Out Our Way: A new way

Out our way, Charlie and I tended to ride the same trails up on the Tiger Ridge and I was becoming fairly familiar with the area. But one day he took the trail in the opposite direction. To me it was a whole new trail and I saw vistas and things I had never seen before because I saw them in a new way. It was the same trail and yet a whole new trail.

The Lord says that in His time He will recreate the universe and make all things new, but I now begin to believe He has already started. Things are different now than they were — and yet what has changed is mostly me. My perspective has been shifted and though it may still be the same heaven and earth for the present, in many ways it has become a new heaven and earth.

I am seeing with a different set of eyes — and, more importantly, a different heart. I was raised in a time when racism was largely acceptable and thought nothing of it — but now, though the scars of my racist attitudes remain,  I see more clearly. I had no black friends growing up for it was a time of segregation. In college that began to change and in seminary even more. I recall in seminary, as the lone westerner and cowboy at a prestigious Eastern University and Seminary, I was an outsider. I was white but I was adopted by blacks and Asians and folks from India and Africa as one of their own. I wasn’t  a “white” man — I was just Bronco. And my friends from India, Africa, Japan and some inner cities in the U.S. stopped being blacks, browns, yellows or whatever. They became Dufur, Takatso, Barry, etc. They became people. And, lo and behold, so did I.

I had some Jewish friends who took Hebrew with me and in addition to the Hebrew, learned a little Yiddish.  And my favorite word was “mensch.” To be a “mensch” is the highest compliment one can pay to another, for it means “to be a real human being.” To me it means to be someone who has had their eyes opened — who now sees the same old world with a new set of eyes and a new heart. I wish I could say that I am a “mensch” — I am not. But I am hopefully heading in the direction.

When Charlie took me up the trail we had ridden so many times in the opposite direction, it became a new trail. I recognized some land marks along the way, but how different they looked from this new perspective. And I saw beauty in hills and creek crossings I had not seen before. Yet they had always been there … I just hadn’t known to look.

This, I hope, is the new trail God has me on today. The same trail I have ridden in life, but now from a new angle, a new perspective and a new appreciation. Lord, what beauty You created in the Tiger Ridge of Montana! But what even greater beauty You have created in my neighbor and community that I have only just begun to see as for the first time.

Make me a “mensch” Lord, and help me help others to become ones as well. For the “mensch” is not just a good person, but a more complete one. Grant me the eyes to see, ears to hear and soul to embrace the glories that are all about me. Until You create a  new heaven and new earth, help me to discover the new heaven and earth that have always been here — but I just never noticed.

Blessings,

Brother John Bruington, Doc and Charlie.