Beloved
- Mike Dickey
- Feb 16, 2024
- 2 min read
The other morning, I was driving back from the gym and came upon the Spread the Love guy dancing and waving his sign at 23rd Street and Highway 77.
His ministry dates back to the darkest days right after Hurricane Michael, a small demonstration that made a difference in a lot of peoples' lives amidst all the despair and destruction. Since then, he periodically pops up on one corner or another, usually a busy intersection, for his ministry of dancing on the sidewalk with his sign.
On this particular morning he surprised me by flipping the sign. On the back it read, "You Are Beloved". I can't explain why, but I teared up at the message, and get a little misty as I write this.
If only those folks sitting in traffic could feel what he's trying to convey, would they treat each other as we do during this unhappy political moment? How much of the bad behavior and online hate we see every day comes down to an empty space in these people's hearts and souls? What if everyone sitting at that light could feel beloved?
I thought of that moment when I saw the Super Bowl commercial from the He Gets Us group, in which people of opposite political and social extremes wash one another's feet, mirroring Christ's own act of humility we'll relive on Maundy Thursday in a lot of churches this season. David French writes about that ad, and the vitriolic reaction from both right and left against it, in this morning's NYT:
I share his concern that this was a lot of money that could have gone toward helping people directly. I also share his view that ministry based on declaration is nowhere near as effective as demonstration. Show me who you are as a Christian; don't declare your faith and the threat to my mortal soul if I don't agree with you. Those ads are all about demonstration, showing that people who disagree on some pretty fundamental things--the abortion protester washing the feet of a young woman in front of an abortion clinic, for example--still carry the bonds of divine love that we all share. If only we will.
No matter how I might feel about the folks who paid for that ad, or whatever ulterior agenda they might carry, that's a message we all need right now, more than ever. No matter who you are, you are beloved.
Comments