“Make America Safe Again” is a lie

This morning, I read the theme of tonight’s Republican National Convention: “Make America Safe Again.”

America has never been safe.

Anything transcendent, anything truly valuable or worthy in life cannot be safe.

Beauty. Creativity. Expression. Freedom. Love.

We neither gain nor keep these things by playing it safe. The truth is, we have to risk everything. Lay it all on the line. And it never stops. It’s a choice we have to make again and again, day in and day out.

And eventually, we will lose it all. Beauty will fade. Creativity comes and goes. Sometimes people will like what you express (and like you for it). Sometimes they will hate what you express (and hate you for it). Sometimes we give up our freedom (hello, parenthood).

A lifetime of love with a friend or mate ends in someone’s death.

So, you see, what makes life most alive is also what makes life dangerous. Tragic.

And it takes great faith to choose a more alive kind of life.

Political promises like “Make America Safe Again” are precisely the kind of thing Jesus Christ came to refute. Not just refute, but to offer an alternative.

The Christian alternative is not a candidate or platform in the presidential campaign; it’s a personal choice for each person who believes what the Christ showed and taught.

That alternative–that choice–is simply this: I choose love. I choose inclusion over exclusion. I choose faith over paranoia. I choose grace and mercy over judgment and punishment. I choose acceptance and curiosity and a moving toward over prejudice, keeping out, and moving away. I choose to go love my neighbor today over keeping my neighbor out. I choose to be a peacemaker over being a war-maker.

All of this means I choose to put myself in danger’s way. I choose to expose myself to the threat of emotional or physical pain. If it comes down to it, I choose death with love or life with apathy or hatred.

The good way is not the safe way.

What will you choose, Christian?