"THEY" AND "WE"

I left the following as a comment at a good blogging friend’s site.

I was just sitting here in the background, enjoying the comments.

Then, a thought struck me. If you go back and read all of the comments, save for MMM's, you might see what I am about to say.

You see, so long as we point the finger at another, LOVE has not had its way with us. So long as we think we have it mostly right, and let's face it, there wasn't a comment left here that indicated they were wrong about what they believe, we remain mostly unaffected by LOVE.

I know, that's not a very nice thing to say. But go ahead, reread the comments. I am guilty of this nearly everywhere I go, and I want to be affected by LOVE. "They" will never agree with you, and "we" will never agree with them. It's still us and them, do you see it?

I see a superiority gene in all of us, one that doesn't want to act dead. But I have learned a rule in this life, and I think it might be true. I have said it before, and I'll say it again, WE ALL THINK THAT WHAT WE BELIEVE IS THE TRUTH, RIGHT UP UNTIL THE MOMENT WE BELIEVE SOMETHING ELSE. I have found not a single exception to this. That's why I think it might be true. So if we are thus, how are we ever going to understand this about ourselves? We certainly will not understand it by saying, "They teach such and such and such, and we don't".

I don't know the balance between correcting someone's "erroneous" beliefs or teaching, and accepting them. You say they don't accept you. I say you don't accept them. Oh, we all want to say we accept each other, but do we really? It's kind of like a "church" that is only a church so long as the corporation is above water; the second the corporation goes bankrupt, the "church" stops meeting, and people go their own way. I guess you would call such a church not really a church after all, wouldn't you? Well...I would call accepting people based on their beliefs the same thing, as I would call pointing out the way "they" do it wrong as not really accepting them either. Rather, I'd stick my finger up my butt, and try to find the superiority gene, so I could be rid of it once and for all. So long as that gene exists in us, we don't REALLY accept anyone.

Thank God that Jesus didn't exercise His TRUE superiority over us, for none of us would have any hope now.

We think we know the truth, we think we have it down a little better than the next person; right up until the moment we believe something else.

Do you believe this? Do you believe that your "acceptance" of "them" is really only words? I love talking with you, and I love our relationship, what little there is of it because of this medium. But in honesty, so long as I think I know, and so long as I shake my head in pity or whatever it is we feel for those who don't, I don't REALLY accept anyone. I am a bankrupt corporate church which isn't really a church at all, is it?

I want to be affected by LOVE. Currently, there is little in my life that shows me I am. God is going to have to be okay with that, because try as I might, I cannot seem to change anything. Do you REALLY accept me, the way God does?

There is an answer to this conundrum. I want to be affected by LOVE. How in the world is that ever going to happen? Well, I know how it won’t happen.

It won’t happen so long as I give this superiority “gene” in me an ear. I don’t think it is even possible for me to love someone if I think they are “wrong”, and focus on it.

I want the LOVE that is beyond comparison. Beyond comparing beliefs, beyond comparing knowledge, beyond comparing anything before I can love someone else.

You see, it really doesn’t matter what we believe, so long as we remain unaffected by LOVE. It does not matter if we believe Jesus is the redeemer, so long as we are unaffected by love. All we have to give, really, is love. How are we ever going to do that? Maybe that is why Jesus said something once about dying to ourselves. You see, I just don’t think Jesus would have ever gone to that cross had He focused on His truth being the right truth, and ours being wrong. I don’t see how he could have. I know He knew He was the truth, yet as I watch Him in the words of the gospels, I don’t see too much focusing on what He knew, not nearly as much as I see Him emptying Himself upon others, as a servant.

LOVE is the answer, it is the only thing that matters. I have hope that one day, I might love someone like Jesus did. Currently, I love them very little, because I don’t see past my own ego. And you know, there are times when I see it, when I see how a man can not think of himself for the sake of others. I see how a man could die to himself. Trouble is, those types of men don’t think real highly of themselves, and in our generations, that’s not a real welcome message, is it?

Jesus did not lord His authority over others. He could have. He knew it all, and yet I don’t see Him pointing His finger at others, and saying “they” just don’t get it, the way I do.