WHAT IS THAT TO YOU? YOU FOLLOW ME.

The world today is inundated with issues.  These issues scream out for attention over the air waves that fill the space all around me.  It is easy to get consumed by them feeling that they require me to engage with their demands whether they have any affect on my life or not.  They provide a fertile ground for the growth of opinions and then engaging in the war of human devising, of label against label; conservative against liberal, red against blue, progressive against traditionalist, religious against secular, and so on.  We have become experts in creating enemies to fight our battles with but failures in creating solutions to the issues that present themselves and require attention and action.  Hence, nothing gets done to solve the problems that are the roots of the issues…and the band played on.

It used to be cleared.  The battle was between good and evil; the good guys and the bad guys.  But a choice was made to eliminate the God’s input in the world along with concept of evil, making everything good and acceptable.  So now the battle is the rights of individuals to do what they each want to do and be who they want to be with no rule or standard.  That would work if one lives alone on a deserted island, but we don’t.  We are required to live together, sometimes very close to each other so it requires a sense of comradeship and understanding of one another.  That doesn’t happen when everyone is yelling at each other, hating each other, and bullying each other.

In the beginning Adam and Eve had the opportunity to eat from the tree of life which would have resulted in their living (and we living) in a state of Paradise forever.  They choose to listen to the Enemy, disobey God, and do their own thing, causing the rest of humanity to live in a world of unintended consequences.  Those consequences are living in a world where good and evil reign together in the hearts and minds of all of us; a world where you have to choose between obeying God or disobeying God, which ultimately is a choice between life and death.  That is the world Jesus was born into and demonstrated that choice with his death, providing a reconciliation with God once and for all for all of us.  Everyone must make the choice of accepting that reconciliation for themselves.  But we still live in a world where some choose to reject the offer and demand to live their own life, their way.  That is where the issues come forth.

Conversion to God and His Way cannot be forced.  It can only be received and believed.  We still have to live together.  God will ask for an accounting in the end, but till then we are called to live together in love.  Jesus calls me to love those who I are in fellowship and agreement with; he calls me to love my neighbor, those I live together with, he calls me to love my enemies, those who don’t accept God, Jesus, or me.  That means I am called to love everybody and try to live together in peace.

It is my job to be a witness of what God can do in an individual’s life, sharing what He did and continues to do in mine; but that is all I can do.  I need to do that whether or not others accept or reject God.  I also need to respect and love them no matter what their choice is; that choice is between them and God and mo one else.  But we need to find ways to live together, holding to my own faith and understanding of God, yet open to those who do not share my convictions, all in a spirit of love.  That is what my heart believes.

It is my belief that the battle being fought is in the Spiritual realm of which God is in control, not against my neighbors or enemies.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem because he knew many would not receive what he had been sent to give.  All people of faith can weep over those who continue to reject what he continues to give, but we need to put down our weapons and release them to God; love and pray for them, and work at finding ways to live together, always being light and salt and a living example of one who follows Jesus and lives in love and grace.