For Wilshire Baptist Church
It was one of those college football games where the score was close and the tension was high and you felt like you had to do something — anything you could — to help the home team. And about all you could do was stand and shout, as if either of those actions would have any impact. Although when shouting you can add your voice to the crowd noise which can energize the home team and rattle the visitors. But standing only benefits those who are standing. Or does it?
Back to the game: Things calmed down and got quiet as energy and interest waned and people settled into their seats for a while. But there’s always that one person who gets nervous and stands again to get a better look, and sometimes that starts a ripple effect of people standing behind the solo stander, and sometimes it doesn’t. It was during one of those latter times, when someone stood but nobody else stood, that I heard the lone stander apologize to the people behind him for blocking their view. And that’s when I heard one of those people say, “You never have to apologize for standing.”
That happened several weeks ago, and that sentence has stuck with me. Because instead of the second man being irritated by the man blocking his view, he understood what standing represented: care, support, belief, interest, worry, concern, wanting to help in some impossible way. He knew that the man who was standing was just being the ultimate fan, and that makes him a good friend and neighbor if you are on the same side.
The idea of “standing up” for something runs deep in our popular culture. Sometimes it’s right there in a title or lyrics, like Ben E. King’s song “Stand by Me” or the movie “Stand and Deliver.” It’s heralded from the Broadway stage in shows like “Les Miserables” with the finale, “Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?”
Sometimes it’s not stated but acted out, like in the classic film “Spartacus,” when the main character is called out among the slaves by their Roman captors, and one man after another stands and says, “I am Spartacus.”
At church, we hear it in some of our hymns, perhaps most prominently in “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus,” and we teach it early to our children. A few years ago when Wilshire’s MusiCamp told the story of Esther in the musical “Malice in the Palace,” our nephew Ethan sang, “Stand up, stand up, stand up for what is right” as he portrayed Mordecai.
At Wilshire we have a great tradition where when someone is baptized, friends and family are invited to stand to show their support. They’re asked to be seated during the actual baptism, but if someone remains standing, there’s no need to apologize.
We’re living in a time when we need more people standing. We need them to stand with us, and we need them to stand for us when we get tired or are unable. Even if we don’t want to stand up ourselves, we need to be more understanding of those who want or need to stand. We need to encourage them or at least accept them rather than embarrass them.
And sometimes, even when you disagree with someone, you can still respect their courage in standing — if they’re being civil and reasonable, of course. You can still appreciate their desire to make things better.
When you stand up for something for the right reasons, you may block someone’s view, you may even step on some toes, but if the intention is good, you don’t need to apologize.