Day Five - January 10th - Bayview - "What am I fighting?"

(Note- I just decided to post all of my reflections.  I have so few for week two that I should catch up pretty quickly.  I welcome your comments on any of these.)

     I can't think of anything worthwhile that started easily.  Anything that helped people, that had at its core the goal to accompany people, to find where they were and be there in some way...why does it seem that they all started out humbly and usually with a fight?
     Nina started out small and lonely and fought with people.  Or rather they fought with her.
     Glydes meal program started with church interns and drug dealers seeing a need and fighting to find a way to fill that need.
     The reformation started with the simple act of Luther nailing a list on a door.  This became quite a fight.

     In these and in so many other cases, once the movement takes on enough steam, gets enough and influential enough support, suddenly and ironically most of the opposition goes away and claims they were with you all along.

     This reflection is not meant as a history lesson.

     What keeps me separate?

     Maybe one thing is that I have to figure out what things I am fighting against inside me and why.  Yes, there are things that keep me safe and others around me.  Those things are worth fighting for.

     What I need to do is to look inside myself and figure out what things I am fighting that I am simply fighting for the purpose of keeping myself separate.  Those things could be the reformation moments of today and I just  might be missing out on the bandwagon if I resist too long or too much.  I would hate to be the one who fought against it all that time and then switched sides, pretending as if I had been there all along.

     When am I uncomfortable?  Those times I am uncomfortable, why?  What am I fighting against?  Is it to keep me safe or is it to erect another wall between me and someone else?

     What a world we would have if we all had the courage and endurance of Luther, of Momma Nina.

     Hunger would end.  Homelessness would end.  Yeah, there would be a lot of fights along the way, but eventually everyone would jump on board. As horrible and sad the world seems, I hope that sort of world is possible.