Peace and Pekoe
Today, a bunch of my friends from college are posting and tweeting under the hashtag #IStandWithThomasPeters in a show of support for fellow college alumnus and popular SoCon blogger Thomas Peters. Several months ago, Thom was involved in a swimming accident that left him in critical condition. He had a stay in the hospital and in rehab, and is now home with his wife–who, incidentally, he married a scant three months before the accident.
Since the first year of rehabilitation is critical for regaining function and mobility after this kind of accident, Thom’s friends and family have arranged this social media campaign as a way to solicit prayer and donations for Thom’s recovery. It is, I guess, a suitable and natural way to move to help someone who lives and works on social media and awareness campaigns professionally.
That said, I can’t quite bring myself to use Thom’s name as a rallying cry or hashtag. I suspect I would find this all embarrassing and weird as heck, were I in Thom’s position. Although I want to help, I also want to interject a moment of frankness to dissipate a bit of the stuff-you-say-at-a-eulogy atmosphere.
The Thom Peters I knew a decade ago wasn’t a plaster saint. He was brilliant, razor-sharp, opinionated, and irritating as all heck sometimes. We had a relationship of, I think, mutual respect and recognition of a shared level of bullheadedness. I think we were all shaped by our time at AMC in some fundamental ways–and that makes Thom family, even a decade down the road, but I can’t really tell you anything of the man he’s become, except by second-hand account.
I won’t ask anyone to help Thom because he’s a shining star on the social conservative horizon (though he is), or because he’s a paragon of virtue (though suffering can transform ideal into substance in amazing ways).
Thom (and his lovely wife Natalie) deserve a hand up in this trying ordeal for the same reason any suffering person does–not because of who he is, or what we expect he will do for the world, but because he IS.
Suffering is universal…we suffer in different ways, but sooner or later we all become very intimately acquainted with the fragility of life, aware of how very dependent we are. Suffering can strip us of all of our security blankets, force us to face ourselves without any of the things we thought made us valuable and our lives worthwhile.
If you’ve suffered like that, you might also know the true grace and meaning of mercy. Mercy comes when we have nothing to repay it with and nothing to offer. Mercy gives us something immeasurably important along with whatever material, emotional, or spiritual aid it supplies: mercy makes visible our worth in God’s eyes.
For “we are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of our Father’s love for us, and our real capacity to become images of His Son.”
There’s no way to repay God for the gift of his mercy and love. But we can draw close to it by reaching out to others, holding out a hand in aid and letting them know that they are seen, they are valued, they are worthy. Not because they have earned it, but because they Are.
We hardly need to look for opportunities. God places them before us every day. Here’s one for today.
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