Anything Dangerous?
I know not
to bring cigarettes ,knives, plastic bags, anything sharp and so on to both
places but something dangerous I think I bring. I bring knowledge, books and
compassion to both places. Why are these dangerous you ask? Because knowledge
gives you the power to rise above, to see differently, to challenge yourself to
be different well remaining true to your core. Compassion brings the danger of
knowing yourself as a human and not a number or a patient or a level of privilege.
Jesus in
his time was very dangerous not only because he discussed and sometimes screamed
justice for all people. He also was a boundary crosser in a time when crossing boundaries
meant all kinds of things. Jesus was also radically dangerous when he met the
sick in there infections, ailments, and contagious. When he met the poor on the
street and invited them in for a meal. He lived on the edge he was dangerous.
But are we
dangerous today? To we live on the edge and yell out for justice? To meet the
sick in the hospitals and on the sidewalk? What about the poor? Do we determine
that others will help them and we do not need to do anything? I think that as people
of faith we are not dangerous enough, we don’t live on the edge.
Granted
where the edge is, remains different for each person. But learning not to judge
as much the poor off the county I work in has made me dangerous, because I see
not the poor in them, but the humanness of them. Forcing me to see a bit through the eyes of
Jesus, who did not see the condition but the human in a condition. Not pathology
but a person.
So yes I
bring danger with me when I enter into these places.
