I never saw the movie Mean Girls, the first or the second, but
I can imagine what it is about. Well, actually I googled it, so I do know what
it is about. The media has also been
filled with spots about mean kids, bullies, and yesterday I watched a piece
that talked about little kids bullying other little kids. So kind of hold that thought in your mind,
kids as young as five or six actually intentionally being mean to another
child, and encouraging other kids to be mean to that child.
This morning I read these words, Jesus praying in John 17, “I
ask not only on behalf of these, but
also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they
may all be one…that the world may believe that you sent me.” OK, so the way we live should confirm the message
that God loved people in the world so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins, because
that is the message we say we believe. Our lives
should be so marked by unity and love that others want what we have.
Now, how do these two paragraphs meet? They meet where people identified as
Christians disagree, where Christians have power over others, whether in the
workplace, the church, or the neighborhood. Man, we get ugly when people
disagree with us. OK, that is an
overstatement! Some professing believers get ugly when people disagree with
them.
This morning a friend posted a review of a book on facebook,
and hesitantly, because I have friends and students who are really ministered
to by the book, I posted a few of my thoughts.
Hmmm, I think we are too quick to take offence, at least some of us
are. And that might say we find loving
each other hard, and we don’t feel loved if someone disagrees with us.
I grew up in republican country. My parents served on the election board, so you know it was deeply ingrained. I didn’t know, growing up, that you could be
Christian and democrat, and I know a lot of people who still believe that
way. How shameful, that we could allow something
like that to divide us. Loving each
other means that sometimes we have to make the effort to look through the other
person’s eyes, their experiences, and maybe we could understand their
perspective better, rather than judge and convict them with no real fair
hearing or evidence.
Can we not allow others in the family of Christ to practice
their faith differently than we do, and still love them? I guess this thing about love is that, as far
as I can tell, we really should be loving people in general. Remember one of your first memory verses back
in the day, “Be ye kind to one another.”
Kindness is a demonstration of love.
I’m rambling, but I think that no one ever taught those mean
girls about the significance of kindness or loving one another. I think that sometimes Christians in power,
any kind of power, need a refresher course on the importance of being kind to
one another and loving one another.
Anyway, thoughts that came to me as I rehearsed Christ’s
prayer in John 17.
This was a very, very good post. It was an excellent reminder for me. When I first started being a social worker, the number one thing that BLEW ME AWAY, was that many of the African American Christians I met, did not think abortion was wrong. I could not believe this. I was astounded. I remember telling my parents that these people could not really be Christians and love Jesus if they believed murder was ok. I was so distraught. As time has gone on, I am still often disheartened by the overall sense that abortion is not a huge issue by my African American friends, but I have changed how I view my friends with their differing views.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about the book that you enjoyed and ministered to you but not to the person who wrote the status. One book that did not affect me the way it affected so many other christian girls was 1,000 gifts. I tried and tried to enjoy it, but I did not. I also am not a huge fan of Ms. Voskamp's blog. I sometimes think something is wrong with me because it seems that every single woman in the world loves her writing.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Kaishon is not feeling great, so I think we will lay low this weekend. I have one session tomorrow at 10 am with a darling 18 month old baby boy.
Thanks so much for writing...funny you mentioned 1000 gifts. I loved it and bought it for my RDs. But I do understand what you are saying - I bought a particular devotional for my sisters, and it did not ring their bell. It is good that God sprinkles us with the salt of diversity, and there are people who write things that will minister to all of our different tastes. I will message you about the book in question.
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