Moving Beyond Polarization into Mission

I'm moving on.I've spent the last decade-plus in the midst of a sad and frustrating polarization.  In other posts, I've talked about it as the Emergent-Resurgence polarization.  It's the newest episode in a long series of polarization-episodes.  We, Christians, are Academy Award winners in the Polarization Genre.  Best debates.  Best books.  Best blogs.  Best condemnations.  Best wars.  Best schisms.  Best denominational debates.Recently, I realized that I was being emotionally-tugged into its black hole.  That's what this polarizing debate does, after all.  It sucks you in.Anne Rice quit organized Christian religion because of it.  It tires many.  It energizes many others.  Having taught in both conservative and liberal seminaries, I'm aware of both ditches.  But I get too emotionally involved.  I find myself triggered by what seems to me  to be crazy-talk.I've been slowly trying to wean myself of this.  I'll admit it.  I'm drawn in to the craziness.  So are many of you.  I see the tweets and get the emails, but sadly I'm not often wise or courageous enough to maturely move through and beyond them...I decided to do my degrees in counseling and psychology not just to figure myself out (that's almost impossible, and even frightening!), but to better understand the complex and dysfunctional world in which I live.  In my best moments, my calling is clear - to help men and women live more spiritually and emotionally healthy lives, which in turn propels them into mission - into the lives of others with great faithfulness. In my worst moments, I'm tired, cynical, sarcastic, embarrassed of myself and other Christians, and ready to throw in the towel.In recent days, I've plowed back in to the personal baggage of my own life, and seen my own dark recesses.  More importantly, I find myself drawn back to the center - God, in me, whispering the truth - "You are my beloved." This penetrates through the bitterness and cynicism.  It reveals my own crap, helps me to own it (repent), and propels me to move beyond it.  That's where I am right now.   I am deeply troubled by what I see in me, but also what I see around me in both fundamentalist/evangelical circles and in liberal/progressive circles.  I'm grieved by the division.  Jesus said in John 17, "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."We are not one.My deeper passion, personally, is to help men and women heal the dividedness in their own souls.  I really do believe that healing this divideness is a very big key to a more profound healing between men and women.  Throughout Lent, I will be praying through this, blogging about it, and working toward a next book I hope to write that I am calling "The Mission of God's Beloved."Only as we realize that we are the Beloved can we possibly move toward others with compassion instead of caricatures.I'll only continue to write as I do the hard work of doing business with my own inner dividedness.  Thankfully, I'm in a community and among people who demand more from me.The Mission of God's Beloved...Let's reflect on this throughout Epiphany and Lent, and into Holy Week.