on snot and hate.

it was sort of a bad weekend.

it didn't really have a fighting chance right from the very beginning, since the whole family is right in the thickest part of a pretty good cold.  i mean, let's just say that we currently set the table with plates, silverware, drinks, napkins, and a box of tissues.  i'm pretty sure the dog even has a cold.  it's nasty. 

so it was a weekend of blowing snot. 

but on saturday afternoon we decided to head over to the high school to watch a couple of the girls from our church in the j.v. and varisty basketball games.  so we changed out of our pj's and headed to the gymnasium.  we found the family that we know and we settled in on the uber-comfortable bleachers.  and then it started. 

i guess i am naive, or have too much faith in human nature or something, but i spent the next couple of hours losing my faith in human decency at an alarming rate.  there we were with two young children, while the surrounding parents and spectators rained down insult and malice on the referees and coaches, and even sometimes the high-school girls playing the game.  as if the people on the court weren't really, well, people, the crowd berated, belittled and bemoaned.  now, being as competitive as the next person, i can understand getting upset when the ref makes a terrible call that hurts your team.  i get that.  but this wasn't that.  no matter what the refs did, they were wrong.  according to the people directly behind our family, there should have been about 55 fouls on one team and absolutely none on the other team.  it made me wonder if i'm that blind when i'm rooting for a team, and i concluded that i'm not.  still, this did nothing to improve my morale or my constantly dripping nose. 

then i got home and saw the news that someone had shot a bunch of people in arizona, and that it appeared that some sort of political vitriol and hatred was behind it.  then, later in the weekend, i read this article about fred phelps and his "church's" public statement about the arizona shootings.  and my disappointment was complete.  and i cried.  i'm not ashamed to admit it.  heck, my tear ducts are probably full of phlegm anyway, so it wasn't really a big deal.  but the heaviness of reality; the weight of all the world's hate: that's a big deal.

sometimes it just feels too big.  too crushing.  too overwhelming.  how are we supposed to represent christ when a few loudmouthed, closeminded, fearful, spiritual terrorists are already cornering the market on representing him, nevermind that they are doing it completely wrong?  how are we supposed to show love at a basketball game when the resounding sound is anger and bitterness?  how will love win when the world seems so hellbent on snuffing it out? 

and then there is my faith, which tells me that somehow, beyond my wildest imagination, love does win.  that my job isn't to figure it out, but just to show love in each and every moment that i've been given.  i don't have to fix the world's hate, i just have to choose love when i'm given a choice. 

and so, with that snot-load of a weekend behind me, i embrace a new week by wiping my nose (again) and choosing love. 

love. never. fails.