Walking With Trees

This is not going to be easy to write. I may make some of my dearest friends mad. I may lose some of my dearest friends. I am sorry, but my heart is heavy. and I must write.

I have been very angry at God lately. Today, I realized my anger has been misplaced. And today, I really need to pray for a friend! I am not eloquent enough to be political. I have very strong political feelings, but I cannot put them into words. But I have proudly claimed myself as a Christian, because I believe in Christ's amazing love and forgiveness. Seems to me, that being a Christian these days is a very convoluted business. I am having a very hard time understanding why more congregations are not standing up and saying "Enough is enough!" We cannot with good conscience be the wealthiest country in the Western World and not take care of some of our poorest and sickest fellow Americans! Now it is no secret that I currently do not have health care. Neither, then do my beloved and precious children. Every night, we shop for affordable plans for our family (healthy family) of five. Brian has a good job. Of course, I am now in school and looking very actively for work. I am thankful that he is employed, and that currently we are healthy. And I am not counting myself amoung the sick and the poor who do not have health care. But it completely boggles my mind that we as this amazingly strong country, do not have an affordable health care system in place. And it leaves me amazed that Christians, yes, followers of Christ, no matter what your religious affiliation may be, are not advocating this. Why not? Personal responsibility? You think our president is the anti-christ? It's not our place to look out for one another?

When someone in a congregation gets sick, or a family's house burns, or someone loses their job, what do we do? We go to them. We serve them. We love them and bring them food, clothing, and once in our case, a car! Because we love Christ and want to be like him. The humble footwasher. I have seen and even been on the recieveing end of some of the most amazing compassion ever. And personally, I have to think about this when I get upset at how divisive we have become. And of course, I have to point out, that being served lovingly isn't just a Christian thing. I would be completely remiss if I didn't point out that one of my most stallwart amazing friends is a Pagan. But.....she would wash my feet in a second. Because she has compassion.

I don't want to lose who I am because I am confused about how I believe. It is obvious I am not conservative in my beliefs. I make no excuses for that. And what got me thinking about this whole mess to begin with, was my need to pray. I have not been doing very much of that lately. And now I have a friend who really needs and deserves to be prayed for. So now, I need to turn to God. And PLEASE do not think I am overly making myself important. I am SO just one person. One person who really loves her friend. One person who hates to alienate people and make them angry. One person who got mad at God, for human problems. And it is scary to get angy at God. But I also don't want to spend my life being a coward. Not standing up for what I believe in because it's not popular or because it's going to make someone angry. And as far as serving one another goes....I have LONG way to go on that! I am remiss at taking care of my fellow man. For stopping and looking around me at who just might need me for a second, a minute, or maybe even longer. And I am NO Bible scholar, nor do I care to be one. But I love that story in the Bible about the bleeding woman. The one that was so disgusting no one had anything to do with her. And in a huge crowd she (a lowly woman), touches Christ's robe hem. And he feels her. He reaches out to her. And she, the poor and lowly, dirty, gross, bleeding woman is healed. And whether you are Christian or not, that's not a bad example to follow.

No matter what you feel about our Nation's health care issues, I would like to ask you this. If you believe in prayer, will you pray for my friend? If you believe in lighting incense and chanting, will you do that for my friend as well? Because she is very special to a lot of people, and she is scared right now for health reasons. I know this blog is about me....but today, I want it to be about her.