Two Jobs: A Mid-Week Reflection

EMILY RUTLEDGE, Youth Minister

Have you ever thought about how we see color?  That the way that you see green may be how I see pink but we were taught to call that color green so that is what it is to us.  We can each be looking at the world and be seeing something totally different but all agree that is the same because we have named it that.

I will never see green through your eyes and you will never see green through my eyes so we will never know what green looks like to anyone but ourselves.  This is one of those 'makes my head hurt' ideas if I think about it for too long.  Each of us id complex and unique.

As we trudge through this election season it is becoming clear how differently people can view the same thing.  The internet is full of articles and videos that are trying to change minds, inform voters, and belittle candidates.  We are classifying ourselves into groups and making judgments regarding the wrongness and rightness of people, ideas, and situations. 

Frankly, it's getting nasty out there.  As a country we are turning against each other in ways I have not seen in my (albeit short) lifetime.  

Our desire to be right is overtaking our desire to be kind.  

As people of faith we have two jobs:

1. Love God

2. Love each other

So simple.  So hard.  

We are citizens of this country but also citizens of the Kingdom of God.  Unfortunately.... so is everyone else.  This loving each other and loving God thing isn't determined by an election but it is challenged by it.  Amy Poehler has an amazing quote in her book Yes Please where she describes women's desires to judge and tear each other down and offers the advice that we should repeat the mantra, "Good for her!  Not for me."  We may need this mantra now, as we walk through the next few months.

We are fighting tooth and nail to make others see the world as we do and in the process we are ripping each other apart.  We are ripping apart the Body of Christ.  We must must must re-member. We must literally re-member; put back together, stay connected, support, the entire Body of Christ. Those we love and those we can't stand.  Those we agree with and those we don't.  We must accept that we can not make anyone see as we see.  What we can do is love.  And love does far more than being right ever will.