Experts

The plan that Jesus gives us for engaging the atrocities of our world is simple: love one another. That's it. Really love one another. Be a community. Take an interest in each other. Become responsible for one another. Realize that we are all brothers and sisters on a journey together, and love one another.

It's simple, but it doesn't seem simple. Not to most of us. And that's because we have bought into one of the biggest myths that all our systems have sold us: that the world's problems need experts in the world's problems.

We've been told that there's nothing that we, as regular persons, can do about the most horrible things among us, except to refer those troubles to the experts we've trained in handling them. We've been told that there's nothing that we can do for the sick, so we stopped bringing each other soup. Instead, we offer to drive one another to the doctor. Or, at the very least, we ask if you've even called the doctor yet. 

We've been told that there's nothing we can do for the depressed, so we stopped sitting in pits with one another. We've been told that there's nothing we can do for the anxious, so we stopped reassuring one another. 

We've been told that there's nothing we can do for those struggling with trauma, that the problem is completely over our heads just because we have not been trained, so we stopped listening to the war stories.

We've been told that there's nothing we can do for loneliness, so we stopped offering invitations. We've been told that there's nothing we can do for anger, so we stopped opening the vents. We've been told that there's nothing we can do for grief, so we stopped carrying tissues. 

We've been told that there's nothing we can do for poverty, so we stopped investing in each other. We've been told that there's nothing we can do for addiction, so we stopped offering sober alternatives.

We've been told that there's nothing we can do for the hungry, so we stopped cooking. ...there's nothing we can do for the thirsty, so we stopped pouring. ...there's nothing we can do for the sick or in prison, so we stopped visiting. ...there's nothing we can do for the naked, so we stopped clothing.

And worst of all, we've been told that we shouldn't even try because all of these persons in the world that we can't do anything for are not regular persons like you and me; they're dangerous. We have been told that we're putting our very lives in jeopardy if we even try, so it's best not to even try and to just leave it to the "experts."

Then what we've done is gone and created systems to create more "experts," but we're creating experts in human problems, and that doesn't do us any good. It doesn't do us any good to understand the human problems if we fail, on the most fundamental level, to honor and dignify the human being experiencing the problem.

And we are still, every one of us, the "experts" in human being. 

Jesus Himself said so. He said, "Which of you, if your child asks for a fish, gives him a snake? Or if he asks for a snake, would give him a scorpion?" Which of you does not know the most basic thing about human being? 

The answer is none. Human being is what we do; it's who we are. 

It's so tempting for us to think that we need the experts, to think that all of these human problems are well over our heads, to take a step back and trust our systems to step in. But history bears out again and again that this isn't working. Our friends, neighbors, families, communities are falling through the cracks of our systems. And why? 

Because our systems are not the experts in human being. We are. 

Which brings us right back around to Jesus's plan: love one another. 

Love one another.