With the polarization of our Church, in lock step with the polarization of worldly politics, I was really challenged by Henry Nouwen's commentary on alertness in solitude from his book "Reaching out". It is a challenge to resist the temptation of responding to the world by; (a) completely disengaging or (b) polarizing ourselves into lines of 'for' and/or 'against' (read: liberal/conservative). Instead, responding from a place of living the gospel of love over and against the fear, negativity and paranoia of the world. I suppose this is a call to liberals to stand more on the truth of Jesus, and for conservatives to leave the drawn lines more porous.

"...In our solitude, our history no longer can remain a random collection of disconnected incidents and accidents but has to become a constant call for the change of heart and mind. There we can break through the fatalistic chain of cause and effect and listen with our inner senses to the deeper meaning of the actualities of everyday life. There the world no longer is diabolic, dividing us into 'fors' and 'againsts' but becomes symbolic, asking us to unite and reunite the outer with the inner events. There the killing of a president, the success of a moonshot, the destruction of cities by cruel bombing and the disintegration of a government by the lust for power, as well as the disappointments and pains...all become urgent invitations to a response; that is, a personal engagement."

In the end, the politics won't matter, how we engaged the world (case by case) with the message of Jesus will.