IN THE END LOVE WINS
I remember when my oldest son was in
elementary school there was a large meeting about what to call the Holiday
breaks. They had always been referred to as Christmas and Easter breaks but now
that the community was more diverse there was some concern about those labels.
The principal finally stood up and said “It’s just a matter of semantics…”. As
I read the news and look at the social networking posts I realize once again if
we could get past the labels perhaps we could begin to become part of the
kingdom Jesus spoke about. Jesus said His father’s kingdom was here now. So
many of us look to the afterlife as God’s kingdom but as followers of Jesus we
are to bring God’s kingdom to earth each day. Some of Jesus’ followers, like
Mother Theresa of India, brought the kingdom to earth in a big way. But as
Mother Theresa said, “We are to bloom where we are planted”. To me bringing the
kingdom to earth and blooming where I’m planted means working in small ways to share
God’s love.
As I look at the world and my country
wallowing in hatred and violence I could give into despair. Yet I believe that
even as one woman I can make a difference. It may be seen by others as
non-consequential but that is okay because I know that the small mustard seed
grows into the large bush and can become home to many birds. One small difference
I can make is to only repost positive thoughts. Another is to strive to end the
US vs. THEM by not using labels to identify people. I like to believe that we
use these terms out of habit and give little thought to their cutting results.
Habits can be changed and as a follower of The Way of Jesus I need to be aware
of my shortcomings and learn from my failures, not just say, “I’ve always said
that or done it that way”.
It is not enough to say that “In the
end love wins”, we must do all in our power to end the hatred inside ourselves,
leaving only room for love. I am confident when we make a conscious effort to
do this by changing the little things we say we will make a difference. We will
help bring God’s kingdom to earth by losing the labels—homosexuals, Sikhs,
Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Spic, illegal immigrant, etc. We
are all people with the same struggles and joys. If there is any question about
that just look at the picture of children playing anywhere in the world and you
will see the same joy. Somewhere we lose that joy as we age and that is
definitely our loss. Perhaps if we strive to lose the hatred within us the joy
will again fill our being.
I will strive to begin today to bring
God’s love to our troubled world by becoming aware of the labels I use and
throwing them away. Will you join me?
