Syria – katyandtheword

Do the #refugees make you feel uncomfortable?

That might just be God tapping you on the shoulder.

Do the refugees make you uncomfortable? Do they shake you from your feeling a safety and make you rethink life? Perhaps they make you hug your children tighter at night.

Today my husband and I discussed the possibility of WWIII calmly trying to assess whether that is a reasonable concern.

Friends, my faith does not solve these problems, but it assures me that the risks are worth taking.

Another name for the Holy Spirit is “the one who stirs up.” The Holy Spirit both stirs us up and comforts us at the same time (I don’t know how, but its true).

Christianity isn’t supposed to be sitting on our laurels of blessings, feeling at one with the world.

It is a call to action to serve and love one another, to be open to other human being

And lets be honest, that’s dangerous. Its dangerous to open yourself to being in relationship with others. But that is our call as Christian.

We are called to preach and embody Christ and the Good News Even at the risk of our own lives. Does that include refugees who might be terrorists?

As a Christian you are called to be in some kind of relationship with every other human being on the earth.

Because they too are creations of God.
Do the refugees make you uncomfortable?

That might just be God tapping you on the shoulder.

#rejectedsermontitles humanity washed ashore #syria

This week we moved from Sympathy with Syrians to Empathy.

Brene Brown describes it well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw#action=share

She explains that sympathy is disconnective–where you feel bad/sorry for someone else’s situation.

Whereas empathy is connective, where you sit where the other person is sitting, get in touch with whatever they are feeling and communicate about it.

Brene Brown says that empathetic responses to start with at least…Sympathy is saying: I’m sorry your kid is in trouble, at least the other one gets straight As. Its saying: I’m sorry you are too fragile to leave your house, at least your still alive

God is an empathetic God, sending Jesus to be with us and feel with us, instead of just distantly feeling sorry for us (which is why the clockmaker version of God who sets everything up and never touches us again doesn’t work for me)

We recently went from feeling sad about Syria, to empathizing with parents who feel scared enough to put their toddlers on a boat with the chance of drowning. When, as some people put it, “humanity washed on shore.”

In Hebrews 11, God calls us to be in empathy with refugees, because we are all refugees sharing upon God’s earth. “” All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. people who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own”

We are called to be in empathy from one another, in church, to share each other and be vulnerable with one another. (another good read on this is The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer)

#Syria #refugeecrises #Germany

So does Reconciliation look like Germany taking in as many Syrian refugees as they can?

For a nationality that bears the guilt of driving many (mostly Jews) from their homes as refugees in not just Germany but many countries. Reconciliation might look like this.

France, who has experienced much political strife is also taking a lot….interesting

I feel like this requires much deep thought….

What is the theology of far away? In America I feel like Syria is way far away. Even Pakistan, which I personally know some people from and am more able to understand the persecution, particularly of Christians, feels far away.