By Jimi Calhoun
This entry is the fourth post in a series of bridge-building, theological-cultural reflections by Jimi Calhoun, Pastor of “Bridging Austin,” in Austin, Texas.
Please keep this adage frequently attributed to the Persian poet Rūmī close at hand as you read: “Love is the bridge between you and everything.”[1] But first, I want to draw your attention to the three Killer Bees that prevent Christians from loving others as God intended. The Bees I am speaking of are borders, boundaries, and barriers. This article focuses on the latter. Here is why. A border can be crossed with a passport and a boundary respected by agreement, but a barrier must be physically overcome or removed. How is this done in our context? One way is to think of the ways God loves you. Then, consider how much you love God and extend a similar amount of love to others. In this way, Christ becomes a “bridge” that spans the receiving and the giving of love.
The challenge in our work at Bridging Austin is getting people to see that this means freely giving love to everyone. That is a difficult position to embrace when race, disability, and socio-economic gaps are accepted as insurmountable barriers. To overcome this, I continually remind people that before you “themerize” any person or group, you must remind yourself that God might just love them as them, not as you see them.
To make that happen, when conflicts or disagreements arise we strive to follow a process that piggybacks on W. H. Auden’s famous quote, “Let the more loving one be me.”[2] What does that look like? Let me paraphrase a well-known rabbinic parable to illustrate one application. It reveals the importance of asking the “why” question in addition to being compassionate and caring when building bridges.
Here it is. A woman owns a very large ranch and constantly grumbles about having to pull people from a river that runs through her property. She does have a compassionate heart, though, and so she hires several lifeguards to be on the lookout for potential drowning victims floating downstream. What is important in this story is what our heroine does not do. She does not take a trip upstream to see why so many people were in the water in the first place. If she had investigated, she would have discovered that someone had erased the zero on a “50 Ft. Deep” warning sign intended to dissuade people from swimming there. Swimmers were jumping in because they perceived the river to be much shallower than it was.
That highlights a mistake many make when serving others. People can address the aftermath of something unpleasant while forgetting to consider the cause. In this instance, river currents can be fast and dangerous. This means that swimmers can be carried downstream unexpectedly. The fact is, even the strongest swimmers can be pulled under. We believe this is true for those pulled under by life.
Our commitment to loving down barriers calls us to assume a deep sense of responsibility to care for people in that situation. We talk truthfully about which barriers must go so God’s love can flow through us, and then we dream about what will emerge in their place. We do this because lasting change comes from fixing what’s broken and dreaming boldly about what comes next. By exploring the ‘why’ and the ‘what’s next,’ we make sure our work inspires us to dream of a different world and leaves a lasting legacy. In summary, at Bridging Austin, loving down barriers starts at the core of a problem, not the periphery.
You may contact Jimi Calhoun at Jimi@Bridgingaustin.org.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12451813-love-is-the-bridge-between-you-and-everything-your-task
[2] https://poets.org/poem/more-loving-one