We the People...

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America." -United States Constitution

"Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect." -Romans 12:2

American democracy has been called the "great experiment." It was a novel concept at its inception: a government that would not make demands of its citizens, but rather take its cues from the will of those citizens. The government wouldn't tell the people who to be, but rather the people would dictate to the government who it should be.

I don't know how we could ever determine the success of such an experiment, but I do know that the deeper into this 2016 presidential campaign we move, the more convinced I am that this political machine that we call government has, in fact, followed where we have led it.

Over and over in the past year and a half I have heard friend after friend decry the situation we find ourselves in with such unbelievable candidates and such a comically trivial-feeling and disingenuous election season.

Unfortunately, I am not altogether convinced that this isn't in fact the environment we have cultivated for ourselves. Perhaps we bear more responsibility for the current affairs that we see on television and laptop screens than we'd ever like to admit, because it is, after all, always easier to look for blame in others.

We're more interested in headlines written in 140 characters than we are with investigating for ourselves and reading more to understand issues. We've settled for headline quotes that grab our attention and re-inforce our points, even when we know there was more that was said. We'd rather feel validated by a meme than engaged in conversation.

We've isolated on phones and failed to know our neighbors. It's true we don't care for our neighbors like we used to, but only because we don't know our neighbors. We've traded a digital connection for relational intimacy.

We have trained ourselves in the mastery of complaint and the recognition of all that is wrong in our surroundings, but have failed to cultivate the will to get our hands dirty in the work of solving problems. We've convinced ourselves that if we have torn down something--or someone--we disagree with, we have done our work in making the world a better place. But we've grown too weary and self-righteous to engage in the hard work of building solutions and a brighter future.

We've separated ourselves into communities of people who look and live the way do. These people often have the same amount of money that we do, meaning some communities have lots, while others have little. Some communities can support radically proficient public schools while others can barely afford the bare necessities.

We've divided ourselves from others who don't think like us or look like us or believe the same things we do so that we have failed to see people over and above opinions. When we've failed to know our neighbors who are different, we've allow fear and stereotypes to dictate our ideals and opinions.

We are driven by celebrity and glamour, spending our money in ways that validate multi-million dollar salaries for athletes and actresses while teachers, police officers, and veterans are left working at barely reasonable paychecks.

We scream about the loss of manufacturing jobs to overseas factories with lower wages, all the while demanding that prices continually drop at rates only sustainable through sweatshop-quality labor conditions.

We have access to more information than ever before and have become all the less efficient at discerning which is helpful and which is not.

We've become more interested in winning the argument and being right than the person on the other side of the table. This is perhaps all the easier to do when we argue with a profile or a wall or a picture and not a person. We can't see a person's face when we insult them through a keyboard.

We've built lives built on too little margin, believing the lie that the busiest and most stressed wins in the end. We've traded joy for success and leisure for accomplishment. We've bought into the lie that more always means better.

We've turned love and relationships into reality television for public consumption, convincing ourselves that scripted intimacy is the guidebook for authentic relationships. And we've bought into the lie that scripted reality TV is the real world to be emulated.

We look for what is wrong before we look for what is right. We look to blame others when the responsibility lays upon our own shoulders. We parse words and deeds to discover what we can disagree with so that the fingers never point back to us.

We're too quick to blame individuals for not taking responsibility without recognizing the systems in place that make life more challenging for some and not others, and yet we've also failed to hold individuals equally accountable for the harmful choices they might make in the midst of those systems.

Perhaps we have created the very culture we speak so angrily about. It's easy to blame Hillary and Donald and CNN and Fox News for creating this current climate. It's easy to blame technology for society's problems. It's much harder to recognize our part in creating the circumstances that would lead to this situation. I know it is for me.

However, if this is the environment we have cultivated for ourselves, I am all the more confident that we can likewise re-make it. I am all the more confident that God is not finished working in and through us. I am all the more confident that God is still the same God who transforms hearts that can go out and transform communities.

We need not settle for what is, but rather ought to strive forward, leaning into God's gentle whisper of grace and mercy. But transformation is hard when our eyes aren't open to the role we've played in creating the world around us. We've got to be honest with ourselves before we can ever let God be honest with us.

I have written all of this in the voice of we. We are in this together. I contribute to this culture in the same way that anyone else does. I participate in this system, and carry my own guilt. I also know that there is a better way. I know that the kingdom of God is not done here. We are broken vessels, imperfect in every way, and yet it is through us that God so often chooses to work. We the people.

May we be transformed by the voice of the one who calls us beloved, not for our own gain, but to transform the lives of others, to bring a glimmer of shalom into our midst. This experiment is not over.

forever unfinished...