Not a Beautiful Day in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

     It was not a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers’ actual neighborhood when a gunman killed eleven in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Like a brutal slap in the face, this atrocity smacked of all the evil Fred Rogers sought to dispel. Yet after years of modeling kindness, Mr. Rogers had grown disillusioned near the end of his life, a recent documentary revealed. Despite his best efforts, the world had grown worse, not better.     
     Why is that? Why can’t we bring about the peace we hope for? The compassion we long for? I think it’s because we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. We operate under a shared human dilemma, trying to be better people so we can make a better world - a futile task.     
     What’s the solution? Ezekiel, an ancient Hebrew, explained we don’t need our hearts rehabilitated through greater self effort; we need heart transplants. First-century Jewish teacher Jesus expanded on this, explaining we must be recreated into completely new beings. Then, he said, a powerful dynamic transforms us, God’s Spirit.     
     Radical, I know. It’s not about getting nicer or performing better, which is like a caterpillar struggling to fly. Instead, the caterpillar must be transformed into a new creature, a butterfly.
     I embraced this metamorphosis. Sometimes I still try to wing myself through our broken world with my own efforts. What a waste of energy. And as Mr. Rogers did, I long for the day when this shattered world is fixed, not through our best efforts, but through the dynamic of God’s Spirit.

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Portrait of Fred Rogers by Don Sondag at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, which Rogers attended.