"And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." KJV
The Message puts it like this, "Jesus said, "The first in importance is... 'so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these.'"
I know many people feel King James is the only true word so I put it on here, but WOW, the Message drove the message of Christ home plain and simple... LOVE!!! It wasn't a request, it was a command! Love God and Love People. I think that is pretty straight forward and leaves no room for interpretation. And yet, this one supposedly simple commandment is the hardest of all for so many to do. Many can find more reasons to hate than they can to love and that boggles my mind. To me it takes so much energy to hate someone and to hate someone for the most outlandish reasons too. I call them the "isms" You all know them... racism, sexism, ageism, etc. Did you know that currently there are 234 "isms" that one can associate with? Again, that boggles my mind!
Lately I've seen a lot of ugly on social media and in the news. Many cry out against a specific "ism" that seems to be pertinent to their own set of demographics or ideals. Many tend to look at life ONLY through their own lenses and feel no one else can understand their pain or anger they feel against another who has displayed an "ism" towards them or their group, whatever group that may be. I've heard so many excuses as to why one "ism" is acceptable and another not so much. I've had people tell me that I can't possibly understand their feelings on a specific "ism" because I've never walked in their shoes. You know what... they are absolutely right! I cannot understand fully another person's journey as each one is so unique and is only walked by a single life. I don't know what it's like to be anything besides a white, Christian female who grew up poor, who has experienced many tragedies and pain that very few even know about. I'm ok with that. My story is just that, my story and I'm ok with my story because I like who I am today and it took my journey of both triumph and tragedy to get me to where I am today. It took my journey to teach me about the great commandment to LOVE. I could choose to continue to look only through my lenses of life lessons and personal demographics to see others, or I could choose to look through the lenses that we each have been equipped with that God gave us from the beginning. I could choose anger, I could choose resentment, I could choose many things... but instead I choose love because that is what my Jesus commanded. Love displaces hate. Love removes the "isms" from the hearts of man.
In recent news we heard of a man, Ahmaud Arbery being shot and killed... his only crime at the time, the color of his skin. Racism, an "ism" that has never made sense to me. Sure I see differences in our genetic makeup as far as physical appearances, but beyond that we are plain and simple God's creation. I've experienced this "ism" personally. Yes, white people too can experience racism. This "ism" isn't color blind and it isn't just a North American "ism"... it's global and has been going on for longer than I care to even think about. When I heard the news report on Mr. Arbery, it brought back a time in my life when I was in his shoes. I was in St. Louis, MO for a long weekend with my then husband and his two cousins to watch a St. Louis Cardinals game and explore the city a bit. We decided we would take the long walk back from the stadium to our hotel that was closer to Union Station. It was a perfect night for a long walk. I tend to walk a little fast and was in a rather good mood... Cards had won. My husband and his cousins were probably 20+ steps behind me goofing off and none of us paying much attention to anything around us because there really wasn't much going on and very few people out on the street. This was back in the mid-late 90s. I noticed three young men walking the opposite direction across the street from me that seemed to be enjoying the evening too but didn't pay too much attention to them until they took off running across the street towards me and got directly behind me with one whose breath touched my hair and said, "Cap Cap Whitey, you dead". I felt my heart stop. Then I heard running as my husband and his cousins had seen what was going on and ran to my defense. The three young men ran back across the street and out of view while I tried to breathe again. I could have allowed this to create an "ism" inside me. I could have determine that all young black men are potentially violent and are out to hurt me but instead I chose love. I don't know their story. I don't know their journey nor what they had experienced in life that caused them that night to want to do harm to me because I was white. But I do know what my Bible tells me and that is to love. Until the story broke of Mr. Arbery, I had actually forgotten about this incident and the fear I felt that night. I had forgotten about other similar times as well when I was shown the "true colors of isms" in my life because God gave me the lenses in my glasses to see the way he sees others and there is no "ism"... just love.
What lenses are you wearing today? What "ism" has plagued you that you can't seem to look at someone through the lenses that Christ has waiting for you? What stops you from accepting the differences of another whether it be their race, religion, sexual orientation or even gender? There is one commandment that covers all the others and that is to love. Lay down the heavy burden of hate and fear and begin to love even those that choose to hate you in return. Change begins with each one of us and from that change can come new life.
Under His Wings,
Heather
