Things Your Mom Should Have Told You

Things Your Mom Should Have Told You

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Worth Fighting For

Book of Wisdom: Worth Fighting For by John Pavlovitz
Worth Fighting For: Finding Courage & Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending by John Pavlovitz
“Today, instead of looking to the sky and waiting for a pastor or a politician or some invisible force to come in and dramatically beat back the darkness–you wield the brilliant light in your possession. Maybe you’re the hero you’ve been waiting for,” said John Pavlovitz.
“Ask yourself why you live: who or what is still worth spending yourself on behalf of. I don’t know your why, I just know you have one…A rapidly heating planet…A fractured nation teetering precariously on the edge of implosion…The human and civil rights rapidly evaporating around us…Vulnerable people driven by their leaders to the limits of what the human heart can endure…Your treasured relationships that are pushed to within inches of disintegration…” said John Pavlovitz.
“Most of all, the brave but exhausted human being staring back at you in the mirror who easily forgets how much their presence changes this place is worth it. So much is worth the fight–and as people of the common good, we cannot willingly cede any of it. We can’t let the sun set on this day without doing everything we can to save the things worth saving,” said John Pavlovitz.
“Despite every breakdown of our election processes, legislative safeguards, and constitutional protections over the past few years and despite being perpetually let down by elected officials and church leaders and federal judges, far too many people are still inexplicably waiting for saviors and superheroes to save them,” said John Pavlovitz.
“The prevailing wisdom still seems to be that love and God and “someone out there” are going to save the day. I wish it were that simple. I wish it were that cheap and clean a proposition: offer up some skyward prayers or make a public floodlight appeal to the heavens and wait for inevitable rescue. That’s not how this is going to work,” said John Pavlovitz.
“Contrary to the T-shirts and memes, love will not win on its own simply because. Courageous people armed with love, fully participating in the political process and relentlessly engaging the broken systems around them, will win. Wherever empathetic, courageous human beings spend themselves on behalf of other people, where they keep going despite being exhausted, when they refuse to tire of doing the right thing, when they will not be shamed into silence–then love will be winning,” said John Pavlovitz.
“Love isn’t some mysterious force outside of our grasp and beyond our efforts that exists apart from us. It is the tangible cause and effect of giving a damn about our families, neighbors, strangers, and exercising that impulse in measurable ways. Love isn’t real until it moves from aspiration to incarnation,” said John Pavlovitz.
“And all apologies to the theists and deists, but God is not going to magically make things right either. That’s not part of the deal. People of faith, morality, and conscience who are moved with a ferocity for humanity born of their convictions and propelled by their beliefs are going to need to move in order to make right all that is so terribly wrong,” said John Pavlovitz.
“What will alter the story we find ourselves in is prayerful people who reflect fully on the fractures and the malignancies and injustices in front of them–and decide they will change what they can change and do what they are able to do. Heaven will come down as ordinary mortals endeavor to be the answer to as many of their prayers as possible,” said John Pavlovitz.
“That’s not to say there aren’t things working beyond what we can see and measure and quantify, but it means we are able to do physical things (help and heal and give and protest and volunteer and canvass and vote) and if we do those physical things–then we will at least be able to rest in the mysteries, knowing we did all that we could with what we were entrusted with,” said John Pavlovitz.
“Today, instead of looking to the sky and waiting for a pastor or a politician or some invisible force to come in and dramatically beat back the darkness–you wield the brilliant light in your possession. Maybe you’re the hero you’ve been waiting for. Maybe you’re the answer to your urgent prayers. Maybe hope isn’t in the sky, maybe it’s in the mirror,” said John Pavlovitz.
Things Your Mom Should Have Told You Book of Wisdom: Worth Fighting For: Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending by John Pavlovitz
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