Sides

I am tired

I am weary

I am frustrated and losing hope

I am tired of two sides

Democrat and Republican

Liberal and Conservative

My side and your side

Our side and their side

Haves and have nots

The right side and the wrong side

Us and them

I am tired of finger pointing and name calling

Of excuses that blame the other side

Of labels and misrepresentations

I am tired of double standards that excuse my side’s misbehavior while vilifying the same behavior in the other side

I am tired of foregone conclusions that rush to negative extremes

I am tired of doomsday forecasts from one side when the other side has power

I am tired of posturing, posing, gesturing, leveraging, and manipulating for the sake of power, to gain it or to keep it for my side

I am tired of two sides

Of the endless gulf that ceaselessly expands between them

I am tired of the arguing about who is to blame and the utter lack of humility and responsibility to acknowledge that we all share some blame and we all have played a role in creating the divide

I am tired of protests directed at the other side

I am tired of demonstrators fighting the side they have never seen

I am tired of demanding rights at the expense of the rights of others

I am tired of lip service to free speech

I am tired of biased media and the inability of people to understand bias, to filter bias and to read and view and listen to differing opinions to better understand their own bias

I am tired of redefining words for political purposes and acting like that is what it meant all along

I am tired of hate

And the blindness to my side’s hate when it is directed at the other side

I am tired of the vulgarity and depravity that is embraced by one side, but called out in feigned indignation in the other side

I am tired of Christians behaving badly

I am tired of Christians demanding rights they were never promised

I am tired of Christians choosing sides and casting stones at the other side

I am tired of Christians believing that God needs legislation to advance the gospel

I am tired of Christians caught up in their own perceived importance

I am tired of Christians willing to compromise God’s standards for the sake of the side they have chosen

I am tired of Christians who are unconcerned and an unmoved by the things of God, but have an irrational passion for their side

I am tired of Christians who have no fear redefining God’s expectations

I am tired of the reshaping of Christian faith and the intolerance for Biblical faith

But I am also tired of Christians expecting something different

I am tired of my friends making statements with utter disregard for the other side, the side friends and family may be standing on

I am tired of my friends saying hateful things into the cloud of cyberspace without giving thought that it may land in a place that hurts someone they love

I am tired of sides becoming a wedge between friends and family

I am tired of the callousness of insults freely expressed and directed at the other side

And the indignance expressed by the same people when their side is on the receiving end

I am tired of sides that never meet and never interact even when they are face to face

I am tired of the ignorance encouraged by living in a world of two sides

What if we chose to only see one side - the human side?

The side with men and women who see things differently

The side with differing opinions, differing experiences and differing struggles

The side with different hurts and different hopes

The side with different pasts and different futures

What if we dropped our stones and lowered our voices?

What if we pointed our fingers at ourselves?

What if we stopped making assumptions and instead engaged in civil conversation?

What if we united around human life instead demanding our own rights?

What if we looked at the person who disagrees with us and saw a human being instead of an opposing side?

I want to be on that side

I want to be on one side, the side that doesn’t see another side

I am done with sides

I don’t want to be on a side

I don’t want to join a side

I’d rather hang out in the gulf that is between