I listen to a lot of music. I've seen a lot of music live. And a common thing that comes up between musicians, and artists in general is that we should put aside our differences with other people and just get it together. Interesting thought. A lot of people would say, "That's ridiculous, they believe something else than what I do. How could we possibly get it together?" That's what we call resistance. I feel like the point that these musicians or artists or people make is an extremely valid point and one that should be thought out. Unfortunately, humanity is a self-righteous, power seeking group of people, so the thought doesn't always run well with us. I feel like there are a couple things that people could do better on though, to get closer to the idea of getting it all together.
First of all, humanity loves categorizing each other. There are religions, styles, castes, etc. that we put people in. Because of this we begin to decide who is better and who is worse depending on what categories they fall under. For instance, if you're Tom Brady, you have it all. He's rich and famous because he's the star quarter back of the New England Patriots, most girls would say he's fairly attractive (or more), and he wears trendy clothes. The sad part about all of this is that some of those people really believe they're better because they're more "successful". It's really sad when I see this because I don't see it that God created people to act that way. Just because you have more money doesn't mean you're a better person. The point I'm trying to make is that the lack of humility, especially when categorizing, is holding humanity back from loving on each other. If we just put aside our differences and looked a little more big-picture sometimes, I feel we'd be a lot better off.
There was a man named Henry Nouwen who was an extremely smart Catholic scholar. To make a long story short, Nouwen ended his life living with retarded people because he felt called to do so, and it changed him in a way most people are never changed. One key thing that Nouwen had to do was set aside the major difference that he wasn't retarded, and the retarded people were. That's a pretty big difference! Too often I see groups of people not loving on other groups of people because they're "different". This is a sad excuse when you think about it. Jesus, the most holy person to ever live, hung out with the poor and sinful. Once again, big differences. We have to realize that life isn't about finding the people that are like you and then secluding yourself for forever with those people.
The Bible uses absolutes sometimes, and I feel like it really means something when it uses them. In the famous 1 Corinthians 13 chapter about love that's used at weddings, we read that, "Love never fails". I find that kind of extremely powerful. If everything else in the world fails, love won't. I feel like that means that we shouldn't ever give up on love. Too often we decide that our opinions are more important than loving others, and that what's right for us is more important than love. But the number one commandment the Bible commands is to love everyone as myself. And, if love never fails, that commandment seems to be pretty great. As a Christian, I find love to be the essence of the "religion" itself. I love God and grow to know Him so that I can be like Him and love others the way He loves. So it's crucial that I focus on love a lot.
Now that last paragraph is a very much Christian based thought process. So, I guess if I'm going to write a blog about humanity and how we should put our differences aside, I'll put a practical 'every-human-can-use' idea out there. I'm sure that if you asked people if they would appreciate others treating them well, they'd say yes. Doing unto others as they would have them do unto you is a very two way idea. You have to be kind to get people to be kind, and people have to be kind to get you to be kind. So the general idea is that, 1. people put aside their differences because differences are stumbling blocks for love sometimes and 2. once you put differences aside you can love each other.
There's one last point to be made. As selfish beings, we like to have the idea that if we don't get love back when we give it, it's unfair and we stop. But it's important that we realize that love is caring more about the well being of someone else than us. They may not realize the action you're doing is for their well being, so you may not always get "mushy-gushy" love back. So don't expect it. But there's a God who loves us more than we can imagine, and we're called to lose our lives so that we can find it. I feel as though all authentic love comes from God. So the authentic love we give is from God. When it comes down to it, all we have is love. If we lose all we have then we lose love. So going back, we're supposed to lose our life so that we can find it. What that essentially means to me is give all the love we have to be refilled with love from God. It's a continuous cycle.
Giving love with no boundaries. Once we all start doing that, things will change.
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