured despite it is something we talk about "fighting". If it is true that if all of humanity being one body of Christ, then when we "fight" terrorism with more pain, terror and bombs, we are only fighting ourselves. Like cancer, terrorism is not anything you can "fight" or "beat" it is something that can only be cured. 

Why I love to wait

Generally speaking, I like to wait. It really does not bother me to be in traffic or wait for the doctor. Granted, there are some exceptions but for the most part waiting does not bother me. 

Waiting is the one where we are given social permission to do nothing. It is like a "rest" in disguise. It is a time when we can do nothing and not have the social stigma of "doing nothing". 

Waiting is a time when we can practice Sabbath in the small room of our souls and no one blames us for resting. Think of the last time you were in traffic or waiting at the DMV. You may have gotten frustrated but no one was frustrated with you for "just waiting". 

We live in a time that does not value time off or rest or vacation or Sabbath because we are not "doing". At the same time we idolize the time in our lives when we are "retired" and don't have to work. The beauty of waiting is having the best of both worlds. It is both a time of doing and not doing. It is a time of work and rest in the same moment. 

This is, in part, what I love to wait.

My kid punched a kid, so I punched him to teach him a lesson

I have brown eyes but my wife has blue eyes. I have brown hair but Estee has blonde. I have fine hair but Estee has full hair. I have oily skin but Estee is has normal skin. When you look at our boys you can see each of their parents in their body. 

One has blue eyes, blonde hair, oily skin and full hair. The other has blue eyes, brown hair, normal skin and fine hair. There is a residue of each of their parents in their lives. 

This is how DNA works.

While we know this about biology, this is also true about psychology. I was raised in a home with a mother who is a "hugger" and a father who highly values commitment. I am a mix of these two things. There are times I catch myself acting exactly like like my mother or father. The circumstances in my past are present in the present. 

When we create something, be it a child, artwork or even a society, there is a residue of the creator(s) in the created. When a child grows up in an environment that deals with anger by being abusive toward women, chances are that child will not know how to deal with anger other than to abuse women. The residue of the ones who help create that child will be present in that child throughout life. 

It is important to remember when we create solutions to problems, even problems of violence, we need to be very aware of the ways we create the solution. The things that go into that solution will be present in that solution. If we use chocolate chips in a batter and expect that after all the ingredients go into the oven that they chocolate will some how be absent in the cookie, we are fools. If we use violence to solve a problem and expect violence to some how be absent in the future, we are fools. 

I do not know the way forward in dealing with violence. I do know that if we use violence then we will only create solutions that in turn will have the seeds of violence within it. If we want to eradicate violence, let us begin with eradicating violence in the solutions we create.