So let's jump right in.......you have the question in your hands but what does that mean? What do we have in common? Who is "we" and what is the "what" we have or should have in common? In the current social climate, we are rife with anger, tension, strife, conflict, differences of opinion, hatred, and a number of other things that flood your local and national new sites in epic proportions. If we are really aware, it might appear as though all this negativity has eclipsed all the good things that are taking place around us, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, in our cities, in our state, in our nation, and ultimately, in our world. What do we have in common? I'm not trying to offer answers as much as I'd like us to consider the question a little more closely. It's not hard to find bad things about people. That's easy. It requires more effort to find valuable, worthwhile things about someone.
What does the Greek have in common with the Roman? What does the rich have in common with the poor or the debutante with a child in a Third World country? We are all victims of the inability to "see". We all have eyes but we do not see. We all have ears but we cannot hear. Does the man in the high tower hear the cries of the little girl with no clean water? Does the war-monger see the tears of the homeless man on the city street without a meal to eat or place to lay his head? Remember the movie, "My Fair Lady"? Henry Higgins considered Eliza Doolittle, her father, and those of that sort "common" because of their use of the English language, the vulgarity of their speech, the clothes they wore, and how they lived. One word, many different meanings and a great deal more applications.
The clock ticks for us all and a precious opportunity ticks away with it! Each passing moment that we spend hating another for the hue of their skin or their accent cheats us the chance to truly experience what the power of love looks like. We think we got it down just because we love our children or our parents but it runs much deeper. Love is the primary reason we still have a chance to fix what we messed up and get back on track. It's love that opens the door wide for the grace we currently live under.
It reminds me of my four year service to an international ministry out of Tampa, Florida several years back. We went into local inner city communities offering mobile Sunday schools, trips to the local foods banks, community feedings for those down on their luck, and back to school bashes. The director and I would do much of this work with bright, hot pink-colored trucks. The one we would use frequently had a broken gas gauge that, for some inexplicable reason, had never been fixed. So we would go to the gas station and fill the truck with gas, not knowing how much it would take and how long before we would run out of gas. Driving day or night in places where alligators were prevalent and native thinking and we could run out of gas made me uptight! (I'm not a hypocrite. I don't like gator shoes, belts, or handbags either.) But that's kind of where we are as a people. We have gas but our fuel gauge is broken. We can't determine when the gas will run out so the wise among us fill up often and do the best we can with what we have while we have it. Grace by definition is for a specific period then it runs out.
I'd be misleading you if I implied there was only one thing we have in common. Everything from our physical makeup to our home lives to our financial situations are all things relatable to the human condition. A personal example is what I discovered after recently writing my first book, "The Heart of the Stepfather". The responses I got from around the nation prove emphatically that people from different walks of life, varied upbringings, other cultures, etc., share the trials and joys of parenting as well. I am more convinced than ever we have more similarities than we were led to believe.
Listen to all the voices talking and analyzing, debating and theorizing, arguing and advising, and you'll see the one and most important commonality at work: The very breath that we breathe. It's arguably the most vital thing we share. Take away that essence of life in us and we are all reduced to merely an empty shell! That breath is a reminder of the love we were fashioned with. It reminds us that we are all human and we share a connection that is bigger than us and for a greater purpose than just to rail against each other and demean one another. We can't see it or contain it but we sorely need it and can't do without it. Hmm.. There's a metaphor in there somewhere. Can you "see" it?
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