Click, click, click

This week I took my first fall on a New York City street. And this was no simple trip, catch yourself and move on kind of fall. This was a sprawled-out-onto-the-sidewalk kind of fall.

Certainly, there is a moment of shock when one finds oneself on the ground. More shocking, however, was my realization after a few seconds that no one was stopping. All I heard were the click, click, click of the boots and heels and wingtips walking by.


Unfortunately, that sound describes how many people prefer to approach the suffering of others. Whether it is the click of our heels walking by someone in need, or the click of a remote control to avoid images of pain, many choose to love thy neighbor – but at an appropriate and safe distance.

Haiti -- click
Illegal immigrants -- click
Those without adequate healthcare -- click
LGBT Hate crimes – click
Racism in America -- click, click, click

Oh we want to know a little bit about what’s going on in the world. It’s good for cocktail conversation and certainly a world crisis might affect the financial markets! But when push comes to shove, we’d prefer to change the channel or walk on by.

In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warns of the evil of such silence: "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

We need to be clear: The people that we walk by, the people whom we turn away from are our own family. Oh we may think we are different and separate, but we aren’t. We are like islands that appear separate on the surface of the ocean, but deep down are all connected to one unique core. Every life lost, every broken body, every heavy human heart is equally ours.

Dr. King also wrote that “human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts of [people] willing to be co-workers with God.”

If we are to be co-workers with God, then we need to make the same promise God made to the Israelites in Isaiah 62:1: “I will not keep silent.”

Let’s make that promise today – that we will not be silent in the face of suffering and injustice. A promise that we will look on each other as brothers and sisters, that we will treat each other as family, and that ultimately we will live our lives like the words inscribed at the Holocaust museum in Washington, DC: “Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”

No Al Dente in 2010!

I have never, nor will I ever, understand the term "al dente." For example, to cook asparagus so briefly that it still comes out bright green and able to stand up on its own. Why even go to the trouble of cooking it? If you are in such a hurry to finish, why not just eat it raw?

As a southerner, I'm proud to say: we don't do al dente. We actually cook our food. We stew things, boil things, we simmer things.

New Years day, I spent most of the morning stewing a big pot of black eyed peas. And no, I did not blanch or sauté them. First, I soaked them in water for an hour. Then, I simmered them for another two hours with cloves of garlic, beef bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, a Vidalia onion and of course a ham bone with lots of fat. After several hours, all those fabulous flavors seeped into those little peas and they magically transformed into a holy work of art.

It's too bad we don't live life like those peas. Sadly, New Years is all about living life al dente. It is a time for gearing up, revving ones' engines about the coming year. We make New Year's resolutions, lists, goals, plans, strategies; we think of ways we can be more productive, more efficient, more successful, and more things to more people; we plot what we can do now, what we can be now, how can we improve life now. Now, now, now!

Perhaps the lesson for 2010 is not to speed up, but to slow down. Not to rush, but to take a slower, more deliberate pace to life.

Life just tastes better when slow cooked. For example, if I had quickly blanched those peas, all the garlic and onion and ham flavors would have been lost. And it's the same with life. When we live life al dente, we miss all the surrounding ingredients: the things of beauty, the things that matter, the people in need.

Jesus' life was the perfect example. His ministry was based upon a slow, deliberate approach to life. Jesus never did anything al dente. He didn't work on a strict agenda. He didn't use a Blackberry or an iPhone. He just walked and went at such a pace that he noticed the things around him; things like a mustard seed, or Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, or the leper by the road, or the woman at the well.

When we insist on living life at a quick al dente pace, we will walk right by the things that made Jesus stop. "I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me." (Matthew 25:42-43)

There is another ingredient we will miss living life al dente. That ingredient is God. To develop intimacy with God, you need time. The theologian Brennan Manning talks about it in terms of "wasting time with God." And why not? We waste time with our loved ones: napping on the couch, taking a long drive, reading the paper. It is the time spent without an agenda where true intimacy is born. Yet, we rarely make an effort to "waste time" with God; to leisurely pray or meditate without an agenda, without an ending time in mind.

As you head into our fast paced 2010, think about my black eyed peas. Think about Jesus and his ministry. Why not simmer over life rather than blanch right through it. Let's make a pact right now: NO al dente in 2010! Life is just better when it's slow cooked.