November 8, 2005

Today a friend and I were talking about a very heated topic. Within a community of Christians, is love not the key? It seems we've lost ourselves on the topic of who is more spiritual than the other these days. This game of "who's closer to Jesus" has seemingly become a nationwide epidemic, with followers to be found everywhere. It has led to many friends I've known disliking each other because of how they view each other in spiritual terms. To know that if they simply showed love and didn't pick out their faults, they'd probably get along is painful.

To point out faults to a person is not our place. To judge another based on their beliefs, even another religion, is not our forte'. The reason God told us not to judge others is because of this. He is in command of that judgement, not us. I'm not above that desire to judge. I still do it, daily. Such is the beauty of forgiveness. However, I think that willingly doing it is not a goal we should have. If we loved one another like Christ would do, our walls would fall, obviously. Our perceptions of the idiosyncrasies of our faith would fall away in notice that despite all the denominational perspectives that have evolved over the ages, our love of God and Jesus is what ties us together, not who was wrong.

I'm still amazed by the fact that in a day, you can feel the extreme lows of life and doubt, and by the end of your night, have no doubt in how much God can show you within one hour's time.

On continuation from a previous idea, the idea that smiling to show love and being nice to strangers makes more sense everyday. The idea that I could be in such a "not-smiley" mood, to quote a friend, and have someone walk by me and say hi, and in that, change the path of my day, is something that only God could plan out. It's got too many plot twists for us normal folks.

The topic of ego amazes me, with the circular pattern in which it works. I think I first really thought about it at one point, reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, nearly three years ago. It mentions how when a person is modest and thinks about being modest, it is not longer being modest. Such an idea stays in my mind constantly. How do we avoid thinking about an act which we, as humans, have to consciously put into motion?

How many times in a given day do we pass a person and think critically about them? How often do we make an assumption based on what expression they wear, or what kind of shoes are on their feet? How often do we think quickly enough to realize neither one matter?