Surrender is a tricky business. I say that with full confidence because at the moment it is the only business with which I should concern myself and yet I find it impossible to lay down the relentless thoughts and concerns that are bombarding my nervous system.
This is a troubled and vastly unsetting time in our fragile world. The balance of all that is beautiful about our earth and mankind is being overrun with the ugliness of the human heart and the unbound capacity for hatred that we have unleashed on one another. Regardless of which direction I look I see anger, judgment, division and unrest. We are disintegrating at mach speed and devolving to our lowest and most degrading levels of tolerance towards one another. Love has become a word that gets thrown around through the use of emojis but it has lost its true meaning of action rather than emotion.
One of the definitions of love in the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it as “a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties” but in his book “The Four Loves” C.S. Lewis suggests that Agape love otherwise known as “charity” is the love that exists REGARDLESS of changing circumstances.
If we consider for a moment the challenge of maintaining mercy, clemency, generosity and helpfulness to those in need, regardless of the color of their skin, their sexual preference or their personal views, then maybe we can rise to a higher standard by asking God to deliver us from our inadequate ability to love regardless of changing or “differing” circumstances.
I can not begin to imagine what it is like to see the world through the lens of another human being’s experience. Our perspective is vastly affected by the string of events that have been formed within our own personal history. We, not any of us, can walk a mile in another man’s shoes but with the help of our Savior we can let go of the pretense that we fully understand the plight or conditions in which another person must stand in. I simply don’t know what what it’s like to be you any more than you know what it’s like to be me. All we can hope to achieve is a state of grace in which we allow each other’s differences to flourish so they add dimension, color and intricacy to the immense and beautiful canvas that we call earth.
My heart hurts for all those who are suffering in the midst of these most heinous of times. I surrender to God’s mercy and ask that His voice be the one that rings loudest in my head so that I may know which actions to take and how to proceed. How can I help Lord? What can I do?
I pray for change, I pray for resolution, I pray for peace.
As usual, I‘m in awe of your insight and ability to express it so eloquently. I particularly love your line about letting go of our pretense that we can ever fully understand the experience of another. It’s the pretending or deluding ourselves into thinking we can, that leads us to make judgments. Keep writing these beautiful messages.
Mirt~
Your evocative message helped place my thinking on a yet unexplored realm, helping me to realize I do not know what it’s like to live with that gnawing possibility that my presence or actions may be unmercifully judged by another’s skewed paradigm. What a wallop!