Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: One Jewish temple, one Muslim mosque, but hundreds of Christian churches in my area. The division is horrible—what if we unified while keeping our locations and led with curiosity and care? Love?
I was looking on my iPad and searched for the Jewish temple. In my metro area of a hundred thousand people, there was one. Then I searched for Muslim and there’s one. But when I put in Christian church, there’s dots everywhere. Like every street has multiple Christian churches. Lutheran, Pentecostal, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist. It’s great because there’s so many people, but it’s horrible because of the conflicts.
Yesterday I was speaking with a university pastor reflecting on how much animosity there is between Catholics and Protestants. The conversation was about general human division? One woman in his group shared, “I was harassed and verbally assaulted in the grocery parking lot.” He’s a seventy-five-year-old white bald pastor and said, “I’m never even worried about being verbally assaulted.”
It really gets down to understanding and connection and seeking first to understand. I believe everyone does the best they can. Their choices and actions are the best they can come up with considering their upbringing, conditioning, and life. The saying goes, “They don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.”
When someone’s been hurt or feels they’ve been withheld something they deserve, the ears are cut off at the same time, and they’re shut off, unwilling to open up.
Having that belief that everyone’s doing the absolute best they can makes me curious. It makes me ask in a non-confrontational way, what does that mean to you? How does that choice line up in your righteousness, in your best thing you can do right now?
If the Christian church could keep all their sites and locations and unify, that would be amazing. That would be heaven on earth. That would be God’s intention. Love your neighbor as yourself. Lay down your life in seeking the Kingdom first.
Make sure the church you’re involved in is a Belong, Believe, Behave atmosphere where the tax collectors and sinners can feel welcome to come and learn about Jesus, His Kingdom, His sacrifice for all our sins.
Help the Christian church by being the people—the people are the church. If your church isn’t a Belong, Believe, Behave church, if it’s behave first, you gotta qualify to get in, start being curious with the people there. Start with caring.
That’s where the belong starts. Understand what drives them. They don’t care what you know till they know how much you care. Start with caring and connecting to dig in and understand. Have your eyes open, ears opened, mind opened. That’s my prayer–for me too. That’s what the world needs today—curiosity, caring, and openness to understand.
Be curious. Start caring, and then people will welcome your blessing.
You be blessed!
