A posture of love

I don't want to write this. I really don't. In fact, I've been avoiding this conversation altogether for quite some time. Because I don't want to fight about it. I don't want to get sucked into the political uproar. But it's been weighing heavy on me, and this is how I process. So, if you're here to pick fights, if you're here to tear down, if you're here to with anger, or with hate - this is not the place. Go home. I do not have the energy. 
God is stirring something in me. For about the last 6 months. I don't know what it is going to look like yet. I don't know what part I am going to play,or how I am going to make it work. I am still searching for resources to establish a starting point.
I want to help and minister to the refugees coming into this country from Syria. That is where I'm starting anyway. Eventually, I want to find a way to go in to war torn countries and offer love and hope in the midst of the circumstances, for those in the trenches, not just the ones on the other side. But I have a one-year-old at home, so I sense I am a long way from that. 
As I have looked into how to get started, even with just a very little, here in Austin - I have been stunned by the amount of fear and hate surrounding this topic and these people that I have seen, read, or heard. By a staggering number of Christians.

These people are searching for a new life. they are searching for a new place to call home. A place that is safe. A place that is secure. A place that is renewing. A place where there is hope. A place where there is love.
A place where their children will grow up protected. 
Have we not looked for these things? Have we not been offered all of them in Christ?
Christ does not deny any entrance into His Kingdom. Why should we? Because we were born here, we deserve it more?
Where would we be if Jesus hadn't offered a home and a hope to immigrants? That's us, by the way. Most of us anyway. The gentiles. Not God's people. Those on the outside.
You know what He did? He adopted us. He grafted us in.
Where would we be if He had cast us out? Because of our pasts, our ancestors, our up bringing?
What if when we had come knocking, He locked his door, and shut us out?
People are not defined by their sins, and they are most assuredly not defined by the sins of others.
How can we condemn by association?
God wouldn't.
You know how I know? 

So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”  Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.             

- Genesis 18:22-33

God does not punish the many for the sins of the few. In fact, He does not punish the few for the sins of the many. "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." 

You may say I'm naive, but I say you are fearful. And Perfect Love casts out all fear. 

My son is awake now, so I finish with this: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
-Galations 3:28