"Now if there's a realm where things are as God wants them to be, then there must be a realm where things are not as God wants them to be. Where things aren't according to God's will.Where people aren't treated as fully human...
Concentration camps are hell on earth.
Famine.
Emotional Hell.
...We don't respect the divine image in others just because we want to uphold their humanity. It isn't just about them. It's about us. It's about our humanity as well."
~Rob Bell, taken from Sex God
Let me go ahead and throw in hate crimes and the westboro baptist church, and other religious groups that give "Christians" a bad rep.
We can read this quote and think a number of things. I think some of us may not want to give God full power over our lives because we have distorted so many things about who God is and what his will may be. We all have our hang ups that we just can't get over because we are confused, and obviously that's where faith and trust come in, at least I hope it does.
I find it crazy how all of us everyday encounter a way that we are not treated fully human. Isn't that strange, considering it's pretty obvious that we are? We can't even acknowledge that people have real feelings, emotions and thoughts. I am reading Blue Like Jazz right now and Donald Miller writes about how we are the problem. I am the problem. As humans, we are flawed, but we don't consider how change is near impossible without admitting that. We spend the majority of our time thinking about ourself and wonder why we waste so much time.
I wonder what it would feel like to be Hitler(not really going to think about it, because I'm alone right now), or the two men that shot seven times at my dear friend, Dana? Or the man that took Lauren Burk's life? The list can go on and on, but what if we put ourselves in that list? Are we really much better? Yeah, I'll give you that maybe you wouldn't murder anyone, but have you ever felt like you hated someone? Doesn't that take away from yourself? I know it has for me. I have lost some of the "good" that God has intended for me, for humanity. We're missing the divinity of humanity that God has placed in all of us.
3 comments:
Not only is this true, but I felt like it was one of the most important things in Blue Like Jazz to grasp. We don't make the connection that when we mistreat others, we are losing parts of ourselves. I see your Rob Bell and I raise you a Derek Webb: "I don't know the suffering of people outside my front door and I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore. I'm trading comfort for human life and that's not just murder, it's suicide."
That's incredible.
love.
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