Sweaty Conversations

     When Winston Churchill became Great Britain's prime minister during World War II, he told his constituents that he had little to offer them but "blood, sweat and tears." On this first anniversary of the violence at the American Capital Building on January 6, I wonder if we might offer each other something similar. After all, sweat may be among the best lubricants for good and meaningful conversations.

    So many things deeply divide Americans. It's not just that we don't see eye-to-eye with people whose perspectives on things like the pandemic, politics, race relations and climate change differ from ours. We scarcely even see people with whom we disagree. We have settled in hardened bunkers that serve to separate and protect us from anyone who doesn't largely agree with us. 

    When Americans speak to each other at all across our various divides, we often speak to caricatures of each other. When we talk to others, we sometimes struggle to be civil and respectful. We're often quicker to speak than to listen to people with whom we disagree.

    That's a reason why our church's food pantry has been such a gift. People from all walks of life are working together to provide food for our neighbors who are hungry. Both our volunteers  and participants are obviously racially diverse. I imagine that we're also socio-economically and politically diverse, though we're usually too busy to talk much about those things.

    Yet we're working together to love our neighbors who have material needs. People who are ethnically diverse are together unloading food from trucks, sorting donations, packing food into bags and distributing food to our neighbors who come to our pantry. Our neighbors who are needy are also, in turn, sharing some of the food they receive not just with their friends and neighbors, but also with our pantry.

    As we do so, we're being graced with opportunities to have meaningful conversations with each other. As we at least figuratively sweat together in service to our neighbors, we sometimes talk and listen to each other about important things. I think that's partly because when we're busy serving, we're focusing less on ourselves and our perspectives, and more on those for whom we're trying to care. We're so busy trying to serve people that we don't have time to try to change people. In that time and space, we're receiving the gift of chances to learn more about what people believe, why they believe what they believe and how we might better work together to more fully serve the most vulnerable members of our community.