The theme of Season 3 of Ted Lasso seems to be about being safe. Some people are safe. Some people are not. Some places are safe. Some places are not.
I was blessed with a safe childhood and – for the most part – my life experiences have been in safe relationships and safe places. I lived in the Washington, DC area during the DC Sniper Attacks in 2002 when two men randomly shot and killed ten people in places as varied as a golf course and a hardware store parking lot. I was in Best Buy with my then 10 year old daughter and I remember telling her to stay in the store until I pulled the car to the front door. And then I carried her running to the car pulled as closely to the door as possible – literally on the sidewalk. My heart still pounds when I remember that day. It was terrifying.
Those experiences have been rare in my life. And yet I fully expect that someone I know will eventually die in a random shooting if things continue as they are going.
Consider what it feels like to be safe: to be able to share a secret and not risk rejection, to be loved in spite of past mistakes, to be accepted in a family no matter what, to sleep soundly at night without fear.
Church is not always a safe place but it’s supposed to be in terms of unconditional love and forgiveness. And on the other hand we are called to take risks that some would say are not at all safe: house the homeless, feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, love the enemy. In other words, we are called to make the world safer for vulnerable people.
Note: when dealing with enemies, we need to protect ourselves too. It’s possible that we cannot be the ones to offer them kindness but others can do that for us.
I love this season of Ted Lasso. It’s the moments when people realize they are safe that really get to me.
Image of me and my mom in about 1958. Happy Mothers’ Day weekend.
A Church for Starving Artists 