Every day I say this prayer: “God, bless all those in need with the miracle of love and light, let this miracle transform their lives in such a way that they, in turn, transform others with the gift of love and light.” Given recent events, I was truly gifted with a miracle when God shed light on the wounds I carried as a result of my past and healed them with love by exposing those wounds that were hidden away. I learned that my singular perspective so skewed the truth of past events that it literally weighed me down for years. Not only was it largely a burden that tortured me unnecessarily, it also distracted me from good that could have been accomplished. Like I’ve said before about perspective, it is limited to the individual…we have only a finite amount of information, finite gifts and functions. That is why we were called to become a body, where all our differences are used together to become something so much more. Living by a singular perspective stifles the functionality of the body of Christ.
Herein lies the problem with that singular perspective. It has become a marker for a political ideology, where differences are suspect and at times deemed sinful…which is exactly what Paul said can’t happen. He said no part of the body has the right to look at another and say that they are of lesser or of no importance. All parts are essential to the functioning of the whole. I may have carried the burden that I was a nonessential or less than other parts of the body, therefore limiting my ability to do what God created me to do. I had to broaden my perspective and take the leap to ask…”how do you see me?” I was blessed with seeing that I am essential, that I do matter. What of those who are not so lucky? What of those who many Christians see as abominations? I challenge them to read John 8:1-11. When the Pharisees and scribes presented the woman caught in adultery to him and asked whether or not he would fulfill the law of Moses and stone her, he bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. When they persisted he said: “Let the one among you without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. He then bent down and continued writing on the ground. No one threw a stone. I’ve always believed that they walked away because each could see their own sin in what Jesus wrote on the ground. I wish each and every Christian spent less time perched and ready with stone in hand, and more time embracing the light and love that he brought with his teaching. He concluded by telling the Pharisees and scribes: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me with have the light of life…You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone.”
Drop the stones. None of us is sinless. Walking in the light demands it.
