Walk with People Behind the Issues.

Simply Sunday 03: Dispensing Welcome…In a World that Prescribes Walls

Happy Sunday!

It’s been a while, but I am still here and I’m glad you are, too! The world has felt like…a LOT… lately. Not only globally, but for anyone who is navigating the final weeks of school with kids, you get it. It is a sprint to the finish line of the school year over here, and we aren’t slowing down until that summer break hits. But, unlike the end of school year sprint, life is better run as a marathon, intentionally and slow + steady. So grab your coffee, and let’s have a little Simply Sunday chat about things that truly matter, now and in the future.

My girls, chatting with neighbors over a fence.

If you skimmed the headlines this week (or any week), you would have run across a number of “issues” that you probably scrolled on by. They may have involved news related to people from Cameroon and Iran, Venezuela and Ecuador, Russia and Ukraine. Did it all feel “far away” to you? Are you exhausted (or even indifferent) by news that involves “other people",” whom you may feel disconnected from in your daily life? While you may feel a tinge of sadness for “their” situation, you keep going on with your own life, because life is hard enough… and you have places to be and your own people to take care of. (Not to mention, plenty of other headlines that actually apply to your very own personal life, and issues that feel very close to you.)

Those feelings are very real. In these days, we are overrun with a fire hydrant stream of news, and we can’t possibly process all of it. Our brains and bodies are not wired to carry the weight of the actual world, and all of the issues and people in it. Not only would we be emotionally burned out, but we risk even being crippled by fear, worry, or worse… complacency.

I think about the movie Bruce Almighty… you know, the one where Bruce (played by Jim Carrey) is a news reporter who is fed up with God for all the problems in the world and in his life? In the movie, he rants so much that God decides to give him divine powers for a week, to see if he can do a better job at running things. But, spoiler alert, you know what happens… he can’t handle it. There is simply too much noise- the literal noise of every prayer that he can now physically hear, from everyone around the world - and the weight of his responsibility to do something about it all.

We weren’t meant to carry every burden, spend time processing every headline, or invest in every issue that comes our way. It’s not possible, and it’s not even healthy to try and do so.

But.

We can also risk falling too far on the other side of that scenario… where we mentally check out every time we hear or read something that involves someone “other” than us. We can risk seeing the news stories and social media posts that discuss the “issues” … and forget that there are actual people - real lives - underneath those “issues.” We can easily surround ourselves with people who only look, think, and live like we do (like a dear friend of mine, who humbly confessed to me that she actually did not personally know any non-Christians with whom she could connect and share the love of Jesus… because her social circle was entirely filled with people from her church and her chosen friends of similar beliefs.)

Do you only surround yourself with people like you? If you live in an echo chamber, it’s hard to care about those “issues” in the headlines when you don’t know anything about the people behind them.

An author and speaker, Carlos Whitaker, says something I love… “Don’t stand on issues. Walk with people.”

So, how do we do that? In our busy lives, with a nonstop stream of noise from the world around us? How do we learn enough about people so that we can walk with them, and yet keep healthy boundaries so that we don’t invest in every issue that comes our way?

I definitely don’t have all the answers. But I am on an intentional journey of learning about people who aren’t like me, and I would like to share some stories over the next several weeks in a series I’m going to call, “Dispensing Welcome in a Culture that Prescribes Walls.”

Yes, I’m a pharmacist, and although I am not currently in a dispensing role professionally, I often think about what I’m “dispensing” in my life… and what our culture “prescribes.”

I will be sharing about several real life encounters with people who have crossed my path in life, and how leaning into our differences with curiosity (instead of putting up a wall and walking away) have enriched my life beyond measure. Not only that, but these encounters have allowed me to continue seeing the people behind the “issues” and feeling a sense of connection to the world far beyond my little bubble.

As a white, Christian, upper-middle class Mom and healthcare professional who lives in the midwestern U.S., it continues to be incredibly important for me personally to make sure I am intentionally being curious about, connecting with, and engaging in the lives of people who are different than me. It’s important for me to learn from those who have different viewpoints, backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences than me. It’s too easy to stay inside my comfort zone, like so many Americans choose to do … but it’s also too dangerous there.

Let’s learn to walk with the people behind the issues…

It’s Simply Sunday,

Dr. Peek