On Legends and Pedestals

This past week the 51st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush, passed away at the age of 94.  As with any political or public figure--any leader, in fact--his life is surrounded by varying opinions, both positive and negative, which leave a slightly blurry montage of reality across his legacy.  This is to be expected by any reasonable person as we all have different perspectives and ideologies from which we view life.

However, as I watched my social media newsfeed and the varying comments, opinions, blogs being shared this week regarding President Bush, I found myself doing what I often do these days when I see people so entrenched in taking sides that they can't even take a moment to search for some positive.  I was really rather sad that instead of choosing to acknowledge his status as a human, a beloved child of God, a person who accomplished a great many things in his life, people were digging up  what they disagreed with him about.  I found myself repeatedly doing an "epic Captain Picard face-palm", wondering why some of this could not have just waited until a respectable time of mourning was concluded.

This week during youth group we had a conversation about God's unconditional love for us.  We addressed the fact that we, as humans, will always make mistakes. We will fail.  We will find ourselves in a place of shame at our choices and actions, wanting to run away and hide our heads in the sand to avoid judgment, attention, punishment, or whatever else.

But, oh, the wonderful grace of God!  Despite our many shortcomings God's love for us does not change.  God is perfect and so is His love.  And so even when I am at my worst, God's love for me remains the same.  How amazing is this?!  What a RELIEF to know that even when I feel like ducking my head in shame, my God still wraps me in His arms.  Even, and especially, when He sees all and knows all.

We reminded the students, during our conversation, that that is GOD'S love.  That is not our love.  Again, we are humans and we are going to beat each other up, disappoint each other, and we are going to do both of those things to ourselves as well.  We talked about how important it is to not beat ourselves up because we have a harder time showing and living unconditional love for ourselves and for others.  We are not God.  We are not perfect, all-knowing, or all-loving.

I am reminded of one of my favorite mythological heroes and leaders, the great Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker.  In Disney's "Star Wars" sequel triology, we find a much older Luke than the one we grew up with.  We find Luke a broken man, living as a hermit in self-imposed exile from the rest of the galaxy, even closing himself off from the Force itself.  Of course, the galaxy is in turmoil as Luke's nephew Kylo Ren has turned to the Dark Side and is wreaking havoc with his imitation-Empire, the First Order.

The trilogy's main young hero, the girl Rey, has come searching for the great, legendary Jedi, Luke Skywalker, to help her bring the Jedi Order back and bring justice to the galaxy.

The Luke that Rey finds is not the Legend she expects.  He wants nothing to do with galactic affairs.  He is convinced that the Jedi Order should end, and he refuses to ever train another generation of Jedi again.  His exile is a result of his heartbreak over the betrayal he has experienced by his nephew.  Luke had been training Kylo Ren as a Jedi but the boy was influenced by Snoke, a user of the Dark Side.  Kylo Ren betrayed Luke, as well as his parents, Han and Leia Solo, and the ways of the Jedi.  He destroyed the new Jedi Order Luke had been building.

Luke took this all to heart, recognizing that his ego had been fed by the fact that he had almost single-handedly brought down the Galactic Empire by defeating Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader by himself.  In his younger years the power he wielded as the last of the Jedi had given him great confidence.  The galaxy praised, followed, and trusted him.  And yet he had failed to keep his own nephew, his most promising student, from turning against him and destroying it all.

Luke acknowledges that much of his failure was simply that he was "Luke Skywalker, a legend".  He had carried so much responsibility on his shoulders and the guilt and shame and heart-break of his failure was too much for him to bear and he chose to walk away from it all.  He had placed himself on such a high pedestal--with the help of the rest of the galaxy--that when he was knocked down from it he was truly a broken man.

I often ask students to not place me, or any of their teachers or leaders, up onto a pedestal.  There is not one of us who is perfect and mistake-free.  We only set others up for failure when we imagine them to be super heroes or "legends".  And we do the same when we place unrealistic expectations on ourselves as well.

Unfair and unrealistic expectations rob us of the joy and love we have in relationship with others, with God, or even with ourselves.  Placing anyone on a pedestal is surely on the path to disappointment, heartbreak and brokenness.  There is a quote, for which I am not able to find the original author, that says, "Don't put me on a pedestal, for I am sure to fall.  Just love me as I am, flaws and all."  Indeed, I feel like the way in which we respond to someone who has fallen from the pedestal we placed them on says more about ourselves and our love and compassion, care and friendship, then it says about the person themselves.  And this response is sadly too often not a reflection of the grace and love that God shows to us when we fall short.

Many die-hard "Star Wars" fans outright hated the film "The Last Jedi" because of its portrayal of Luke, broken and hopeless.  I personally appreciated it because it showed Luke to be a true human being, imperfect and flawed.  To me, this makes him even more of a legend as I am able to relate to him and his struggle and I am able to train myself to love him and walk alongside him despite the disappointment.

May we each remember, as we look to those around us, those we elect to office, those we learn under, those we live with, those we admire and look up to, may we remember that even legends are only human, and may we not place them so high up in our esteem and expectations, that we set them up to fall from the pedestal of our hearts and minds.