A Mending Shift

a bird sings, not because if has an answer to give, but because it has a song to sing … this is my song

The “Other”


What if we viewed the “others” as our brothers and sisters? What if we cast aside the destructive label of “them” and exchanged it for “us”? What we didn’t operate through then lenses of labels, countries, and borders? What if we saw “others” as fellow humans with the same blood coursing through both our veins? What if we embraced the 98% we have in common vs. condemning and killing the 2% that differentiates us? What if we ruthlessly loved each other vs. ruthlessly hurt each other?

What if there was no black or white? Gay or straight? Male or female? Christian or non-Christian? American or Muslim? Heretic or orthodox? Saved or unsaved? Liberal or conservative? Buddhist or Hindu? Jew or Arian? Shi’ite or Sunni? Adulterer or faithful. Republican or Democrat? First World or Third world? Cursed or beloved? In or out? Us or them? What if we simply saw each other as humans, embracing our uniqueness?

What if we helped create a world where every war was also our war? Where the illness of another became our epidemic? The death of another became our loss? The damnation of another became our exile? Where every hateful word was heard as an offense against us? Every blistering punch was viewed as an assault against us? Every bitter look was imagined as a aggression against us? Every rape, our rape. Every suffering, our suffering? Every pain, our pain? Every curse, our curse? Every bruise, our bruise? Every neglect, our neglect? Every violation, our violation? Every stumble, our stumble? Every failure, our failure? Where everything that happened to another we viewed as happening to us?

What if we truly saw the world through God’s eyes: without borders? What if we truly saw every human through God’s eyes: her kids that she birthed? What if we truly saw ourselves through God’s eyes: beloved, without clause or exception?

What if we were all simply humans fervidly loved by our Papa?

Oh, wait…

We are.

May we learn to live as such.

May I.

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This entry was posted by on Thursday, May 26th, 2011 at 10:40 am and is filed under ethics, friendship, God, Kingdom of God, love, transformation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Jeromy Johnson
I live in Folsom, CA, with my wife, Jennifer, and three kids. I am surrounded by and cared for deeply by some great friends. Their love for me is truly a moonlit reflection of Papa's love, and for that, I am deeply blessed and grateful.

Comments

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    Amen.

  • http://sacredbe.blogspot.com/ rain

    a world where we weep with those who weep, moved by others’ pain; where we rejoice with those who rejoiced, transformed by the joy others experience … a world where we allow ourselves to be affected and not cringe at the sight of tears and blood and messy ~ i think it is this world where we finally begin to see that the kingdom of heaven: it is at hand.

  • http://www.jeromyj.com/mendingshift Jeromy

    I think that seems to be a key…allowing our selfs to be affected. Let me ask, how have you seen that work out in your life or in the life of another?

  • Anonymous

    I have been thinking of something very similar all week. Wow how our minds are going in the same direction. Love that! We’re all created in the image of God and would do well if we loved each other as such.

  • http://sacredbe.blogspot.com/ rain

    i’ve been thinking about this since yesterday, about allowing our selfs to be affected. i think that sometimes we are to afraid of brushing up against others for fear their sin or pain might rub off on us? especially for those of us raised within a fundamentalist mindset, which is wrought with dogmatic, judgmental regulations which leave no room for grace, no room for love.

    i think for me, a willingness to get dirty, so to speak, a running, screaming, shivering, leaping, love-risking faith that doesn’t shrink away from what others might think (remember the misinterpreted appearance of evil verse?) has actually opened up a teeming world of real life, real hearts, real needs ~ and here it is that i see Jesus.

    and Jesus is with the rejected ones. the weary ones. the sinners and the abandoned and the labeled.

    if i turn away from these i turn away from Him. if i shrink back from these, i shrink back from Him.

    being affected is vulnerable.
    we are laid bare.
    we are tested.
    we are at risk. we open ourselves up to feel like we’ve never felt before, to hurt like we’ve never hurt before, to see like we’ve never seen before.

    i see it working out in your life as you write and seek God and stand with those who are despised and rejected, who are cast out. i see the Father in you as you live and love and allow someone else’s story to become your story.

    you are affected.
    you are transformed.
    you reflect His light.
    and others are drawn to Him.

    this is what i hope to do also.

  • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

    Come on dude. How would we then create a structure for keeping the people we don’t like out? ;-P

  • Rosecityfriend

    Yes, you mean the Realm of God.  Now.  Today.  Among us.  Inside us.  Thank you for describing it so beautifully.  I’ve shared it on my own facebook page.

  • http://www.jeromyj.com/mendingshift Jeromy

    JB, seriously, right?

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