Bandwagons and Boxes and Leaving Them Behind

I mentioned awhile back on Facebook that I really really dislike bandwagons. And boxes. And that maybe we should pack all our bandwagons into boxes and . . . I don't remember what I said we should do with them then, but at the moment the nearest landfill sounds good to me. After I posted that I thought maybe instead of packing the bandwagons into boxes we should load the boxes on the bandwagons and drive them out of town.

Either way. They simply need to go.

Why do I dislike bandwagons and boxes so intensely? Because they are limiting! And I'm afraid they give us a false sense of doing something important when really we aren't. We're simply making a lot of noise and beating on our drums and sometimes our chests and  congratulating ourselves for our good works in the process. Or, even better, putting pretty little quotes (or sometimes not so pretty little quotes) on facebook, 140 character tweets on twitter and feeling like we've really done something special for "standing up for what's right." I have nothing against either facebook or twitter. I have accounts with both and use them regularly. But I do have a problem when they become just another way of promoting the bandwagons and boxes. 

What if instead of climbing on our bandwagons and making a lot of noise while stuffing a lot of people who we think are wrong for not joining us there into their respective boxes we would simply climb down and start loving people.

One by one. Loving. Like Jesus loved. There in the trenches where it's real - where the tears flow and the wounds bleed and it's messy and gritty. Where we cry the ugly cry, not just a few pious tears squeezed out while we wipe them away discreetly but the hard cry of a heart that is in pain for a world that hurts and needs Jesus. And not just cries for it but cries with it. One person at a time. One broken heart at a time. One depressed, angry, wounded, lost, confused, indifferent, lonely person at a time. Where decisions, sometimes hard decisions, are made and Jesus comes into hearts and resolves are strengthened and hearts are mended and spirits are set free and people begin to stand to their feet and and then they began to walk and to run and to fly. Why aren't we there? 

Some are there. And those who are there are seeing things they never thought they would see. And while, yes, it's messy and hard and not always where one wants to be at that moment, when we press in and pray like we mean it, because we DO mean it, there is beauty. There is healing, and hope and laughter and rising from despair and dancing in the freedom that comes from shackles broken. 

Why?

Because that is where Jesus is. Not on the bandwagon. Not in the box. In the trenches. With the people. And when we are where Jesus is, then we see, and we have, true life, and love, liberty, laughter and the longing to see more people set free. 

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