I’m speaking those words to myself today and I’m certain I’m not the only one who needs to hear them. It is 10:45 am and I haven’t turned on the television today, but I already know the chaos continues. If I’m not careful I can spiral down the rabbit hole of dread and despair.
In the rabbit hole, there are others that feel my pain. Here’s the deal, we were created for human connection, even if that connection is centered around chaos. We hear the saying “misery loves company”, but the truth is, happiness loves company too. Its whatever connects us.
Currently, a virus is connecting us, and you see the best in humanity on display, giving, sharing, loving. Interestingly enough, that goodness has been there all along. Our political and social issues haven’t changed. What changed is our perspective. When I was younger our family had some spats of disagreements like most families. However, if a playground bully attacked one of our family members, forgetting our differences, we banded together to fight the common enemy.
That which causes our differences and disagreements are trivial to that which makes us common. Our differences are not insignificant, but they shouldn’t keep us from working together. They are not keeping us from working together now. After our dread and despair is over, we most likely will pick up our differences and disagreements and place them back on display. Temporary amnesia will tell us that there is no way we can solve these differences, that it is impossible to work with the other side.
One day maybe we will realize that we are ok. That we are doing better than we think we are. Yes, there are always going to be some bad apples just like there are always going to be some disagreements and then some common enemy we need to fight. How about we don’t ever forget that we know how to do this together. That happiness wants just as much company as misery. It’s ok to let go of our need to be right.
You’re OK! You can let go of the hurt of the past and the fear of the future. We can turn on the television and discover that it’s not as bad as we thought, even if it’s not good, there is a ray of hope.
Jesus is the only hope that we have. He is the only one that makes it ok. He makes us OK. He doesn’t just wave a magic wand He uses people even people that disagree. What He desires most is that we walk in unity and not just in a crisis. We were created for community and that community was designed to be made up of differences. Differences of opinion, differences in appearance but the one thing that should never change is LOVE. Without it we will never be ok.
Photo by David Kiriakidis on Unsplash
