Hugh Hollowell

Trying to build a a better world.

Praying for our enemies

This essay published

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us, and to love our enemies.

Yeah.

I’m not always good at that part, either.

But I want to be. And I know it isn’t impossible to do it, because others have done it.

For example, Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich was a Serbian bishop in the last century who spoke out against Nazism until he was arrested and taken to Dachau.

I know, right?

And that guy? He wrote this prayer.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.

Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.

They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.

They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.

They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.

They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord, Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.

Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

so that my fleeing to You may have no return;

so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;

so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;

so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins, arrogance and anger;

so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;

ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.

One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.

Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and enemies.

A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.

Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.

From Prayers By the Lake, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich.

Will I be safe?

This essay published

Often, when I am talking to privileged church folks about stepping beyond their walls and following Jesus into the broader world – a world where people are hungry, homeless, and without friends – the heads are nodding and everyone is on board. But then somebody will bring up safety.

“If we go into that neighborhood, will we be safe?”

“If we let those people on our property, will we be safe?”

“I don’t want to have anything to do with those people, because it makes me feel unsafe.”

Of all the idols the American white church loves to worship, none frustrates me as much as the worship of Safety. This isn’t the same thing as taking precautions to protect yourself, or your community. Rather, the fetishizing of safety prevents you from ever leaving the church building itself.

“Let’s feed the hungry!”
“Is that safe?”

“We should get to know people in that neighborhood downtown!”
“That neighborhood isn’t safe.”

“That Muslim woman is being harassed. I am going to go intervene.”

“Don’t – that isn’t safe.”

Our preoccupation with safety prevents us from being our best selves, from making the world better, from taking risks that matter, from making the world as it is into the world as it could be.

Don’t mishear me: There are legitimate concerns about making sure people are safe. But that often isn’t what we are really talking about in these conversations. More often than not, when we say we don’t feel safe, what we really mean is that we don’t feel comfortable.  And if that is what is holding us back, we have some reconsidering to do.

You teach people how to be in relationship with you

This essay published

I Need You to Call Me
A couple of weeks ago I met a man in the course of my work. We sort of hit it off, and I gave him my business card, which contains my cell phone number.

Two nights later, at 11:00PM, he sent me a text, asking me a question.

It wasn’t an important text, he wasn’t in danger, and there was no compelling reason for the message to be answered in the middle of the night.

On the other hand, I was wide awake, reading a book. I could easily have answered the question and went back to reading. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal.

But I didn’t. I ignored the text message. Because if I answer it, I just taught him that it is totally reasonable to send me a casual text after 9:00PM and expect to get a response.

And I don’t think it is. I don’t want people to send me late-night texts. I don’t want that expectation out there in my relationships.

You have to teach people how to be in relationship with you. Every single interaction with someone else sets the norm about how we expect them to treat us. And it is important to be conscious about it, because once you taught them how you expect to be treated, it is hard to expect them to treat you differently than that.

I agree with Jesus that we should treat other people the way we wish to be treated. But we also have an obligation to tell them how to treat us, too.

Be Courageous – Every Day

This essay published

 

Your body cannot store vitamin C. The vitamin C in your body is a finite resource you have to constantly replenish, or you will die. Every day you start at zero, and at the end of every day it is gone.

And if you ignore your body’s need for vitamin C, you will die of scurvy. A long, horrible death. It turns out, vitamin C is pretty important. But your body can’t store it.

So some of us take vitamin C supplements. Because it is that important.

Courage is a lot like Vitamin C.

You can’t store it.  That you were courageous yesterday has no effect on today, and will not save you. Neither will your plan to do courageous things in the future. What matters is that you are courageous today.

So do something courageous every day, just like you take your vitamins every day. Do it in order to not just live, but to thrive. Because trying to live without courage is just another way to die a long, slow, horrible death.

And just like you eventually become the sort of person who takes vitamins each day, one day you realize you have become the sort of person who does courageous things.