Fractures

I hate those household projects that start out as something simple, only to discover problems you didn’t know you had. Like, say, replacing a carpet. You pull it up only to discover that there are cracks in the floor that might be a problem with the foundation. So, now you have to figure out what’s causing the cracks, which may involve a lot, then you have to fix the cracks. 6 weeks and thousands of unexpected dollars later, you can finally put down the new carpet.

I mean, that’s what you’d do, right? You wouldn’t just ignore the problem and think it would all go away if you just cover it over with new carpet. It’s painful in the short-term, but if you don’t deal with the underlying issues, that’s just going to cause more problems in the future.

Over the last ten years, it feels as if our country has been pulling up old carpeting and now that we’ve done that, we’ve discovered that the foundation is cracked. And now that we see it, what do we do? Because it feels as if half the country wants to pretend that the cracks aren’t there, and if we just get the new carpet down, things will be fine.

But things aren’t fine. It’s exhausting, really. How we dance around or ignore tough conversations with each other. How we’ve avoided holiday get-togethers because we just can’t be around our Trumpian relatives. How we either jump in on Facebook, just keep scrolling, or unfriend someone because we’re so angry about what people post. I know I’m not the only one who’s soul-weary.

We live in neighborhoods and attend church with people who see the problems very differently. Some want to deal with the fractures, and others want to do the quick fix and move on. In the end, we keep the peace by not talking about the cracks beneath us. And honestly, that silence just makes the cracks more pronounced.

On social media, some are now calling us to cut ties with the Trump voters altogether. I disagree because, in that case, we’d move from politely not talking about things to self-righteously not talking about them. And the cracks will widen.

Churches are experts at pretending that things are fine; we’ve got our Sunday morning happy face. What we want is to keep our community together, so we just don’t address the cracks beneath. I go to church with a guy who is the polar opposite of me when it comes to current issues. Though, unlike many who just avoid the topic, we’ve actually tried to have some conversations. We both see the fractures, but we don’t agree on the solution. It’s hard. Sometimes, things can feel a bit frosty.

Still, one Sunday, he came up the church aisle, and as he passed me, he held out his hand. I reached back; he squeezed hard then moved on. He doesn’t know how much that meant to me.

In fact, I’ve thought about that moment for weeks. For all the ways this man and I don’t agree, still he reached out his hand, and that’s a first step toward repairing the cracks. But God always asks us for more. “Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11).

I don’t know what it will take in this country to fix a broken foundation – because that’s where we are. Full restoration feels like taking a jack hammer to it and starting from scratch – and maybe that’s where we are. What I do know is that it’s important that we don’t give up on each other. If someone extends his hand, we need to offer our hand back.

Thanks for reading. We’re all trying to find our way in these unsettling times. You can subscribe for free or make a donation toward keeping me off the streets. Please do share my work with others.