Wider Welcome, Deeper Love
Wider Welcome, Deeper Love
What does this mean? This is a question that I have gotten a lot in the last couple of months. So often we want solutions, things easily checked off a list but wider welcome, deeper love is not that—it is a way of life that is open and loving to all we encounter. Sometimes that is a brief moment in a drive thru line and other times that is walking with someone for a long period of time. It is also a way of life that is open to changing the ways we speak and the ways we act when we realize that what we are saying or doing causes harm. Which is good news for those of you who want something concrete to do as you begin living your life of wider welcome and deeper love.
“There is great value in the trying
and lots of grace
as we make our way forward.”
A month or so ago I was preaching and as happens often, I went off script. This is usually the Spirit leading me somewhere but sometimes it is me trying to be funny or add some relevant and timely anecdote. That was what happened that day and as soon as the words left my mouth I wanted to grab them back. What did I say, you may ask? Well I was listing things and then I said, “and the LGBTQIA+ issue”. Now, I know most of you heard that and didn’t think a single thing about it, but I also know what members of the LGBTQIA+ community have shared about being considered “an issue”. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to think I am ever an issue for anyone because that means I am in trouble or a problem. That is how folks in the community feel every time we say “LGBTQIA+ issue”. It isn’t a issue for them to be who they have been created to be until we as members of the hetero/cis community make it so. This is where wider welcome and deeper love comes in. The issue is with us, so it is up to us to figure out how to be better. That can be as simple as not referring to the ways we are working for justice for the LGBTQIA+ community as “an issue”. Instead we can simply say “we are working on finding justice for LGBTQIA+ community”. This small change can make a difference, not just in our own thinking and being but in the people who aren’t a problem needing to be solved. In that small change, they know a wider welcome and a deeper love because they hear they are a valued member of our church.
Sometimes it feels overwhelming when we realize there is a lot we don’t know or realize causes harm. I am in that place often. What I have learned is to listen with love and change my behavior accordingly, even if I don’t “get it”. It rarely hurts me to make a small change in my vocabulary or actions and it has a big impact on those around me. And when I mess up, I have learned to apologize and try again, knowing that there is great value in the trying and lots of grace as we make our way forward.
Wider welcome, deeper love is a journey in following Jesus more deeply that we will make together and how we live that out will look differently in you than it does in me, but at the core it is about showing up and showing the love of God to all our neighbors in small ways each day that add up to big, open love.