Shalom Existence

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Sometimes I want to be selfish. Sometimes I am. Especially about the little things that do not matter. When driving, there are those moments when you literally want to kill the car in front of you, the guy that cuts you off, or the person that shouts “Idiot” out their window when you accidentally turned the wrong way and then needed to make an immediate left into the next parking lot. Okay, so this happened to me. And I wanted to cry, I did not want to forgive him. I wanted to go back and tell him that I made an honest mistake and defend myself for this little inconvenience.

Even deeper than this are our senses of entitlement. We do not want our taxes raised because we don’t like where the money is going. We don’t want to give $5 to the homeless man on the street because we work for our money. We want the prisoner who made a horrible, even fatally injurous mistake, to be put to death. And finally, many want whole groups of people or nations wiped away because they are “evil.” Yet, we are human, we are all the same. We share so many things, yet can find so many differences among the similarities. The idea of “western” and “eastern” seeps its way into our subconscious and we began judging based on things that are cultural or religious, things that are really a matter of where we were born or who we were born to. We decide to breed and hold onto our hatred.

Yet, many of us claim to be Christians, believers in God, or followers of some religion or set of moral codes that teaches to love one another. Jesus commands us to love, not specifying which certain people to show this love to. Why? Because Christ came to die for everyone, to show his immense love for all the people around him. People that were despised, Jesus loved them anyway. Many times his love even acted as a catalyst for change. Once people know there is something more, that they are cared about, they realize their old life does not matter. I know this isn’t true of everyone. But why be cynical when you can be faithful? Why spread discontent when you can spread love? We are one race, humanity, created in the image of God. So, try to remember what Jesus says about others, and try to accept his imense love for you so that you have the capacity to love others. It is not easy for us. Daily we must die, so that we may live like Him. 

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