Mark 12:30-31 says; (1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (2)The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. The second part of this command is extremely difficult for me to keep. You see, unlike God, I do not unconditionally love mankind. I see many men as being rotten to the core, and I feel only scorn and contempt for them. Im talking the murderers and the pedophiles. The rapists, most politicians, drug addicts, thugs and the gang bangers... You know the type... Like many of you, I am a work in progress... Today, I took my boy shopping at Toys R Us. He wanted to get his twin brother the new Godzilla DVD for Christmas. Theyre both at that age where were trying to teach them that the secular part of Christmas is not all about what kind of haul in loot they can amass. But rather, what they can do to make somebody happy as the recipient of a well thought out gift that they wish to give. This brings me to my point. In light of the Ferguson debacle, I see a lot of people are pretty charged up when it comes to race relations. It was no different as I navigated my way down an aisle in the store today. As I browsed, I looked up, and I saw a 60ish black woman plowing down the aisle, pushing her loaded cart as she headed toward me and my boy. On her face was a defiant scowl as evidenced by her furrowed brow and her piercing stare. A stare directed at me. Behind her followed a rather large and well fed female in stretch pants. She was lumbering along. This was one of those scenarios where one party was going to have to give the other party some leeway, or both parties would end up at an impasse, if one did not allow the other to continue in their respective direction. As the womans cart bore down on me, I took the high road and I stepped aside. With my hand, I guided my boy aside so they could pass. I smiled, nodded and I said, Excuse me. The woman went out of her way to ignore me, but she did shoot me the nastiest look of contempt a person could ever shoot at another. I began to rage inside... I thought to myself, this woman is angry because of this Ferguson mess. Had I been the bigot, I would have stood there, forcing her to back up or to go around. Still, she was the one who copped the attitude and displayed an attitude of utter contempt toward me. So, this woman expected me to bend and bow to her? At that point, had I not decided to love my neighbor, said neighbor being her, things could have gotten ugly. But, I take the high road... As a man, I extended her the courtesy of allowing her to pass, and to save face. Still, she rejected my basic display of humanity towards her, which stung. But, mama raised me right, and when I showed her manners, I thought back to Mark 12:31. You see, I was really offended inside when that woman copped an attitude with me. Inside, part of me has nothing but contempt and ill will towards that woman BECAUSE of Ferguson and other racial strife we have been witness to lately. But, the Christian side of me said to, blow of off, like water off a ducks back. The ONLY thing I could do is to continue to show good will towards others, even if they treat me shoddily even her. I think I just got it, what our Lord is commanding us to do. Hes saying, Love your neighbor in spite of him being a jerk. Dont escalate the situation, and just a simple courtesy my prevent the next violent incident, which may cost you or someone else their very life. Theres a lesson on humility and pride in there too, but thats another day. ;) I will freely admit. Im too small minded to have a gushy, feel goody, happy-happy, joy-joy, all warm and fuzzy feeling towards a person like her, or much of humanity. I just cant do it. I think I am realizing what that love is, the Lord does command me to show my neighbor. Hes telling me to not bite off more then my small mind can chew; that loving my neighbor is just showing simple courtesies now and again and to just get along. Lesson learned.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 04:12:03 +0000
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