The Lines We Hide Between
The following is from our email devotional. You can subscribe to at www.askthequestion.ca, you can contribute your replies and it will be followed by a podcast teaching from this coming Sunday.
For more than 40 years, prying eyes peered across the Berlin wall and suspicions were multiplied. It's what a wall does. You see enough of someone else to know they're doing something, but not enough to know exactly what. And suspicions are multiplied.
It would be fascinating to read a history on the concept of "us" versus "them". Anytime you give into the idea of "other", you create something to be feared. And that single toxic thought - that someone is different enough to be "other" - is the beginning of most of the worst things about us.
One of the most radical features of Christianity is how it breaks down barriers, even to the degree of discomfort. It shifts the meaning of all our labels to a friendlier category. Strangers become neighbors, our friends are treated like family and even in the case of our enemies, our behavior is inverted completely, returning kindness for abuse, so that the category no longer even exists...
"After all, what good is it", Jesus asks, "if you love those who love you?" Who doesn't already do that? But if we were to shift from the normal patterns of relationships in such a bold way... now that would be something...
So why not promote everyone a single notch upwards? Erase your "enemy" and "stranger" categories so that the very lowest distinction you have available is "neighbor". Who knows? You may just tear down a wall. Suspicious eyes may become understanding, a thing taken may become a thing willingly given, and a revolution may begin. And what a powerful way to know if God is real - because it could only work if He is.
Over the past few Sundays we've been searching for 6 sentences that will forever change the way we look at church. Why not join us?
Hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you,
CSW
For more than 40 years, prying eyes peered across the Berlin wall and suspicions were multiplied. It's what a wall does. You see enough of someone else to know they're doing something, but not enough to know exactly what. And suspicions are multiplied.
It would be fascinating to read a history on the concept of "us" versus "them". Anytime you give into the idea of "other", you create something to be feared. And that single toxic thought - that someone is different enough to be "other" - is the beginning of most of the worst things about us.
One of the most radical features of Christianity is how it breaks down barriers, even to the degree of discomfort. It shifts the meaning of all our labels to a friendlier category. Strangers become neighbors, our friends are treated like family and even in the case of our enemies, our behavior is inverted completely, returning kindness for abuse, so that the category no longer even exists...
"After all, what good is it", Jesus asks, "if you love those who love you?" Who doesn't already do that? But if we were to shift from the normal patterns of relationships in such a bold way... now that would be something...
So why not promote everyone a single notch upwards? Erase your "enemy" and "stranger" categories so that the very lowest distinction you have available is "neighbor". Who knows? You may just tear down a wall. Suspicious eyes may become understanding, a thing taken may become a thing willingly given, and a revolution may begin. And what a powerful way to know if God is real - because it could only work if He is.
Over the past few Sundays we've been searching for 6 sentences that will forever change the way we look at church. Why not join us?
Hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you,
CSW
posted by CSW at
12:29 PM
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