My eyes move up from the pavement to the horizon. I know in just a couple miles a different world exists. Suffering unknowable to me, poverty and segregation like a dense fog that never clears.
This is not normal, but what have we not normalized?
We as Christians tend to say this is inevitable—a manifestation of the fall and the brokenness of the world. To eradicate suffering in this world is impossible.
So we show up on a Saturday a few times a year to hand out food, clean up the neighborhood, share the good news.
It’s good to give back, help the poor, do some witnessing.
And then we go our own way.
This is not normal, but what have we not normalized?
***
O Lord, forgive us—forgive me—for not weeping, for this normalization that mocks and stunts Your kingdom, for this bare-minimum love that concedes our brothers and sisters to the cross and the tomb.
Latitudes of Plenty 