Talks and thoughts

So I'm going to go ahead and assume no one checks this anymore, since I don't really, but I like to use it now and then =)

We had a community book club meeting tonight to discuss Part I of The Nonviolent Cross. After discussing it, I thought it would have been nice if I actually got the chance to read it. We talked a lot about suffering and crucification, what's that mean? What does it mean theologically? What does it mean socially? What does it imply in the way in which we choose to live our lives. For the sake of not going on and on in my endless thoughts, I'll share the one discussion we had about the book that struck me the most.

The book relates Gandhi and Christianity in the context of nonviolence (which will be clarified to me even more after actually reading the book). In his discussion of Gandhi, Douglass cites Gandhi's fast for peace which nearly ended his life. I've watched the Gandhi movie, so I had the visual of him nearly dead lying on a cot on a second floor terrace from which he can hear the rioting that continues to corrupt his country. Many people come to him who care deeply about him begging him to eat. How can he just die when India needs him so badly? How much will his voluntary death heal the divide? Is it not remotely careless of him to die when he can do so much good in life? I remember that as I watched the movie about 2 years ago, I did not quite get it. I got that his hunger strike was to encourage peace because people loved him so much they might stop fighting for a while to keep him alive. However, I did not get the deeper meaning. I did not understand that by suffering until death if necessary was Gandhi's way of exposing the biases of humans, the lack of love we give to the marginalized, the humanity we strip from each other and the other. What if we really embraced our humanity? What if we challenged ourselves to love even if it means really suffering because we are convicted of its truth? What if we all came to the poor, the suffering (from an oppressor or other things in life), the hungry, the sick, the marginalized, the rejected, and even the oppressors and begged them to live because we are there to help them because we believe their life is one worth living because we cannot stand the idea of their senseless death?

I think that is the point Gandhi makes.

The question always comes back around to how does this apply to my life? I do not think a nonviolent path of suffering for others seeking out suffering because it seems in the context of our times it will come when we learn how to love our neighbors. We must move for love in all of our interactions. Love cannot be compartmentalized if we are to truly live. I'm not sure we can fully lively without suffering.

However, I do feel caution to say that each of our paths to follow Jesus are a little different. I think this is a true statement, but I also think it gives too much leeway. Personally, I use it sometimes as a rationalization that I am doing all that I can right now, but I think I can do more. I am too comfortable materially for that to be true and I am to uncomfortable spiritually for that to be true. Our paths are distinct, but there is a common challenge that confronts us, suffering that awaits us, and grace that sustains us.