Politics is heating up. Rhetoric is heating up. My mind is spinning from the lies spewing out about … shocker … immigrants. People seeking refuge from chaos, corruption, and real danger have come to the United States to find … chaos, corruption, and real danger.

What are we doing?

While I have those things in my mind, I take them to prayer. I search on for beauty. The reason I do so is I believe in the beauty and power of the Kingdom of God. Out of that beauty will arise answers. In those answers, we need to act. But let us act from the wealth and strength of beauty, not fear.

Awhile back I came across Comment Magazine. I just received their latest print edition and beginning the issue was a Manifesto. In the print edition, they highlight this thought at the beginning:

We are hungry, and we don’t know for what. We want something, but we can’t name it.

Gorgeous.

The manifesto can be found HERE. I commend it to you.

One highlight among many:

We believe it’s a time to build, that the creative imagination and the Christian imagination are mysteriously linked. We want to begin with the Yes in Christ, not our own noes. While there is an important role for criticism baptized in a study of what is true, good, and beautiful, it is a means to an end—the basis for wise repair and imagination, not the justification for destruction or erasure. We are committed to keeping orthodoxy and orthopraxy married, taking seriously our job to translate between them.

Dear LORD, it’s so easy to start with our “no.” ANY time I bring possible suggestions of what to approach I am all too often meant with something like, “That won’t work and here’s why…”

I am so tired of no, even in my own life.

It is time to BUILD. And people in the Kingdom SHOULD be doing it. We should NOT be repeating baseless claims about immigrant communities who need our shelter! We SHOULD be working with groups that aid immigrant communities who have found their way here and need shelter that this nation can give them. Places to live and work and find education. And learn English. And find new communities that are glad to have them.

I want to build what is true, good, and beautiful. Whether it’s in the immigrant community, among other marginalized groups, or right in your own neighborhood, let’s build what is TRUE. Let’s refuse the lies.

Build up. Quit tearing down.