Must We Divide Over EVERY Issue?

 

 

I took this picture standing beside a small obelisk marking the International Boundary at the Chief Mountain Port. You can see the boundary, a clear-cut swath of land that runs east and west through the forests and across the mountains. Canada is on one side of the line; the United States of America is on the other.

No matter where you stand, you can't stand on both sides of a line. You're either on one side of the line or the other.

Nobody gets to be on both sides of a line (unless, of course, the space-time continuum goes on forever and eventually, at some point, starts repeating, which would make sense since because there is a finite number of ways particles can be arranged in space and time, so if you look far enough, you'll eventually encounter another version of you — and, theorists contend, you'll probably see infinite versions of you). Apparently, until someone bends the space-time continuum and conveniently folds it back on itself, nobody should expect to be two places at once.

Oops. I may have been distracted for a few moments there, so let me get back to the point: you can't be two places at once, and because we love thinking we know "who is with us" and "who is against us," we appreciate the clarity of the bold lines between us. 

Clear lines make us feel like we we know where everyone stands ... and we like the feeling. In fact, we love the feeling.

We've drawn about a zillion lines of demarcation: disconnecting, dividing and polarizing people, as we insist on boundaries which, in the grand scheme of things, won't make one whit of difference. Every line we draw separates people into those who are "on our side" and those who are "on the other side."

There are way too many lines in this world.  

Maybe it's time for us to be a little more discriminating about which lines are worth maintaining, and which of them should be erased.

 

Luke 9:49-50 (Amplified)  -  John said, "Master, we saw a man driving out demons in Your name and we commanded him to stop it, for he does not follow along with us". But Jesus told him, "Do not forbid [such people]; for whoever is not against you is for you."