Spare Me

To all of the trash talking and divisiveness that happens right before our eyes, right where live, I say “No”. Yesterday I received a welcome message from a sojourner I don’t even know reminding me that efforts to spread misinformation meant to enflame and divide don’t have to go unchallenged.

It is sometimes hard for me to wrap my mind and heart around the teachings most of us learn as we grow up. We are all loved equally by God, regardless of how we imagine and define god. We are all worthy, regardless of how well we are taught to believe in our unworthiness. When we judge ourselves and others unworthy, we do so out of fear that we fail to recognize as just that. We are all equal and perfect in God’s eyes, all equally deserving in God’s eyes. God’s abundance is right here, now, not in some distant, hoped-for heaven. In God’s eyes, none of us has a birthright or earned right to more than someone else, especially at the expense of someone else.

We are all in this together. We succeed and fail together. I read this, I am told this, and I believe it. I give thanks for the reminder that you and I are not at war, regardless of what you mistakenly believe. To the notion that we gain courage and strength at someone else’s expense, I say to myself, “No”. Sometimes I have the courage to say to the messenger, “No.” Spare me your lies and hate. Spare me your fear masquerading as truth. Spare me your dissatisfaction. Spare me your belief in failure. If hate feeds you and you think that is how I’m nurtured, spare me, please. And so it is.

Spare Me—Santa Fe, New Mexico (June 10, 2010)
R. Harold Hollis