Dear Son,
Your grandfather would say, “Remember who you are,” and I would add to that, “Remember where you came from.”
You have been living in the States for several years now and have settled in quite well, and I am beginning to be afraid you may forget where you came from. Although you have returned to your ‘home country,’ remember where you are really from – a Christ loving community in a Muslim nation in Africa. Some of your favorite people are Muslim and you grew up with expat and refugee friends from all around the world. Recall your High School community service hours were spent serving Egyptian widows and playing football with Syrian refugees. Your closest friends were either from Far East Asia or the Middle East. Do not forget this when you see the immigrant or poor in the United States.
The next time someone tells you that that all “Illegal immigration is a backdoor to terrorists”, remember Miss Mary and Miss Chrissy, the Sudanese women who were a part of your life at school or after it. Remember all my translators and some of my personal friends. Almost every single one of them were illegal immigrants and refugees when you were growing up. Remember their warmth, their joy, their kindness, their love, their unyielding courage, and their undying hope.
You were too young to know the horror they had to endure to sneak across the borders to save themselves and their families from Nuba or Darfur. They did not choose to be an illegal immigrant or refugee. Some were forced out of their home through violence and bloodshed done by greed by their own kind or by wicked men and policies inflicted by our country. They did not choose this life. It was forced upon them.
You are now old enough to research. Find out how many times we, the United States, or other Western Powers, were behind the coups, the Jihadi terror groups, revolutions, or the corporate buy-outs that inflicted economic hardship that caused people to leave their home country. The facts can be difficult for some to swallow or accept. If you take the facts with a tablespoon of humility, it will go down easier.
The next time someone tells you “All Muslims are terrorists. They hate Americans!” Remember Nabil, and how he would always say your name and proclaim you would be “the next American President” and how he would vote for you; and never forget every man in our neighborhood who looked after us during the Egyptian Revolutions. Those men who stood with sticks and metal bars on the streets to protect our home and to protect me your mother. Do not forget when I teared up as I saw the Muslim men and women who linked arms and stood around churches to protect it from the fanatical actions of the Muslim Brotherhood. Remember that almost every armed military guard that protected our church during every weekend service, every Christmas, and every Easter is Muslim. Most of those armed Muslim men would greet us with “Merry Christmas” or the general Arabic holiday greeting and smile to us. Never forget that and remember it is a lie that “Muslims hate Americans.” They hate what our government does to their countries, but they do not hate us Americans.
Remember every Mo, Mohamed, and Islam who made you laugh, ruffed up your hair, and helped you up a mountain, an excursion, onto a boat after swimming with the dolphins and fish, or when you needed anything anywhere. Never forget we have always been treated with respect, care, and kindness by every Muslim we have ever met – except in Jordan. Except Jordan. Woe to Jordan, where we will always remember their inappropriate behavior, pride, and greed.
You see, Son, most people in America have fears and anger toward others because they do not have friends or loved ones from “the other side.” They use the news and social media videos as the means to inform themselves rather than sitting down and having a meal and a conversation with them. It is difficult to sway or lie to people via the Media when they are directly informed by friendships and trust.
Be of good courage and love others as Christ has loved us, Son. He loved us even when we were enemies to Him. Your Christian faith is not in danger of loving others who are different than you. Our Christian faith is in danger only if we make compromises with our principles and core beliefs.
Son, make close friends of all kinds who have good character, but also build bridges with those who are very different from you. It is with those bridges of understanding that peaceful communities can be built. It is written, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Romans 12:8) Peace with man does not divinely rain down from the heavens, that kind of peace only comes from God to individuals. No, the peace made with men is one of slow holy work. It takes time, discernment, prayer, humility, kindness, mercy, and perseverance.
I pray you will have discernment between building bridges and keeping close to you those who harbor contagious spiritual illnesses like that spoken about in the book of Galatians. Beware of the “Christian” Zionist as much as the wayward liberal whose sexual or addictive appetite knows no bounds. They both host a viral Black Death that kills the soul and those around them. Once a person receives such an illness, they war against the antidote. Yes, build careful bridges with gates and tolls for those people, and guard your very soul carefully from them.
Finally, my son, bring what you remember of what it means to have a loving community to your neighborhood and work in America. Smile at them. Wish them good morning and give them greetings on their holy days, even if they are of a different religion than you like we do here in the Middle East. Be generous and liberal with kindness, mercy, truth, and love to all. As God is with us, let us be with those around us, no matter who they are.
I love you, Son. Keep yourself pure and always seek the Lord Jesus.
The Trekking Thinker 