The Cradle

There is a train in Berlin that circles around the outskirts of the city centre, hence the name "ring-bahn".  I live on the western end of the ring while my friend Rike lives on the eastern end.  Needless to say it is a long ride from my place to hers.  You encounter quite a change of scenery when you go on that train as it journeys from district to district.  You also observe a real collection of eclectic colourful people and when I say colourful, read: blue-green-purple mohawked.   Today as I sat on my seat balancing my guitar between my knees and listening to my Ipod on the Ring-bahn, I see this very drunk old scruffy-looking man come onto the train.  He sits one row of seats in front of me, back-to-me, and I see the eyes of the children sitting by him go wide-eyed on their now pale little faces as the man yells loudly at many different people on the train all the while laughing hysterically.  Eventually, he ends up sitting right across from me as I'm sure the parent of the children kindly but firmly instructed him to move.  I stared out the window and made no eye contact as this man swigging back his bottle of vodka with a broken bottleneck laughed obnoxiously.  I knew he said a few things to me, not that I could understand his slurred German words, but I think the comments had to do with my awkward large guitar case and requests for me to play music.  And then all of the sudden, he just started to cry, tears streaming down his face as he clutched onto his broken almost empty bottle.  This man is broken.  This man is alone in a train full of people.  I so desperately wanted to hug this man, hold his hand and tell him he is worth it but I couldn't.  I was frightened of what he might have happened if I did and I had the lame excuse that I wouldn't be able to communicate with him.  I could have punched myself for ignoring this man.  Who am I some self-righteous snob?  The train jolted and his bottles clunked to the floor.  The young man sitting next to him, who obviously had enough at this point, picked up the bottles and dumped the remainder of the contents out the window and I stepped off the train onto the platform as if it never happened.

I've recently started a new daily devotions.  Part of the devotion is dedicated to praying for the church.  The other day as I was praying for the church and its people I got this picture of a cradle.  The cradle was nurturing God's children.  The cradle was caring for the orphaned, widowed, slaved, powerless, ill, homeless, oppressed.  Do you want to know what the cradle symbolized?  THE CHURCH!!!  ME!!!!  A baby cannot survive on its own.  It needs to be loved, educated, supported, raised, protected, encouraged, looked after, discipled and cradled.  The cradle is in works all of the time, not some of the time when it's most convenient for us or doesn't require much sacrifice, effort or risk.  As I think back to the situation on the train today, I see one example where it doesn't always come easy for me to care for God's children.  It's not something I can do on my own so openly and freely.  It takes a lot of boldness and courage.  Though in these acts, the greatness of the Kingdom shines through.  We are meant to live in relationship with one another.  We are meant to get down and messy in other people's lives.   Church let's get to work. Church let's become a spiritual family for one another.

Again back to the devotions I'm doing.  Every week there is a different hymn to focus on.  The one from this week seems very fitting.

  I like this version -->  Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Kings Kaleidoscope

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Peace & love

Being Reduced to an "It"

Let me tell you one of the many reasons I joined this profession was my utmost intolerance for bullying and disrespect amongst children.  I make it a hidden agenda to deflate any child's view that others are inferior to them or that some tasks are just too beneath their status.  Those are absolutely disgusting thoughts and believe me this change of mind set is not an easy fix. I bet you can think back to your childhood and think of a time you were bullied.  I definitely can.  Look back to your childhood and think of a time that you were the bully.  I definitely can.

What do you think of when I say the word bully?  Is it some stereotypical caricature of a large tough male student who steals lunches and beats the little children up?  Guess what... that is a really shallow view.  Read Odd Girl Speaks Out  by Rachel Simmons to see the expanded image of bullies.    

"Bullying is a conscious, wilful, and deliberate hostile activity intended to harm" Kidsareworthit.com

The above quote comes from one of my heroes, Barbara Coloroso.  Read her books.  Go to her conferences.  She hits it home.  Coloroso states that bullying is a way of dehumanizing people.  What does that mean? A bully treats their victim as if their victim is an "it", a thing that can not feel emotion or has no voice or power of their own.  When you dehumanize someone, you are demonstrating that this person has no worth or value.  Now I know I might be sounding very dramatic or exaggerative here but look up the story of Reena Virk, a student in Victoria, BC who was killed by a group of middle school girls or watch the documentary Bully.  (I bawled through the entire thing.)  Bullying is real and the mistreatment does not end when children end their schooling.  It is all around us.  For example: sexual harassment, hazing, bribery, violent threats, physical, mental and emotional abuse, cyber bullies, racist or sexist demonstrations, derogatory terms used, gossip and rumours... shall I go on?  

Again it comes back to demolishing this view that we are somehow superior to other people and able to walk all over them and treat them like dirt scum.  As Coloroso puts it, bullying leads to hate crime which leads to genocide.  The three have the same underlying reason: lack of compassion and demoralizing people to an "it", creating this idea that it's acceptable to harm and hurt others.  Prime example: Northern Ugandan child soldiers who were bullied and manipulated to witness, experience and do awful things.  These young cherished children were mistreated and forced to partake in a genocide or fall victim to the genocide.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this and think of some new innovative idea that will change the face of bullying forever.  All I can come up with is the Christianese slap-it-on-a-bumper-sticker answer of loving your neighbour as yourself.  Don't roll you eyes and say "that's nice".  Jesus commanded this for a reason.  Think about it. What would the world look like, if everyone actually did try to live out this command?  I think their would be a lot less bullying, injustice and hate crime going on in the world.  How would the world look if we taught and modelled to children respect, compassion, and acceptance of neighbours, coworkers, or the employee at the restaurant that screwed up the meal order?  As it was put in the documentary Bully, "It's time to take a stand." Friends let's live out the words of Jesus and be kind, caring and respectful to one another.

peace & love

If you would like to know more about what the heck I am talking about here are some useful resources.

Barbara Coloroso's kidsareworthit

Odd Girl Speaks Out by Rachel Simmons

Bully documentary

WITS anti-bullying program

story of Reena Virk

Pink Shirt Day Anti-bullying awareness

Restore Northern Uganda Documentary with some very graphic stories of child soldiers