I remember when I was in grade 9 I went on a camp to the beach. A group of us sat on the rocks above the breakers and breathed in the refreshing salty air. The others stood behind us on their cellphones ‘bbm’ing or whatever it was back then and I couldn’t fathom why they were doing that in the presence of such majesty. It made me angry.
Have you noticed how people just don’t notice each other anymore? I walk around campus, or the shops and every second person who passes me has their head down, focused on a tiny screen. You could be in touch with friends (to the extent that you’re messaging the ones sitting next to you) but you wouldn’t even register that your best friend walked by. There is no catching eyes of potential lovers, concern for the girl sitting alone, hugging her knees or even a wave to a colleague on the other side of the lawn. You need to be looking up to realise such things.
My sister said to me that when two people like each other, or regard the other highly, they walk in sync. Their strides and footsteps perfectly match. As we walked, as soon as I watched our legs moving I had to concentrate to keep them in sync with hers, having broken the connection of the natural swinging our legs dance to. If you try to control the sync it becomes unbalanced.
In class we were learning about body language in terms of doctor/patient relationships. If somebody wishes to tell you about their pain, their shoulders hunched forward and eyes cast down, they’ll never tell you the actual problem if you stretch your arms behind your head and lean back casually in your chair. Mimic their posture and the truth comes tumbling out. If your best friend is depressed and you’re pretty thrilled, one of you is going to take the slack when you meet because the emotions we express can’t coexist within opposite circumstances when expressed within a relationship that operates on harmony.
Have you ever wondered why a person who laughs at a funeral is scorned? Or if you resent a newborn baby and nobody gets why you’re not cooing over him? When it comes to the basics of life and death and extends to the fundamental fruits of life, flow should reign, that is, you can’t stop the natural flow of life. … We can’t fight death. The world seems to think we can but we can’t. We’ve come up with ways to measure love and grief. How can you possibly measure concepts like that? And with it, we’ve categorised right from wrong and as the years go by that changes to ideas such as tolerance and acceptability, to individualised truth. To individualised people. We say we want freedom – to be an individual? Is that it?
I went with a few friends to speak to a group of homeless men and to give them food. They live in an open field. One of them has a dream of becoming a fine art painter, to capture what he sees with colour. It is my fervent prayer that he does it. As he said, art is not just of things but rather communication of meaning from one person to another. I wonder what he would say to the high fliers in their shiny Mercedes who have become desensitized to poverty on the streets they travel on? And not just the rich, but everyone who refuses to look a ‘beggar’ in the eye? I’m guilty of it. They’re perceived as some alien species, yet when they sit and talk with you out of the goodness of their own hearts they seem more human than the rest of us combined. Because they see.
What could one single person have ever done to deserve the enormous ‘wealth’ the top 5% of the population receive? We all rate we earn the salary we get, that our efforts are better somehow than poorer people. Do you believe you are better than them? Are you more blessed?
The world looks to God and ridicules His power because He isn’t being a mechanic and fixing their problems. The secret Christians ‘forget’ to tell you is that He is. An encounter with God changes your soul. He works on the inside so that you may be Christ to those around you. We, humans, are meant to help and not only do, but also relate. I watched ‘Pay it Forward’ when I was about ten years old. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, watch the end and see how many people turn up with candles. One little boy had a serious impact on his community…imagine if every person took up the challenge. That is the Great Commission, in a nutshell.
There’s an inherent part of us that needs love… That walks in fellowship with nature…That needs comfort. Complain all you like about smokers and nymphomaniacs, about abuse and criminals, about poverty, but until you live in community with your community, protesting might as well be feeding precious particles of your breath to a wind that needs no air from you.
Jesus wants His people to be well looked after with a big fat bank account and so long as you give something away you’re good to be healed? Have you read the New Testament lately? When He said that it’s easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven he wasn’t taking a swing at the rich.
“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” Luke 17:33
We’re just a bunch of sync-meant people yearning for contact masquerading as soloists. The day every person walks in sync with every other person will reveal a most glorious harmony. Until then we’re just noise.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. ~ Luke 10:27-37, KJV
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